Lightbulbs: illegal, as of 1 sept

as of 1 sept, it will be illegal to manufacture or import 100 watt incandescent lightbulbs within the european union. then slowly, all other wattages are being phased out.

i'm hoping that lightbulb manufacturers sort out better energy efficient bulbs, cuz at the moment, they suck.

For anyone living in Islington borough, you can collect free low energy lightbulbs at some joint on Upper Street. Never done it myself as we have little downlights, but theres a sign out the front saying so.

Did anyone see the article where they described how if you shone a laser beam on a normal incandescent bulb filament it became hugely more efficient?

The beam roughened the filament giving it a much greater surface area so that for an equivalent light output of 100 watts one only needed to apply 25 watts (or even less, I forget).

That would give the old style lights a huge extension of service- and crucially they are so much cheaper than the low power ones.

I'll try to find the article.

Here we go:

Just as authorities in much of the Western world have moved to phase out the incandescent lightbulb, American boffins believe they have developed a process which can make the oldschool lights more efficient than energy-saving lamps.
Optics boffins at the Rochester Uni in New York state say they've developed a process in which an ordinary lighbulb is zapped with a femtosecond-long pulse of extremely high-energy laser light. The laser blast travels through the glass to hit the tungsten filament, causing complex nano- and micro-structures to form on its surface.
Once the lasered light bulb is than powered up, according to the Rochester scientists, it emits a lot more light for the same energy compared to an untreated bulb - equivalent to 40 per cent energy savings. The process of lasing incandescent bulbs wouldn't be expensive, apparently, so they'd remain cheap compared to fluorescent energy-saving jobs.
According to Rochester Uni:
The process could make a light as bright as a 100-watt bulb consume less electricity than a 60-watt bulb while remaining far cheaper and radiating a more pleasant light than a fluorescent bulb. Despite the incredible intensity involved, the femtosecond laser can be powered by a simple wall outlet, meaning that when the process is refined, implementing it to augment regular light bulbs should be relatively simple.
It seems that Professor Chunlei Guo of Rochester hit upon the idea of brightening-up lightbulb filaments following earlier experiments in which he and his team used laser zapping to turn metals completely black. This worked so well that Guo and his cohorts wondered if they could reverse the process.
"We fired the laser beam right through the glass of the bulb and altered a small area on the filament," says the prof. "When we lit the bulb, we could actually see this one patch was clearly brighter than the rest of the filament, but there was no change in the bulb's energy usage."
It seems that Guo and his team of lightbulb-blasting boffins can also produce other strange effects, getting incandescent bulbs to emit partially polarised or differently-coloured light - without the energy-wasting filters that would normally be necessary.
It's the efficiency-enhancement aspect of the studies which could make headlines, however. Both the US and European Union governments are now committed to firm timetables which will see incandescent bulbs phased out in favour of more energy-efficient alternatives, such as fluorescents. This is being done in order to save energy and so lower carbon emissions. But if it's as simple as Guo suggests to enhance an incandescent with his laser process, this may turn out to have been an unnecessary or even retrograde step.
Guo's research has been accepted for publication by the journal Applied Physics Letters, but isn't out yet.

From here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/01/light_bulb_laser_blast_enhancement/

so how environmentally friendly is it to remove and throw away all those light fittings, dimmer switches, lamps etc which are incompatible with energy saving bulbs?

I wonder if the government has ever considered butting the fuck out of my life?

" Never done it myself as we have little downlights "
Ooooh we are posh aren't we !!
You'll be telling us your missus has a £2,000 mink coat next

Time to sort your commodity portfolio out and sell your holdings in tungsten me thinks !

• Calls broker & yells " sell sell sell " down the phone at top of voice *
  

"First they came for the 100 watt bulbs, but I had no 100 watt bulbs - so I said nothing. Then they came for the 75 watt bulbs, but I had no 75 watt bulbs - so I did nothing. Then they came for the 60 watt bulbs, and I did nothing.. And then they came for the 40 watts, but I had no 40 watts - so I did little. Then when they came for my 25 watt occasional table lamp from IKEA, I fell down the stairs in the bloody hall as there was no light."

