If this won't cure my SAD, what will?

[fivemack]

This is the 85W-from-socket 425W-incandescent-equivalent-power lightbulb that I bought to see whether it would make me happy.

For size comparisons, that is an Apple smallish keyboard, a real apple and a real kiwifruit. The fruit are normal-sized examples of their ilk, and the bayonet on the lamp is of the standard size.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't believe how many 'cor, that's a big one'-type jokes I'm holding back here.

Actually, you probably would.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Nice icon!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I think I would, madam.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

WANT!!!

Where do I get one, and how much money do they need?

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

http://www.efficientlight.co.uk/Products/85W-FULL-SPIRAL__S85W.aspx

£22.99 including delivery.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

If it's the same as this it's available for 17.99 inc delivery.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Will it cause sunburn? Fade the upholstery and paint?

People have been making banks of lights from this general type (I think slightly smaller) for photographic work, as cheaper than studio flash systems, or just for applications where continuous lights are better.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I have just ordered one of the 65W (325W equiv), which should brighten my living room considerably.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Which one did you go for? This (http://www.efficientlight.co.uk/Products/65W-4U--(Screw-Cap)__65W-spc-4U.aspx) one?

What's your experience been of it lighting up your living room? Would you recommend it?

emperor referred me (http://robhu.livejournal.com/752065.html?thread=3942081#t3942081) here, because I'm considering (http://robhu.livejournal.com/752065.html) getting a 60W Megaman Clusterlite bulb to light up our living room (as there's only one light fitting in the ceiling and a 30W compact fluorescent doesn't really put out enough light).

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'd say go for one that's less bluish (lower temperature) than whatever I got, which I can't find at the moment. That wasn't terribly helpful, sorry.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

What wattage was the one you got? Do you know approximately what the dimensions of your room are?

I'm wondering how bright a bulb we should get.

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I got a 65W one. The company I got it from does a *dimmable* uplighter CFL that's also 65W and is what I'd get if I were doing it again - the direct bulb is quite glare-y.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

Where did you get it from?

[seawasp]

You could use that to drive Frickin' LASERS!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Years ago, we had 100W incandescent bulbs, or lower wattage incandescents to save power. Now we have lights with the luminance of the 100W bulbs and the power use of the dim bulbs, but we still have sockets designed to draw 100W or more.

Won't it be funny if, after all the government campaigns to get us to "emit" less carbon, we all end up getting lights that draw 100W, but just put out a lot more light than the old ones?

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

If it all means we live in brighter-lit houses, and if we want to live in brighter-lit houses (*) then at least we have some progress for our constant energy demand. And, y'know, you can't stop progress!

(*) I have a suspicion that the interior designers of the day would suggest to us that we don't, or, "shouldn't", but instead that we want, or "should want", to live in houses with incredibly intricately designed lighting conditions generated by having 160 tiny, specialised and expensive strategically-located lightbulbs placed just so in each room.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I am keeping the 20W CF bulbs, it may be sensible to put them back in once it's no longer so dark outside and my inner lizard no longer wishes to be indulged. One watt-year costs about a pound, and I probably have the light on 10% of the time; to spend six pounds a year and three kilos of CO2 emission (537 grams per grid kWh in UK) to feel less gloomy in the winter seems a damn good deal, especially if otherwise I'd be contemplating flying to Thailand.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I wasn't criticising you. Either a kilowatt hour is a big deal or it isn't. If it is, then 100W new lights makes the drive to reduce "emission" via new lights futile. If it isn't, then it makes the drive for new lights humbug.

As you can guess from my use of quotes, I subscribe to the third option, that running around urging oil and gas companies to pull carbon out of the ground faster, as Gordon Brown does, makes calls to reduce emission just hypocrisy. There is no substitute for leaving carbon in the ground, because once you take it out, 99.99% of it's going to be "emitted" to the air in oxidised form.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I have some ignorant questions and you (pl.) are not just smart, but also likely to enjoy talking about this and likely to give a more human-focused response than web sites I might encounter by JFingGingI.

Can you reliably tell what colour the light from a light bulb will be just by the temperature to which it is rated? (I have a suspicion that the temperature is assessed by measuring the colour of the light, so the answer ought to be yes, but this is why I add the "reliably" qualification.)

What temperature light is emitted by traditional incandescent light bulbs? Does the colour of the glass around the filament have an impact on this? If we were to buy a fluorescent of equivalent temperature to a traditional incandescent, would we expect the lighting characteristics produced to be the same in practice, or are there other ways in which fluorescent and incandescent bulbs' lights differ from each other? (Assume I am not using dimmer switches and do not get headaches from fluorescents.)

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Those of us who enjoy space opera know the factoid about how a "red" sun would look just like a 100W bulb, because tungsten bulbs are actually very red. That says humans can't really tell temperature by looking at a grey emitter. We particularly can't tell whether we're looking at a grey emitter or something that just mimics one in a few wavelengths, which is why fluorescent tubes look white-hot even though they aren't melting the kitchen ceiling.

[htfb.livejournal.com]

That depends on how bad the chromatic aberration of your spectacles is.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

My suspicion is that the colour temperature is written on the pots that the phosphor comes in, and carefully transcribed by someone at the bulb factory. Using an improvised spectroscope made out of a David Attenborough DVD and the corner of an envelope, it's clear that this particular bulb is emitting in about five fairly sharp lines: bright green and red, a fainter yellow, somewhere cyan-ish a bit fainter than the yellow, and faintly somewhere in the deep blue.

Traditional incandescent light bulbs are somewhere between 2000 and 3300K, halogen ones are a bit higher brightness. Peak lambda is inversely proportional to temperature and something like 2.9mm / (temperature in kelvin) so is somewhere in the IR for all incandescents.

If the filament is behind coloured glass, its spectrum will be very non-black-body and I'm not sure how the colour temperature is then defined - for instance, at no temperature will an incandescent object look apple-green, the spectrum's just too broad.

[downybearded1.livejournal.com]

Burning beeswax candles I seem to recall help :o) Also lots of chocolate... mmm...

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Nearly two months in, to what extent do you believe it is contributing towards answering your titular (and first-paragraph) question? Of course, it may be far too early to tell.

[ex-robhu.livejournal.com]

emperor referred me (http://robhu.livejournal.com/752065.html?thread=3942081#t3942081) to your post, because I'm considering (http://robhu.livejournal.com/752065.html) getting a 60W Megaman Clusterlite bulb to light up our living room (as there's only one light fitting in the ceiling and a 30W compact fluorescent doesn't really put out enough light).

What's your experience been like with this? Would you recommend this bulb for such a purpose?