http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coles_Phillips_WWI_poster.jpg
Yesterday, I replaced the looooonglife light bulb which had been providing active service illuminating my sitting room for eleven years or more. I say or more as it came with the house, so it had been there for an unknown amount of time before I moved in.
I counted it ironic that this passing of what had become a permanent fixture happened in the week of the announcements about shops stopping selling incandescent bulbs. The Independent had an amusing article on this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-battle-of-the-bulbs-a-very-british-conflict-1299412.html
Probably a lot less than you wanted to know about lighting, but with links to more info:
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllight2.htm
I replaced the bulb with an ordinary 100Watt incandescent, not in a spirit of rebellion, but because that is all I had to hand. The amount of light given out by the new bulb compared to the old is astounding. I have become used to a dimmer level of light as most of my ordinary light sources are fitted with energy saving bulbs, but I’ve decided to enjoy brighter light at least until winter is over.
One thing seems not to be changing and that is categorising light in Watts, named after James Watt who did far more than I knew about, as I discovered from reading a brief biog from the link below.
"Apart from his steam research, which he originally carried out in the grounds of Kinneil House near Linlithgow, Watt was involved in many other projects. He solved the problem of how to convert the up-and-down piston movement to rotary movement (so that engines could power looms, bellows, and other mechanical devices), he created the term "horsepower", and he also invented the rev. counter, a machine for copying sculpture, and a letter copying press (a very early photocopier!). When Watt retired in 1800, he had become a very rich man. In 1882, 63 years after Watt's death, the British Association gave his name to the unit of electrical power - and today James Watt's name is to be found written on almost every lightbulb in the world."
http://level2.phys.strath.ac.uk/ScienceOnStreets/jameswatt.html
3 comments:
the new long life bulbs are quite bright ! they have improved the technology in the last 11 years... all my lights are long life and its only the bedroom one which is s bit dim
I'm very worried about the phasing out of incandescent bulbs. My eyesight, always poor but correctable by thick glasses (which demagnify and dim the image), has got a lot worse since I hit fifty. The dimming is bad now, and I need enormous numbers of photons to read (the white paper has become yellow, and the black print grey). I‘ve long had to use 150w bulbs in my ceiling lights (except the 200w in my kitchen), and 100w in my lamps just to stop the markedly depressing effect on me of the lightless Scottish winter (it could be slightly better if the clocks went back at the end of November, rather than at the end of October, and similarly if the clocks went forward at the end of February, not the end of March).
Every energy saver bulb I've come across sucks light out of the environment, leaving it darker than when it's off. In the Indy article you linked people posting comments mentioned that these types of fluorescent bulb dim over time, so even if they last ten years it's rather pointless since they're only giving out Stygian gloom. The posters also said that the energy saving only works if you leave these bulbs on all the time; switching them on and off like normal bulbs markedly increases their power usage.
The posters also suggested LCD lights as the way forward, being brighter than energy savers - and also not poisonous. How are energy saving bulbs green if they contain mercury and you have to dispose of them using ‘Designated Collection Facilities’ (the bureaucratization of our lives carries on apace). You have to open the windows and evacuate the room if one of them breaks. Once again Brown doing anything for a 'good' headline, even if it's wrong.
See the awful truth on the Government’s own websites:
Re disposal check out ‘How should I deal with a broken CFL’ at
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/household/products/cfl.htm
Re ultra-violet
http://www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1223534061375?p=1204186170287
I reckon I'll have to resort to getting them from abroad through the internet till the LCD lights are available. Never thought I’d be using the internet for smuggling. But will have to be careful – betya choky is the first place they install these wretched things.
I suppose that as the tech moves on, we will get improvements, and the LCD lights, which I'd not heard of till I read the Indy article, sound more promising. Especially as they should be earier to dispose of.
But I am concerned about the possible detrimental effects on migraine sufferers of the long life bulbs. I get migraines and am not sure if there is any connection, although I do know that fluorescent lights are sometimes a problem for me.
I suppose that control of lightbulbs are a simple way that governments can take some 'green' action. Unilke making adequate investment in alternative energy sources and so on, which would make a considerable difference, but take considerable political and financial effort.
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