Time to stock up on those old bulbs, folks... ;P

I just set fire to a pigeon and let him fly about the room

Bah! Dicki!

You know what I mean. You cant screw bullet or screw top globes into the fittings.

Anyway, mink is for peasants.

LEDs all the way. 10% of the power draw for the same luminosity.

I've got 6 LED lights and 6 conventional halogens in my kitchen as a test.

Conclusions so far:

LED lights draw 2 Watts vs the Halogens 50
LED lights don't blow, seemingly ever, a Halogen goes pop every other week
They are equally bright
The LED ones don't get really hot

However the ligth from the LED bulbs is very white- no warmth to it at all.

Despite the many advantages of the LED I still prefer the light of the Halogens overall.

Anyway, mink is for peasants.

It's all about Otter this season.

so how environmentally friendly is it to remove and throw away all those light fittings, dimmer switches, lamps etc which are incompatible with energy saving bulbs?

I wonder if the government has ever considered butting the fuck out of my life?

It's only the bulbs that that are changed the dimmer switches e.t.c are the same.

For 95% of uses the energy efficient bulb are fine but they are useless for times when you need a really good spot light.

Most older dimmer switches will not work with energy saving bulbs, including the expensive remote-controlled one I have in my bedroom.

There are a few misinformed about energy saving lightbulbs. Sure, a couple of years ago they took a long time to come on, and then warm up, and were incompatible with dimmers as well as being an unpleasant colour temperature.

But now there are some very good bulbs on the market, Megaman have had dimmable energy saving lamps on the market almost a year.

Also Balki is right, they give out Megaman Energy Saving lightbulbs at the Islington Green Living Centre, which is in the Council HQ on Upper Street. I think you have to live or work in the borough, though.

PS: Clearly LED bulbs are the way to go in terms of energy consumption and raw materials used, but the colour temperature is really cold and uncomfortable.

Most older dimmer switches will not work with energy saving bulbs, including the expensive remote-controlled one I have in my bedroom.

That's still just the dimmers on some lighting systems.

Serves you right for going all Stringfellow to be honest.

Yet again it is all down to us the consumer to change our evil ways

I wonder if the government has ever considered butting the fuck out of my life?
Well said BlueQuinn.

It's not all plain selling with energy-saving bulbs - http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

Careful if you smash one. Mind you we used to hold mercury in our hands when I was at school - great stuff to play with.

you can get led's in different colour temperatures now. there's an led that simulates incandescent temperatures.

ps, the reason led's are harsh to look at is that they only emit light at one specific wavelength, rather than a range of wavelengths like incandescents.

can i replace those downlighter bulbs (the little halogen ones that sit in the ceiling and make your house look like top shop) with LED downlighters? i'd be happy with that.

you can get led's in different colour temperatures now. there's an led that simulates incandescent temperatures.

ps, the reason led's are harsh to look at is that they only emit light at one specific wavelength, rather than a range of wavelengths like incandescents.

+1 warm white leds,

Last one out, turn off the lights. Ta

"First they came for the 100 watt bulbs, but I had no 100 watt bulbs - so I said nothing. Then they came for the 75 watt bulbs, but I had no 75 watt bulbs - so I did nothing. Then they came for the 60 watt bulbs, and I did nothing.. And then they came for the 40 watts, but I had no 40 watts - so I did little. Then when they came for my 25 watt occasional table lamp from IKEA, I fell down the stairs in the bloody hall as there was no light."

:)

It's bulbs now, but soon it will be our eyes.

I've got 6 LED lights and 6 conventional halogens in my kitchen as a test.

Conclusions so far:

LED lights draw 2 Watts vs the Halogens 50
LED lights don't blow, seemingly ever, a Halogen goes pop every other week
They are equally bright
The LED ones don't get really hot

***However the ligth from the LED bulbs is very white- no warmth to it at all.
**
*Despite the many advantages of the LED I still prefer the light of the Halogens overall.

Stick a warming filter over it (towards yellow in the spectrum).

Careful if you smash one. Mind you we used to hold mercury in our hands when I was at school - great stuff to play with.

Anyone know where I can get some giant gloves for my hideously distended hands ?

Needs to have 9 fingers on the left and 7 on the right.