Let there be light!

[pwdrive]

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/rcw6.html

Lawrence.

[ed731pdh]

We've had issues with a couple of well known brand LED lamps being sold by a well known DIY store. One is fitted in a bedside table lamp, and when on it disrupts FM radio on a Sony clock radio that uses PLL tuning, sound quality degrades to a noise similar to static. No amount of shielding can sort it, how the hell the design got past the emissions people I do not know.

Saying that, I have 6ft easystart fluro's in the garage and shed, and they make DAB radio drop out and howl.

[Cardigan]

Have just fitted two new Varilight remote control dimmers here, in readiness for going over to LEDs in my overhead lighting. So far, I await BC candles with a light output equal to the current 60W bulbs fitted (x3 in each fitting). The Varilights are programmable for how they dim, and also soft-start the bulbs nicely. Plus they have remote control.

http://www.varilight.co.uk/dimmers/v-pro-ir.php

As regards LEDs and fluorescent tubes: I believe Philips quote the CRI (Colour Rendering Index) on their LED bulbs, and the last Philips-branded fluorescent tube I bought quoted that it contained 2mg of mercury.

[ed731pdh]

The LED bulbs in question that were making my radio howl were made by TCP, and here's a review; https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1821

[Diabolical Artificer]

I'm confused by the plethora of different bulb type's available and have no way to tell how powerful they are. I'm an impatient shopper, I have a list and if Tesco hasn't moved stuff and there arn't too many dithering women shoppers with hubby bored out of his mind standing in the aisle, I can get in and out in about 7 minutes. So when I need a new bulb it would be handy if there was a similar prominant brightness rating as watts. You knew where you were with watts; 100w for the kitchen, 60w for the the living room 40w for standard lamps.

CPC send me catalogues with offers in. Looking at the lightbulb section is a bit like looking at porn sites, all those naked light bulbs, pages and pages of them, it's a nightmare. At least porn video's come with a handy description and a star rating, or so I've heard: perhaps they can do the same for light bulb's. : ) Seriously though, like with anything nowadays there is too much choice, I'm sure I'm not the only one who find's it bemusing, so thanks Jeffrey for a few pointer's.

Like with most component's I strip PCB's for LED's. And like other component's as they're only a few pence it isn't "economic" to recycle them. China unlike the USA and other Western countries is at least trying in this respect . Mass production of short lived consumer good's is short sighted, I think Craig raises a valid point. Though it's the danger from handling the arsenic and the pollution resulting in the extraction, as in the past as Lawrence says.

Andy.

[ppppenguin]

When you use an old fashioend 100W bulb about 5W of that is turned into light and the remaining 95W becomes heat. Halogens are a bit better at turning electricity into light while CFLs and LEDs are much better. A lot of makers claimed equivalence with a 100W etc bulb and invevitably some overclaimed which gave low energy bulbs a bad reputation.

Now the requirement is to give the light output in lumens. Some makes still try to confuse you by giving other measures of light output but just ignore them. Roughly speaking an old fashioned 100W bulb gives 1300 lumens. Quite a few LED lamps claim 1500 or so lumens and make an excellent replacement for 100W bulbs.. Their £6-£10 cost is quickly recovered on the leccy bill as they only use between 12W and 15W of power. I've fitted a quite a few of these and am very pleased with them.

I think that 60W is roughly 800 lumen and 40W roughly 500 lumen. Poundland sell a lot of 470 lumen LEDs which work well.

[Diabolical Artificer]

Thanks Jeffrey, for the heads up, that's illuminating.

I'll get me coat, A.