Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?

[ultrarunner]

When I worked in Europe... many homes had two meters...

One was for night electricity mostly used to for electric water heating and it was much cheaper than day electricity

The night meter had a lock-out so it only worked say from 8 pm to 6 am...



I've got one meter where my monthly usage is a couple of Kw... it is for common area lighting feeding one lamp... the tenant at the duplex went all the way to the PUC because the light was a common area and demanded it have it's own meter... I had offered to pay her $5 a month or remove the 12 watt lamp and both were not acceptable. She moved a couple of months after I added the meter... I did the labor... permit, fees and materials came to $600

Going to LED would never pay since the utility has a $5 minimum charge for electric... you can use $5 worth or none and the charge is still $5

 

[SPIKER]

Had a pretty good at today at the Florescent GE Bulb Plant today, had Job Interview... The process is pretty interesting but they don't make the glass there only do the bulb assembly.

They bring tubes in on truck, clean them with water, then flush with phosphorus in a two part process. Then heat & dry the bulbs (liquid phosphorus) run thru vision inspection system, down to a heating drying process. Then onto a vacuum to pull out air, flush with argon and fill with the mix of gases. Stick on the end electrodes/coil, cap, trim leads and test. Then heat to cure the epoxy in the ends then final burn in and test, package palatalize and ship...

From load to shipping each bulb probably rough guess is in process for maybe 15~20 min... Longer than I thought but the process line is pretty long lots of heating & cooling cleaning & drying operations. They make T5, T8 and T12's from 2 to 5feet.

Still for processes the interesting part was that China is squeezing margins on them due to Phosphorus natural elements are there & not so much here & due to regulations & early mining for ag use. Anyhow still making T12s also interesting as EPA mandated the old style bulbs to be killed, they redesigned and T12s are available for foreseeable future!

Mark

 

[ultrarunner]

99% of the bulbs I buy for the hospital are GE... not really any complaints... good service at a good price.

 

[Sodo]

If you run your air conditioner at night then you should be using LED bulbs. You pay for the heat that the incandescent pumps into your house, then you pay again, for the airconditioner to pump the wasted heat back out. Its not sensible.

This doesn't happen very often in Seattle, we have no air conditioning. Plus we use heat 10 months of the year.

I hate waiting for CFLs, I'm done with CFLs. And I'm tired of changing incandescent bulbs, and wondering if they truly last 1,000 hours as listed on the package. I doubt it, not even half that. I'm ready for LEDs.

 

[Gunny]

Was just reading this on Fox this morning:

The man who saved the lightbulb | Fox News

Seems there was a loophole concerning rough service bulbs, so he's making and selling them, and best part, Made in the USA!

 

[grsthegreat]

Was just reading this on Fox this morning:

The man who saved the lightbulb | Fox News

Seems there was a loophole concerning rough service bulbs, so he's making and selling them, and best part, Made in the USA!

ya, i can still get rough service lamps in all wattages, but the costs are very high.

 

[Sodo]

Interesting. A rough service incandescent normally costs about 5 to 10 times more than the normal (crappy) incandescents.

Newcandescent can really offer these for $1.44,,,, a fraction of the normal cost??? With a brass base? Who sells items in demand, at discount? However the story does allude that you may not actually be able to get them. Makes me wonder if this project is subsidized? ....and by who.

3rd generation USA business, Edison mentioned, a grandfather.... Story does have the typical "elements" along with sloppy reporting (7? but no veterans this time). Do you guys think this is real? Can you really get these bulbs or is it just a Public Relations stunt? Google "newcandescent" it looks sketchy. For example Newcandescent BLOG (as of today) says LEDs cause blindness!

 

[DarkBlack]

Demanding applications will still allow the good bulbs. I don't think you're going to buy/put a dairy-queen shaped CFL in the oven of your electric stove.

 

[DarkBlack]

Anyhow still making T12s also interesting as EPA mandated the old style bulbs to be killed, they redesigned and T12s are available for foreseeable future!

Mark

The thing about the T12 mandate is that T12's are legitimately equaled, and outperformed by T8's and T5's, and it's a law that nobody with good reasoning would balk at.

The root of the issue with CFL's is that the lawmaker's only had 1/2 a nut when they decided not to push for a replacement of the old bulb receptacle ( as was done required on tube T12 lights). So the technology was doomed from the start. An abomination design named the "CFL" was implemented as a stopgap. The proven design of long tubes adapted to the obsolete screw in socket, is just what it should be... Not too different from adding a little ethanol to gas. T8's and T5's are designed to work in fixtures designed for them. That's why they work so well. Imagain that

 

[SPIKER]

Demanding applications will still allow the good bulbs. I don't think you're going to buy/put a dairy-queen shaped CFL in the oven of your electric stove.

Or Microwave, Fridge you name it appliance light. Garage door opener is one too lol...

I got the Job Offer today from GE at the florescent light plant, good pay, but Union so means I'm stuck on 2nd shift till you know what freezes over or someone sticks their finger in the wrong light socket...

Have a couple days to accept or reject the offer and since I didn't buy any Lotto Mega Millions tickets I guess I prolly have to say yes...

M