YYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! In your face!

[kb0nes]

If everyone threw out one piece of trash into the street every day, we'd have an enormous mess on our hands. But alas it is only a little piece of garbage so it's not so bad...

It is wrong to justify wasteful resources usage based on thoughts that it is a 'minor' thing. We should all strive to be good stewards to this planet as we are all only brief occupants here. Selfish to use more then needed to not leave resources for those that follow us.

 

[ea56]

To say that light bulbs aren’t responsible for the large consumption of electricity just doesn’t make sense. Just look at the nighttime photos of any city or metropolitan area in the world and look at the thousands and in larger cities millions of lights burning. Yes, each light bulb by its self may not consume a large amount of KWH but in mass light is quite probably the largest consumer of electricity. So, if each light bulb can be made to generate the same amount of light for say 13 watts to give the equivalent of 100 watts of light then just that single light bulb has saved 87 watts of power. Multiply those savings by millions and this represents a monumental conservation of electricity and the resources necessary to generate that power.

This same kind of conservation mentality was instrumental during WWII in helping to provide the materials and resources needed to fight and win the war. So think of conservation of energy today as a vital step to winning the war on Climate Change and the preservation of the earth. These are small acts that everyone can be a part of for the greater good of all.

Furthermore, the conversion to LED light bulbs as the burnt out incandescent bulbs are replaced with LED’s requires no deprivation, like the rationing of gas did during the War and realizes saving of dollars in the long run

Eddie

 

[firedome]

While they last...

we still have multiple unopened packs of 16 bulbs each, all name brand, no weird off-brands: Phillips, Sylvania & GE 16pks: 40, 60, 75 and 100 watts available.
$20 for each 16 pack with FREE shipping.

Please send any inquiries direct to: firesweep "at" verizon "dot" net
regards,
Roger

Incandescent bulbs:

 

[rp2813]

Apparently there was a study that identified a link between LED lighting and macular degeneration.  This information came to me from a good friend of mine who is super knowledgeable about all things health-related, but I don't know if it may apply to task lighting, ambient, or both.  My mom had macular degeneration and I'm keeping on top of my eye health in hopes that I don't end up with it.  If LEDs do indeed have any influence, I'll be trying to avoid them.

 

Has anyone else heard of this?  I liken it to the issues currently being discovered with vape pens.  We don't learn about these types of things until they've been around and in use for a while.

 

[Chetlaham]

And folks still refuse to see nuclear as the only real legit solution. A solution that actually saves the environment and people can consume power like its air.

 

[sudsmaster]

Vape pen toxicity

Apparently the health problem with vape pens has been linked to the addition of vitamin E acetate to the pen oils. This is preliminary what I heard on the local news last last week. I don't vape so I'm not overly concerned about it, but it sucks for those who think they are doing a safer way to smoke and wind up with severely damaged lungs.

As far as lighting goes, I converted over to CFL's starting in the 90's. When LED's started getting more available and cheaper, I converted all my CFL's to LED's. The only fluorescent lights here are tubular shop lights and Circline circular bulbs. And even those I'm converting over (you can get LED replacements for 4' tubes. Haven't seen any for 8' tubes, yet. And unfortunately there don't seem to be many if any Circline LED replacement bulbs. Instead you have to replace the entire fixture.

The first LED bulbs were kind of horrible, with very low CRI (Color Rendition Index). Over the years this had improved dramatically. I have bought a lot of FEIT brand LED bulbs with "True Color Technology" and these are nice. I prefer these to daylight or cool white for areas where I'm going to be working later in the evening. The warmer light is nicer to induce slumber, you see.

Some newer LED light fixtures are adjustable... not just brightness but also in color temperature. Cool beans.

Ralph says LED street lights are bad. I agree; the street light here was changed from high pressure sodium to LED a year or two ago. The light must have an extremely low CRI. I describe it as "gray light". Giving LED lights better color rendition seems to add maybe 10% more power consumption, and the local municipal authorities probably opted for cheaper low CRI fixtures both for initial cost and running costs. Seems wrong when you consider that the LED's, even with high CRI, use so much less power than older technology. Oh well. I would imagine that tonier cities and towns will opt for more pleasing street lighting. Maybe. But it's still better than that ghastly low pressure orange sodium lighting of 20 years ago.

Such is progress.

