TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

"Scion" wrote in message
...
Steve Thackery put finger to keyboard:

Woody wrote:

It is unlikely you have been unlucky assuming you are buying a decent
brand, so there are two options: either you have very spikey mains, or
you have poor quality light switches.

Actually they are famously fragile, those halogens. Because the
filament is so short compared with the filament in a normal bulb, it has
to be ultra-thin to get the right resistance. That's why they are so
delicate.

For 12V applications the filaments are really tough because they are
thick. For 240V it's a different story.

I've read somewhere that it's mostly subtle vibrations from the floor or
ceiling that does them in, although I don't know for sure whether that
is correct.

I moved away from 70W halogens in my living room pendant because they
would blow with someone thumping around upstairs. Tungsten and CFL have
both been OK. I recently switched back to halogens when I got a couple of
120W ones (equivalent to 150W tungsten) and not had a problem, but I've no
idea if that's because the higher wattage necessitates a thicker filament,
or the lamp is a better quality brand.

I've not found that the miniature eyeball spotlights suffer from poor life.
At my old house, many of the rooms (bathrooms, hall/landing) were lit solely
by 12V halogens (each with its own transformer, rather than a single larger
transformer for all the lights on the same switch) and those lasted
forever - I think most of them were on the original bulb after 10 years. But
those are more rugged. Even at our new house, the 240V halogens in the
bathroom seemed to last a long time, though being in an upstairs room,
there's very little vibration of the ceiling (unless we go into the loft!).

The lamps that do seem to have a very poor life are the larger spotlight
bulbs used as downlighters in a kitchen - the sort that have a standard size
bayonet or Edison screw and are about 5" long by 3" diameter. Those seem to
have a life of only a month or so - a lot shorter than conventional bulbs of
the same power and similar size (ie not miniature halogens with very short
filiaments).

I didn't know about the RFI problem with LED and CFL lamps. I'll see if I
can find an AM radio somewhere (if I've still got a working portable one in
the loft) to try it out. I should imagine that the number of people who
still use AM is fairly small - not that this should be used an an excuse for
allowing poor designs to generate RFI! I always feel a bit guilty about
suggesting that people use Homeplug devices for getting network connections
to remote parts of their house, and reserve it only for those cases where
the walls are so thick that it would be absurdly expensive to have many
wireless repeaters to multi-hop from the router to the part of the house
where wi-fi is needed.

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

On Wed, 22 Jan 2014 03:26:40 -0600, "Steve Thackery"
wrote:


I was reading an article about them in a techie mag recently (Elektor,
EPE? - can't remember). The power supply circuitry is unbelievably
simple: a capacitor and a full-wave rectifier, basically; little or
nothing else. So, nothing to produce any RF. This is completely
different from CFLs, which have a tiny SMPS inside them, so surely
*they* are the ones which will produce RF.

This explains why they can now make the GU10 fitting LED lamps the
same physical size as the 50W filament ones, and thus suitable as
direct replacements, at last. The CFL ones have been available for a
while, but they have longer necks that don't suit all fittings. I
recall being severely limited in my choice of ceiling lighting bar
when I decided I wanted to use low power GU10 lamps, and had to settle
for one with four sockets though I'd have preferred six. Maybe it's
time to consider changing it.

Rod.

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

Roderick Stewart wrote:

This explains why they can now make the GU10 fitting LED lamps the
same physical size as the 50W filament ones, and thus suitable as
direct replacements, at last.

Yes. Apparently the biggest challenge has been managing the heat from
the LEDs so they don't exceed their rated temperature. Light output
per LED, efficiency and heat management are the main technical
challenges, I believe.

Incidentally, I'd be wary of buying LED lamps in order to save
electricity. According to my research, the claimed efficiencies vary a
lot, but average out very similar to CFLs.

I've adopted them because I *really* appreciate their instant-on*, and
their longevity is enough to be 'fit-and-forget'.

*There are two things that drive me mad with fluorescents: the
dinkety-dink-dink startup of traditional tubes; and the slow warm up of
the CFLs. All of the fluorescent strip lights in my house are now high
frequency electronic with instant start; and the CFLs are being
replaced with LEDs (except that some wattages aren't available in the
right type to fit my pendants, so it's a case of waiting for them to
dribble out into the shops).

--
SteveT

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

Steve Thackery put finger to keyboard:

snip

All of the fluorescent strip lights in my house are now high
frequency electronic with instant start

Do you ever have a problem with them failing to start first time? I've got
4ft and 5ft twin tube HF fluoros in my kitchen and quite often one or both
of the 5ft ones don't light. When I switch it off the non-lit one will
give a bright flash about a second later. Really odd. Sometimes I'll need
to switch off and on six or seven times to get them both lit. As far as I
can tell it's not temperature or humidity related.

