and there was light...

[ewt]

hennes just solved the mystery of the LampShade That Wouldn't Come Off. So now instead of an ancient 20w CFL that took a half-hour to warm up and cast an orange glow over everything in the living room, I have a 25W daylight-spectrum CFL that looks a bit bluish in comparison. Luckily the fitting was ES (European Screw) rather than bayonet like some fittings are in this country (and indeed in this house). I don't really feel guilty about the higher wattage because this means we will use the 300W uplighter far far less.

Yay. It appears significantly brighter. If you haven't tried CFL bulbs for a few years and previously found them too dim it's well worth trying again. I usually get the ones that have the skinniest tubes, because they seem to be best at getting to full brightness quickly.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Almost all bulbs in the UK take bayonet fitting, except on (imported?) free-standing lamps. I really wouldn't stress about 5W (whereas I would about 300W! :-)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I know bayonet fittings are more common here, but whoever did the light fixtures in this house didn't know that. I think we have more screw fittings than bayonet although I'd have to go around and check to be sure and I really can't be bothered.

ALSO:
European Screw fittings are slightly different than the screw fittings used in Norf Uhmerka. This is probably just as well, given that the voltage is vastly different, but it confuses some people very much (no, not me).

[welikegoats.livejournal.com]

You never responded to my email regarding power drain at turn on time for CFLs.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I ever got it.

My understanding was that as it took extremely high voltage to start a fluorescent bulb, there were power consumption issues (as well as 'wearing out the starter faster' issues). I got the information from, um, the janitor at a school I attended, who was called upon to lecture the class in energy efficiency. That was in 1991.

Reading now, I'm not sure if power consumption was ever the issue, and it looks like more modern bulbs and starters can handle frequent switching better than their predecessors.

[welikegoats.livejournal.com]

What I heard was that it took about an hour of normal running energy to turn on a light, meaning if a light is going to be turned on within an hour, then it should not be turned off. This was, again, some time ago, and may only have applied to tubes. One hour always seemed like an overestimate to me, anyway.

[caradea.livejournal.com]

In The Tightwad Gazette there was a rather long breakdown of this, I think, and I seem to remember the magical number being closer to 17-5minutes, not an hour. Unfortunately this week isn't looking good for rechecking information in books; too busy.