(no subject)

[spudtater]

Instead of a bulb in our kitchen, we have an array of halogen downlighters. This is a nuisance, because they are always blowing and having to be replaced. So this month I went on to yourwelcome.co.uk and bought a selection of energy-saving bulbs. I plumped for a classic compact fluorescent ("energy saving") bulb, a faster-activating cold cathode version, and, with some trepidation, an LED-based lamp.

Today I plugged them all in, and compared them:

	Regent high power CFL energy saving lamp	Your Lightbulbs warm white cold cathode bulb	EnviroLight medium power amber white LED bulb
Predicted working life (hours)	8,000	10,000	36,500
Cost (approx)	£7	£6	£16
Power	11W	7W	3W
Brightness	★★★★★ (5*)	★★☆☆☆ (2*)	★★★☆☆ (3*)
Warm-up time	★★☆☆☆ (2*)	★★★★☆ (4*)	★★★★★ (5*)
Colour	★★★★★ (5*)	★★☆☆☆ (2*)	★★★★☆ (4*)

(Note that there's one other consideration, and that is form-factor. I haven't included it in the table because either your fitting can accommodate any height of bulb — in which case it doesn't matter which one you go for — or it can't, in which case your choices are limited to classic halogens, or probably the LED version, which is about 5mm taller.)

(Btw, let me know if you can't see my unicode stars in the table above.)

Compact fluorescent light

This was a bit of a monster, and required a bit of wiggling to get into the fitting. On turning on it displayed the usual CFL disadvantage: a snail-like warm-up time. Its warmed up eventually from a deep amber to an attractive yellow-white. This was the only bulb claiming 50W equivalency, and happily, it easily achieves it.

Cold cathode light

This light promised a faster warm-up than the CFL, and it does deliver on that front at least — it's perhaps twice as fast to warm-up. The big disappointment of this bulb is the colour: when I went looking for "green" lighting, this wasn't what I had in mind! The light it cast was somewhat sickly-looking — not helped, I suppose, by the green shade that the kitchen is currently painted. The bulb promises 30–40W equivalency, but seems to fall short of that.

This doesn't mean that cold-cathode technology is neccessarily inherently bad — just don't get this brand!

LED light

I almost didn't buy this light, because of both its cost and the bad reputation that LED house lights have. Indeed, the tone of this light is significantly more whitish than an incandescent, but not so far as to exhibit that horrible blueish "trendy bar" tint. It suits a kitchen light perfectly. The face is translucent, which disguises the clustered look of some LED lights. The brightness is impressive — easily 35W equivalent, and no warm-up period required.

So, somewhat to my own suprise, I end up recommending spending the extra money and getting the LED lights. Don't be tempted to cut costs, though — most of the cheaper LED lights are no good for anything except mood lighting.

(Another option would be to mix LED and CFL lights — they complement each other quite nicely.)

Comments

[gominokouhai]

> (Btw, let me know if you can't see my unicode stars in the table above.)

Nope.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Shame, they're a handy couple of characters. Annotated now.

[gominokouhai]

Can see them now, different machine. Reasonably fresh Firefox installs in both cases.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

It'll be to do with the extent of unicode coverage of the fonts you have installed, rather than anything to do with the browser.

[gominokouhai]

Had gathered that, but I don't see anywhere you can install fonts. Silly computer.

[brucec.livejournal.com]

If it's Windows you're using then there's an option to install the extra fonts in the Regional and Language Options control panel. In the Languages tab, tick both the boxes in the "Supplemental language support" group to get the entire set of fonts that Windows supports.

[alienspacebat.livejournal.com]

Try http://www.ultraleds.co.uk and look for the Cree, Luxeon, Osram or Nichia single emitter leds. The 5W leds come in a warm white (around 2700K colour temperature) and are about the same output as a 30 - 40W bulb. I really like the colour of the led as its produced from a blue source and a phosphor so you dont get the mercury emission spectra giving a green tinge to the lighting behind the daylight balanced phosphor glow. On the fluorescents, around 50% of what you see is from the emission spectra rather than the phosphor spectra.

The other led advantage is most are dimmable

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Can't see Luxeon, Osram or Nichia ones. The Cree looks good, but only claims 30W equivalency. It's not dimmable, either.

Actually, the main reason I didn't go for one like this is the appearance — not sure I like the 'metal grill' effect around the outside. YMMV. That aside, it would be interesting to compare against the one I bought.

[calcinations.livejournal.com]

The place I work sells insulation to Cree for their furnaces that produce the silicon cystals etc for the LED's. They've had the white LED thing pretty much sorted for around 2 years, maybe longer.