 

[DADoES]

 
I want to convert the four troffer 4-tube fluorescent fixtures at the work office to LED.  They're all flaky, especially during extra-high humidity ... some not working or coming on dim until the switch is flipped multiple times, in some cases taking 10 to 20 mins wait to settle down. Some of the sockets are cracked and presumably the ballasts are going bad so I want to bypass them with non-hybrid tubes.  Also possibly convert the seven fixtures in projection, at least one ballast in there is leaking.  And whatever number of fixtures are in the restrooms, although those aren't exhibiting any issues.  Found an online source that offers retrofit full rewiring kits but the "tombstones" are 1" width and the existing are 1-1/4".

The cleaning lights in the auditoriums are even worse, numerous of those fixtures don't work at all after 35 years but I can't deal with access to the ceilings in there.

 

[iowabear]

On my street, the orange sodium vapor lights were replaced by LEDs a few years ago.

 

I honestly preferred the orange sodium vapor.  While very bright directly underneath, the LED light isn't dispersed nearly as well, leading to dark spots between fixtures that wasn't as pronounced with the sodium lamps.

 

Plus I think the subtle orange glow was simply more peaceful and calm, especially during the winter when snow cover reflects the light.

 

[sudsmaster]

There are two kinds of sodium lamps: low and high pressure. The low pressure ones have that very orange light. The high pressure ones have a much whiter but still orangey light.

I remember Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in the 70's. It was lit with those low pressure sodium lamps. It gave everything an orange look, like it was all made of brick. I remember reading that the reason why law enforcement liked the lamps was because they didn't cast any shadows, so it was easier to spot people at night. I don't know if that's true, but it did seem like shadows were muted on that street. Perhaps something to do with the longer wavelengths of orange light.

I have a workshop that's about 25' x 50'. There are three banks of overhead fluorescent lights in there: 2 are comprised of five dual 8' long continuous fixtures. A third by a wall opposite the windows is comprised of five dual 4' long spaced fixtures. If they are all turned on at once they consume... 2*80*10 + 2*40*5 = 1,600 + 400 = 2,000 watts. That's a LOT of electricity. I can replace the 4' tubes with LED versions, which use less watts; Altos use 32 watts. LED versions use 14 watts. Obviously LED is the way to go. However the fixtures are old, and in some cases I must replace the ballast. Electronic ballasts also may use less energy than older inductive ballasts.

However the real problem is the 8' fixtures. Stock tubes use 75-80 watts each. When I looked a few years ago, I was not able to find any LED versions. I just did a google search and now there are multiple choices of 8' LED replacement bulbs, wattage from 36 to 45 watts. These require re-wiring the fixture to bypass the ballast (fine with me!).

For some reason the dual-pin 4 foot LED bulbs don't require ballast replacement. Go figure.

One problem I have is that on the property there's a substantial stash of new old stock of 8' tubes. Even though they use more energy, I'm a bit leery of abandoning them, and instead I figure I should use them up instead of going to the expense of upgrading the fixtures to LED. I might just upgrade some of the fixtures (the 8's are switched two or three per light switch). I don't recall seeing any 8' LED bulbs at the home improvement stores, though, but then I haven't looked for a year or more.

Usually I don't turn all the lights on in the shop at once. Just a bank or two as needed.

Later!

 

[mattl]

While I'm a big proponent of LED lighting I have yet to find a 4' LED replacement for fluorescent tubes with close to the same light output. I have one light that uses 4 tubes, and those are putting out 2700 lumens each, I've neve fund an LED equivalent close to that.

 

[arbilab]

OMG, "city" lighting is INCREDIBLY wasteful.  In the mid cities, clear night, might be able to see 3 stars.  Or not.  In my house OTOH, there is a fluor in the kitchen and 2 incands on dimmers.  A 150W reading lamp dimmed to 30W and a 60W dimmed to 15.  Switching to LED would do me no good at all.

 

[DADoES]

 
1000bulbs.com has a selection of pretty much everything.

 

[cfz2882]

Philips LED T12 retrofit

-can be had in versions for magnetic ballast or electronic-they work great and are T8 diameter.High pressure sodium lamps are dramaticly superior to LED for roadway lighting-a local overpass/intersection was recently completed and the builder had enough sense to use HPS-insuring proper,effective and safe illumination.Back to "good"use of LEDs,noticed Feit has some big globe"retro"LED bulbs that have a helical"filament"of phosphor coated strip LEDs-so far have hot ben able to get myself to spend $35 on something made in china,but is tempting to try one out.

 

[iowabear]

"city" lighting is INCREDIBLY wasteful

True, but in climates with snow and ice hazards, street lighting makes walking outdoors after dark much safer.  I can't imagine walking outdoors in the winter without it.

 

Our LED replacements left a lot of dark spots.  HPS was already very energy efficient...I suspect the LED replacements were probably undersized in an effort to reduce the project payback time.