Has anyone with an oscilloscope noticed that over recent years that the mains waveform is becoming less sinusoidal? It seems to be becoming more and more flat topped (think of all those harmonics as we gradually approach a square wave). No doubt we can attribute the flat topping to things that rectify the mains and feed it into a filter capacitor, such as switchmode power supplies...and CFL's! While iron cored control gear for discharge lighting is becoming unfashionable, it is easier on the supply.
The 'dimmable properties' of halogen lamps, as mentioned by pdh, seem to be conveniently not mentioned by the eco propaganda squad, either out of ingnorance of how a halogen lamp works, or just by hoping people will buy their halogen replacements, see they are dimmable and therefore be satisfied, and hope they're just imagining things when they keep having a short life in dimmed mode.
Has anyone actually seen the much fabled 'dimmable CFL' or are they just that?
I actually get very good life out my incandescent lamps; some of the less used ones are over 20yrs old, others I've replaced once or twice over the last 13 years since I bought the house. I seem to have a rock steady 245V supply at my place; the regulation is quite impressive.