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

Scion wrote:

Do you ever have a problem with them failing to start first time?
I've got 4ft and 5ft twin tube HF fluoros in my kitchen and quite
often one or both of the 5ft ones don't light. When I switch it off
the non-lit one will give a bright flash about a second later. Really
odd. Sometimes I'll need to switch off and on six or seven times to
get them both lit. As far as I can tell it's not temperature or
humidity related.

Oooh, that's interesting. No, I can't say I have, although I don't
think I've got any 5ft ones. A quick count shows eight tubes, 3ft and
4ft long. All bought from B&Q and so far totally reliable.

--
SteveT

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

Scion wrote:
Steve Thackery put finger to keyboard:

snip

All of the fluorescent strip lights in my house are now high
frequency electronic with instant start

Do you ever have a problem with them failing to start first time? I've got
4ft and 5ft twin tube HF fluoros in my kitchen and quite often one or both
of the 5ft ones don't light. When I switch it off the non-lit one will
give a bright flash about a second later. Really odd. Sometimes I'll need
to switch off and on six or seven times to get them both lit. As far as I
can tell it's not temperature or humidity related.

It's the electronic ballast getting old. I had a batch of 5ft tubes I
bought some years ago which have all done this. I have now replaced all
of their innards and they all work fine though they're not *quite* so
'instant on' with the new electronic ballasts as they were with the old
ones.

--
Chris Green
·

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

Steve Thackery put finger to keyboard:

Scion wrote:

Do you ever have a problem with them failing to start first time? I've
got 4ft and 5ft twin tube HF fluoros in my kitchen and quite often one
or both of the 5ft ones don't light. When I switch it off the non-lit
one will give a bright flash about a second later. Really odd.
Sometimes I'll need to switch off and on six or seven times to get them
both lit. As far as I can tell it's not temperature or humidity
related.

Oooh, that's interesting. No, I can't say I have, although I don't
think I've got any 5ft ones. A quick count shows eight tubes, 3ft and
4ft long. All bought from B&Q and so far totally reliable.

OK thanks. My 4ft tubes have never been a problem, just the 5ft. I suspect
some out-of-spec electronickery within the fitting but it's not enough of
a problem to goad me into doing anything about it.

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

wrote in message
...
Apologies for raising this here, but I don't know
another forum where the topic might get taken seriously.

These new light bulbs - the ones with the little
bulb inside an old style casing - seem to blow
very quickly. They don't seem to last anything
like the promised coulple of years.

GLS - ~1,000 hours
Halogen - ~2,000 hours
CFL - ~10,000 hours
LED - ~20 - 50,000 hours

Unfortunately a lot of the LED ones are let down by two things; -

1. Poor ancilliary components that fail long before the LED's
2. Poor construction of installation that results in them heating up, vastly
shortneing their lives.#

LED's in TV's are not normally high output so should last many years. A lot
of LED sets from Richer Sounds now come with a free five year guarantee.


Or have I just been unlucky?

PS You can get previous Euromillions
results on TVE Internacional text page 472.

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

cl put finger to keyboard:

Scion wrote:
Steve Thackery put finger to keyboard:

snip

All of the fluorescent strip lights in my house are now high
frequency electronic with instant start

Do you ever have a problem with them failing to start first time? I've
got 4ft and 5ft twin tube HF fluoros in my kitchen and quite often one
or both of the 5ft ones don't light. When I switch it off the non-lit
one will give a bright flash about a second later. Really odd.
Sometimes I'll need to switch off and on six or seven times to get them
both lit. As far as I can tell it's not temperature or humidity
related.

It's the electronic ballast getting old. I had a batch of 5ft tubes I
bought some years ago which have all done this. I have now replaced all
of their innards and they all work fine though they're not *quite* so
'instant on' with the new electronic ballasts as they were with the old
ones.

It's done it from new, although of course I don't know the manufacture
date of the ballast. But in this case does 'old' refer to on-time or
number of switches rather than physical age?

Is there one ballast for both tubes on a twin? Are they all much of a
muchness, or do I need to ask for a 2011-model Yukasa brand X30 model, no
not that one, the one with counterclockwise casing and trammelled inserts?

TOT Those new light bulbs.
 

"R. Mark Clayton" wrote in
message ...
[snip]
LED's in TV's are not normally high output so should last
many years. A lot of LED sets from Richer Sounds now come
with a free five year guarantee.
[snip]


That's only to compete with JLP who do five years free on
almost all sets.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com