The Light Bulb Ban is Here

[stavebuyer]

We had a 4" ice storm in 2009. Was three weeks without electricity and a month without phone/cable. Well water. Propane, firewood, and a small gas generator kept us going. 

People who relied on public utilities had to seek shelter in government shelters or with friends and family that had wells and generators. Don't know who cared for their pets and livestock. Cell towers, ATM and credit card networks all were down. 

It's more than @#$%^ lightbulbs that are at stake. Earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires can all cause massive electric disruption even if you don't have ice storms. Anyone who trusts their life to utility power always being available without plan B is a fool.

When Katrina II hits circa 2035 it won't be pretty.

[moodnacreek]

We had a 4" ice storm in 2009. Was three weeks without electricity and a month without phone/cable. Well water. Propane, firewood, and a small gas generator kept us going.

People who relied on public utilities had to seek shelter in government shelters or with friends and family that had wells and generators. Don't know who cared for their pets and livestock. Cell towers, ATM and credit card networks all were down.

It's more than @#$%^ lightbulbs that are at stake. Earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires can all cause massive electric disruption even if you don't have ice storms. Anyone who trusts their life to utility power always being available without plan B is a fool.

When Katrina II hits circa 2035 it won't be pretty.

And this is the reason I have not discontinued bottle gas [propane] and fuel oil. We have natural gas available on our frontage. We heat with wood but have oil back up. Propane hot water and kitchen stove, almost  illegal in n.y.s. Own 4 generators and that tiny Honda is all we need. Keep plenty of gasoline and diesel on hand. During a bad winter storm that brought down power lines and dumped a lot of snow some people begged me for firewood as they had wood stoves that they stopped using and no firewood for an emergency. They where never my customers. Hard to feel sorry for these not poor people.   I suppose that matches will be banned soon.

[aigheadish]

As Ianab mentioned I've had to learn about color temperature when buy LEDs. Anything north of 6000k is much too blue for me but I do like that for some of my work lights in the shop. I think I have a mix of high color temp and low (I'm thinking 2300k-3500k) in there, half and half and it's a nice crisp light that doesn't make me crazy at night. 

One of my big issues with a lot of LEDs is the flickering. I see that a lot. I don't know if my brain/eyes run at a similarly phased frequency or what. I know Cadillacs used to be the worst with their LED brake lights, I'd look past them and get tracers. The issue hasn't been as bad for all the LEDs I've seen for the past couple years but occasionally I still notice flickering.

Uh, to that point there are conspiracy theorists out there (I'm on the verge of one of them) that claim the frequency in LED flashing can control things like cell phones. It's been many years but I read a story about some test marketing "they" did that depending on where you were in the grocery store they could flicker the lights a bit differently (unnoticeably to your eyes) to send ads to specific phones or something weird like that. The powers that be would never use them for evil, right? 

[Southside]

Look up a gadget called "The Flipper" and your question will be answered. 

[Ianab]

LEDs can flicker if they contain a cheap driver circuit. Ideally the LED chips should run at a steady DC current, then their light output will be stable. But you can also drive them with a rectified sine wave, with no smoothing. You get the same amount of light, but it flicks off 120 times a second (or 100 for us 50 hz folk). 

You may notice this of you have rotating machinery etc, or see it as a flicker on video as the light strobes with the frame rate of the camera, like if you video on old CRT TV. The difference between a flickering light and a steady one is usually a 20 cent capacitor, but if you are making a million of them, that's a lot of money saved. 

You can pull apart an LED lamp and check what's inside, usually a pretty simple circuit, that's not going to be sending any message to anything, and if it could, the device would need a receiver set up to watch.  When you think about it, fibre optic internet cables work by shining a laser (LED) down a glass filament, so plenty of data can be sent via LED light. BUT if has to go to something that's watching for it, like the port on your fibre router. 


The colour adjustable lamps will be more complex and expensive as they will need a microcontroller chip to receive the control signals, and then adjust the current to the various banks of coloured LEDs. There are even patents out there for "LiFi" networking, where data is sent over the lights in a room to devices. Big problem is that if you put your hand over the receiver you loose signal, so it's not really that practical.  

[SwampDonkey]

I was shown years ago the difference in florescent tubes. The larger diameter ones were cheaper of the two and more failures. The smaller diameter ones out of Germany at the time were more reliable and didn't go through the usual flicker fits or half lit phases of the fat ones. The end pins were compatible in the fixture.

[21incher]

We were at Costco today and needed a couple LED Daylight bulbs to replace warm white bulbs and I can't believe what I found. They now have bulbs with a slider on the side to allow adjustment to any color you want plus 90+ CRI, and only $2.99 a six pack. Tried a couple now and going to replace many more of our single color LED bulbs with them after the boss liked to be able to easily change the mood on lights we don't use smart bulbs in.


 

  

[petefrom bearswamp]

I have had mixed results with the Feit bulbs from Costco mostly positive.

[Don P]

I don't think we have ever had a matching compliment of color temps on the bulbs in any room, that would make it worthwhile right there.

[Southside]

Not so sure how well those would work out for me, each would probably end up being set differently. Took almost 30 years to discover I am partially color blind, and it was discovered after I painted a wall with two different colors. Looked fine to me, I just wonder how many folks thought I secretly wanted to be the next Picasso or something.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

I've always looked for bright daylight white bulbs, sometimes you have to look hard. I don't buy a mix, I hate amber light bulbs. :D Too much shadow.

[SawyerTed]

Southside, I don't buy that for a minute.  Man the lengths people will go to get out of painting!   :D

[Southside]

Oh it was embarrassing Ted. I had actually done the work to help someone else, not even my place. When the first words you hear are "WHAT did you do?", you know it's not good. 

[PineNut]

I have used light bulbs for heat for many years. The secret for this is to wire two of them in series. Then instead of lasting for days, they will last for years, usually over 10.
You may need to use two sets of them to get the same amount heat