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Posted by Allan Chochinov | 8 Jan 2007
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Comments (3)
If you were heartened by the Times' piece last week on Compact Fluorescents, you'll be brought back down to earth with yesterday's more sobering assessment from William Hamilton:
When I found out last week that Wal-Mart, America's biggest company, was putting a push on compact fluorescent light bulbs, hoping to make them a new lighting standard at home because they use 75 percent less energy, last 10 times longer and would save me $30 over the life of each bulb, I thought to myself, what's not to like?
Well, fluorescent light's not to like, many people might say.
Comments
Fast Company also did a piece on this a couple months ago. Personally, I find it better than the NYT.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/open_lightbulbs.html
I'm surprised that neither of these articles mentions IKEA, where many of the bulbs sold on site for its fixtures are compact flourescent. Plus, their compact flourescent bulbs look a lot like incandescent lights at a glance, with their polymer-coated enclosures that are shaped like an incandescant light. I'm curious to know what IKEA's U.S. and global sales are for these lights. My personal experience is that compact flourescents are great for paper fixtures (the effect is a very warm light) as well as colored-shade fixtures, and some frosted glass fixtures because there is a filtration of the strange spectrum of light that these bulbs produce. Based on this experience, couldn't the undesirable color spectrum be addressed by making color filters for compact flourescent lights that help achieve the desired lighting effect?
The complaint about fluorescent sources in the CRI (color rendering index)is easily resolved. Infact, many lamp manufatcurers now use a special combination of phosphors to achieve a warmer light. Also, a simple colored lens is an easy solution. I work in the lighting industry and assure you fluorescent will replace the incandescent bulbs. Even legislation has dictated it so - California's title 24 has made it mandatory for all new construction to use 4-pin fluorescent. Consumers must educate themselves, buy the proper wattages and keep their eyes open for the colored phosphor options forementioned.