[ale] OT Just bought my 1st & 2nd "lighting-class" LED bulbs

Michael H. Warfield mhw at WittsEnd.com
Tue Jul 23 19:11:51 EDT 2013


On Tue, 2013-07-23 at 18:16 -0400, Jim Kinney wrote: 
> must replace my SEER 0.001 with something MUCH better (looking at a
> SEER 16 unit). Plus add a crapload of insulation in attic and glob on
> the ultra-bright white roof paint. My June power bill was $380.
> 
> 
> Why do people insist on BLACK shingles in the hot states? Aesthetics
> be damned! AC bills prevent me from have other fun :-(  The only black
> things I want my roof are solar panels for power and hot water.

Ours are brown but I keep insisting that "solar panel blue" is
esthetically pleasing...  The evil looks I get from June would wilt a
plastic plant at 100M.  We've even got an extremely optimal siting, with
the orientation and view our roof has...  Sigh...  I won't win that
fight.  Not even worth starting down the road.

I was tempted, years ago, to put "fin stock" tubing up in the attic (you
buy it in Canada from Home Depot up there for distributed hot water
heating systems - it's radiator tubing with fins) to act as a heat
exchanger (reverse of a heater - blow air over it and warm the water)
and warm our pool.  But our pool is already hitting the 90's in the
summer when the attic is the hottest.  Where do I dump the EXCESS heat?
I'd have steam coming on the pool in July and August.  Another idea
bites the dust... 
Regards,
Mike
> 
> On Tue, Jul 23, 2013 at 6:02 PM, James Sumners
> <james.sumners at gmail.com> wrote:
>         Do yourself a favor and learn to distinguish bulbs by their
>         lumen output, not their incandescent wattage equivalence.
>         That's a practice that should never have been implemented.
>         It's not really a direct equivalence, and it just ends up
>         making folks say the wrong thing (e.g. saying 40w when they
>         really have a 7w). 
>         
>         
>         Also, make sure the Crees are rated for enclosed installation
>         before putting them in your outdoor fixtures. Most brands are
>         not. I use the ULTRA bulbs by Sylvania and the off-brand
>         EcoSmart bulbs. Neither, of those that I have bought, have
>         been rated thus. 
>         
>         
>         My favorite LED bulbs so far are the Phillips (damn expensive,
>         but coming down; still worth it, though) and the ULTRAs. Just
>         about every bulb in my house is a LED. My power bill, with a
>         SEER 10 A/C unit running, for May was $99 after taxes and
>         fees. They make a huge difference.  
>         
>         
>         On Tuesday, July 23, 2013, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
>                 Hi all,
>                 
>                 Just thought I'd throw this out there since you guys
>                 like geeky stuff.  I just bought my 1st & 2nd
>                 "lighting-class" LED bulbs.  I have a couple of
>                 fixtures that are hard to get to and work with to
>                 replace bulbs on my porch.  For some time, those bulbs
>                 have been out and we've been using a free standing
>                 lamp out there.  Today, I decided to take the leap and
>                 try LED.  I've only had the product open for a little
>                 while and have been testing it in a table lamp, but my
>                 initial reaction is that I'm VERY impressed.  At $
>                 13 / bulb, I won't be replacing all my CFL's yet, but
>                 maybe one at a time when they burn out.  The porch
>                 lights have to wait until I deal with some uninvited
>                 wasps that are there.
>                 
>                 This is the Cree warm white 2700 K color temperature
>                 60 W bulb replacement from Home Depot.  The appearance
>                 and shape is like a standard incandescent bulb and
>                 this particular one puts out a pretty omnidirectional
>                 light.  Right on the top of the bulb is a small area
>                 of dimness at the top of the "LED Filament Tower", but
>                 otherwise, I wouldn't know it's not a standard bulb by
>                 looking at its light.
>                 
>                 This bulb has some really cool features:
>                 
>                 * It uses just 9.5 W of power to provide the
>                 equivalent of 60 W of incandescent light.
>                 
>                 * It's warranted for 10 years at 6 hrs / day (with
>                 proof of purchase).  This works out to 25,000 hrs.
>                  This is 20X the life of an incandescent and 2X the
>                 life of a GOOD CFL.
>                 
>                 * You can touch the bulb, even hold it, while running;
>                 and your hand will get warm but not burned.  However,
>                 DON'T touch the heat sink directly.  This is about hot
>                 enough to burn you.  Another Home Depot shopper gave
>                 me that tip.
>                 
>                 * It has a rubber safety coating on the class bulb
>                 with a kind of tacky feeling, like a rubber jar opener
>                 or something.  Should be less likely to break and less
>                 dangerous if it does.  The instructions don't
>                 recommend running it with a broken glass casing.
>                 
>                 * There is no mercury or lead in it.
>                 
>                 * And, it is DIMMABLE with a STANDARD dimmer.  This is
>                 very cool.  I had uninstalled 3 dimmers in my house
>                 when I went to using CFL's.  Maybe, eventually, I'll
>                 be able to put them back.  This also means you could
>                 put it on a photocell, or motion detector.
>                 
>                 So, even though I've only had the product a few hours,
>                 at this point, I highly recommend it.  Hopefully, the
>                 prices will keep coming down.
>                 
>                 Sincerely,
>                 
>                 Ron
>                 
>                 
>                 
>                 --
>                 
>                 Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth
>                 keyboard and K-9 Mail.
>                 Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on
>                 the touch screen.
>                 
>                 (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response,
>                 you might want to
>                 call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day
>                 from alternate energy
>                 mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email
>                 messages very quickly.)
>                 
>                 Ron Frazier
>                 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
>                 linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>                 Litecoin: LZzAJu9rZEWzALxDhAHnWLRvybVAVgwTh3
>                 Bitcoin: 15s3aLVsxm8EuQvT8gUDw3RWqvuY9hPGUU
>                 
>                 
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>         
>         
>         -- 
>         James Sumners
>         http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
>         
>         "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
>         pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but
>         that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a
>         tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which
>         they are quickly addicted."
>         
>         Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
>         CH:D 59
>         
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>         
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III
> 
> Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
> own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
> 
> http://electjimkinney.org
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> 
> 
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-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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