Saving energy in the future?

here the city works dept in charge of traffic lights have almost completed the change over to LED's. But like you are alluding to, we need to replace all incandescent lights with LED's and part of the problem is the colour shift, as soon as they get past that, I'll have them in my home. I've fully converted to florescent at this time, except for two reading lights in the bed room.

 

I'm 100% fluorescent; three years now.

 

but will better technology overcome our stupidity???

did anyone happen to catch Monday Night Football??

it was a game played in Pittsburgh. an aerial shot showed the football stadium all lit up with 60,000 screaming fans...good use of lighting as i am a football fan (only fair weather mind you AND the Seahawks are 5-2!!) but to my disgust. the baseball stadium with ZERO fans was also just as brightly lit up obviously to display itself to the nation.

 

I don't think they light it up just to show it off. Fenway park often has it's lights on when seemingly nothing is going on. I have a feeling they must be doing grounds work, having some sort of corporate event or something like that. I really don't see them leaving the lights on just for the fun of it.

And if we're going to compain about something like that, why not look at Times Square? How much electricity is wasted there?

 

I've just started to switch over now. My electric bills have been getting a bit out of hand Mostly due to AC and my computers, but every little bit helps.

Only problem I have with them is they need something that uses less power, but can also dim.

 

There are flourescent fixtures with balasts which can be dimmed -- they cost a bit more, but are available.

 

In the commercial, industrial, and military areas I'm familiar with, LED's are already making huge inroads. Remember when LED's replaced bulbs in Exit lighting? Most emergency stairwell backup lights are now LED as well, they are more reliable and will also last much longer on battery.

Cost is still the primary deterrant.

 

I've also seen 3-way CFL's at Home Depot now, so thats another alternative to a dimmer. You just may need to retrofit the lamp socket with a 3-way one, if it isn't already.

 

:angry: How did this get in this Section? Seems it belongs in "Environmental Discussion" or Fred's House of Pancakes."

 

Yeah, I've seen those. There are 3 rooms where we tend to use the dimmers. Bathroom - Nice at 3am to have it very dim.

My office - not sure why - I installed the flourescent anyway and just turn it up all the way (anyone know if it's dangerous to have it at 50% or some other setting than off or max?)

Bedroom - Same as bathroom - it's nice to be able to dim.

The 3 way's are good, but usually 50/100/150, all of which are too bright. I bet when we dim the bedroom/bathroom it's closer to 20 or 30 tops.

 

The dimmable CFs don't really seem to work all that well, at least
the ones that try to discern the AC waveform coming in from an
external triac dimmer and guess how bright to run. Integrated types
with their own dimmer circuit probably work better and don't buzz.
.
What I'm waiting for is more efficient alternatives for stage
lighting. Traditional halogens look great but are pretty power-hungry,
and HMI discharge has helped a little bit there but the spectral
outputs are *way* different and give the video guys absolute fits.
LED fixtures aren't bright enough yet, and emit a fairly uneven
spectrum such that "white" just looks rather ... odd. And most CF
makes everything look too yellow or green, so some work still needs
to be done there.
.
If LEDs get bright enough and fixtures use enough different combined
color bands to get a non-peaky spectrum output, then you're talkin'.
.
_H*

 

The best our family could do to help is to replace all our bulbs at home with CFL's...which we did this past weekend. That's why I find this thread so well timed.

When more efficient bulbs come along that do not make our house look like a carnival ride, we will surely go in that direction.

Now if I could just afford to put the solar panels on the roof...

 

On a related note, does anyone know the point at which fluorescent's break even with their start up power consumption? I have heard that if a fluorescent is going to be off less that 45 minutes, just leave it on, as it costs more to turn it on than to leave it on for 45 minutes. In the interest of saving energy is this true or an urban myth?

In addition, did those who switch to fluorescent in your home notice an energy decrease? I have thought about getting the flourescents that plug into regular bulb fixtures, but I don't know if it is worth it.

 

actually, the new floures dont use as much start up current. it seems to me that i heard that if you are going to be gone longer than 5 mins or less you should turn them off.

 

Old fluorescent lights with magnetic ballasts were actually the worst for frequent on/off cycles. The startup pulse is the worst. Not only that, if a tube in a 2 tube fixture happened to go out, the ballast would keep trying to start it until everything burned out. Expect anywhere from 8,000-14,000 hours.

Modern electronic ballasts are way better in how the starting current is managed, to not only give enough to ionize but quickly clamp as well. The applied frequency is also a few multiples higher than line, sometimes up to 20 kHz, so you don’t get that flicker that causes tension headaches. Expect 14,000-24,000 hours.

The new electronic ballasts are also smart enough to sense when a tube has gone and to disconnect. The commercial ballasts will usually have a red LED to signal a tube must be replaced or is near the end of its life.

As far as frequent on/off cycles - that really kills the life of most incandescent lamps too

 

I'll holler atcha after we get our next bill. Because during this month, we will not have changed our routine at all - just the bulbs.

 

keep in mind the time change will affect it though if anyone is usually home in the late afternoon