ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 255 guests, and 16 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
D
djk Offline
Member
A good CFL bulb will produce pretty excellent lighting. I don't know about outside of the EU, but within the EU they do generally comply with RF interference requirements.

Also, I haven't really seen any of these really poor quality lightbulbs that you guys seem to be getting in Aus/NZ here in Ireland.

They're still all philips, GE, solas (local brand), Mazda etc.. or supermarket ownbrand, which to be fair generally seem to be quite good quality.

Perhaps the 240V system in Aus/NZ produces very high peaks for bulbs that may be designed for 220-230V ? hence the popping CFLs?

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
pauluk Offline OP
Member
Quote
Remember socialists do not want you to have any money to spend as you like, but rather as they like.

Yep, the way this lot is going, pretty soon it would be easier to just to legislate that all earnings go directly to the government and they'll give us back any small proportion that's left over after taxes, if any. [Linked Image] [Linked Image]

In my current trade catalog, a 60W GLS Osram bulb is 24 pence (excluding VAT and in quantities of 20+). An Osram 12W compact fluoro is £2.99 in similar quantities.

So if the government is going to apply tax to bring that 60W filament bulb up to the same price as the 12W fluoro, that will mean adding £2.75 tax to a 24p. bulb! That's a tax of over 1100%. [Linked Image]

That's before the Voracious Administration Tax as well. When VAT gets added, it's to the final price including any other taxes and excise duties (yes, a tax on a tax). So the 17.5% VAT won't be on just the original 24 pence, it will be on the full £2.99 of which £2.75 is tax in the first place. 2.99 x 17.5% = Another 52 pence.

So, for a bulb which started out at 24 pence, on a non-commercial purchase where the buyer has to pay VAT, the government will have collected a grand total of £3.27 in tax!

That's all based on trade prices. For the average person buying in the street, it will be even more of course.

Quote
A couple of years ago I could see something like this would happen. As a result I hoarded away about 2,000 light bulbs

The way things are going, there's a whole list of things we need to hoard quickly. Proper tin-lead solder is another.

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
Quote
As for LED lighting, the colour is just awful.
In my opinion the same is true for all kinds of fluorescent lights. They are ok for offices, maybe residential hallways or other rooms you don't really live in but I wouldn't want to have such a thing in my living room or bed room, no matter how "warm" they try to make the light. And apparently most people in Austria still think like that - compact fluorescents aren't really common. Besides they're awfully dim after being switched on! All CFs we have take several minutes to heat up.

@Paul: would that lead to more E27 bulbs in the UK? [Linked Image]

Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
pauluk Offline OP
Member
Quote
would that lead to more E27 bulbs in the UK?

It could well do, although France uses BC as well.

Quote
but I wouldn't want to have such a thing in my living room or bed room, no matter how "warm" they try to make the light. And apparently most people in Austria still think like that

And quite a few in Britain too, myself included. I have precisely two fluoro fittings in my home (not counting things like illuminated bench magnifiers). One is a traditional style fitting with twin 58W 5 ft. T8 tubes in the kitchen, the other is a strip light over the mirror in the bathroom which uses an 11W compact. Everything else is incandescent and that's the way I like it.

Quote
Besides they're awfully dim after being switched on! All CFs we have take several minutes to heat up.

For sure. My bathroom one takes a good five minutes to get up to full brightness.
In fact the only reason it's in there is because I happened to have it left over from some other job, otherwise that would be a filament strip light, just like the ones I have elsewhere in the bedrooms.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-23-2006).]

Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
The only place we have a CF is in the hallway where it is on close to 24/7. We used to have one in the guest bedroom too, but after I started using it for computer work I replaced the CF with a 100W incandescent bulb.

On the other hand there are some really inefficient fixtures too! My grandmother in Germany had a livng room light which was pretty much a 12"x12"x4" glass block, hollow, with four bulbs inside. Brightness was ok, pretty much like a bare 100W bulb. I figured there were probably low-wattage bulbs in it but didn't think much. When she moved to Austria one year ago I took down the fixture (to Austrian and German tradition I left the apartment with only bare bulbs hanging from the ceilings, an Austrian would probably have left the bare hot wires dangling) and couldn't believe my eyes - there wer four 60 Watt bulbs in it, making up a total of 240 Watts for an average sized room! Back in Austria I let that one quietly disappear on top of a tall cupboard...
Besides the thick glass makes it _really_ heavy and while it was safely attached to the poured concrete ceiling in Germany I certainly wouldn't feel too great attaching it to the lathes of our plaster ceilings. Screwing it into a joist like a decent fitting should is impossible since it doesn't have any means of centered mounting required for driving long screws into a joist.

Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 223
A
Member
Quote
Proper tin-lead solder is another
Indeed...the stories I've heard and soldered joints I've seen with lead free aren't encouraging, hence the gradual collection of more than a few rolls of the real lead stuff.
And if the politically correct powers force that IEC standard mains plug and socket on us here I'll have a lifetime supply of proper aussie bakelite...actually it's a wonder the IEC haven't thought up an internationally standard lamp socket that will be compulsory for all new installations and will only will take CFL's or LED's.
But, going back to CFL's, and fluorescents in general, what of the UV output?
I keep my coloured plastic telephones and radios away from fluoro lighting for this reason....how often have we seen starters, tombstones, and other plastic bits disintegrate when working on fluoro light fittings?

[This message has been edited by aussie240 (edited 01-24-2006).]

Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 1
C
C-H Offline
Member
Quote
actually it's a wonder the IEC haven't thought up an internationally standard lamp socket that will be compulsory for all new installations and will only will take CFL's or LED's.

Seriously, I think that is a good idea. The newest LED's are unreal in light output.

Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,691
S
Member
Quote
Indeed...the stories I've heard and soldered joints I've seen with lead free aren't encouraging, hence the gradual collection of more than a few rolls of the real lead stuff.

I don't know what the story is in Europe/Australia, but here in the Americas...we're still using lead/tin solder for electronics.

I don't know if it is ever going to be discontinued....but so far I'm not seeing any signs that it is.

Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 183
N
Member
Actually, the electronics industry is going lead-free, primarily due to European regulations. We are having a heck of a time with some parts only available leaded and some only unleaded - you need to run the oven at a higher temperature for the unleaded, and that is causing trouble with both the PCB materials and with older parts.

Yes, I also have a few rolls of good old Kester 63/37 stashed away :-)

Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 869
Likes: 4
R
Member
LED's are cetainly the way to go.

A combination of yellow and white leds will give quite a good colour. certainly better than the blueish white in a lounge environment.

I have a lot of ideas but never enough time to built all the projects I want to do to a final stage. usually it ends up as a temp. rack up on a experimental circuitboard.

corrected for typo error. Ray

[This message has been edited by RODALCO (edited 01-26-2006).]


The product of rotation, excitation and flux produces electricty.
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5