As of late, hardware stores are beginning to carry LED replacement household bulbs. Most people buy regular incandescents primarily due to cost since it uses older technology and is produced to lowest bidder or contractor. Halogen bulbs used to be very expensive when it was first introduced in the early 1980s to increase light output while consuming the same of amount of wattage or less. Just for sake of argument, a 55-watt Halogen bulb using the Edison Medium Base produces the equivalent output of a 100-watt incandescent bulb. In fact the heat generated from a 55-watt Halogen is also the similar or more than a 100-watt incandescent. The support structure for Halogen consist of steel wire which also is connected to the contact points that allows for the electricity to power the tungsten filament.
As with all new technology, Halogen is an advanced form of incandescent while the older tech uses all of the same materials that Halogen employs. When an incandescent fails, there normally is a small black spot caused by the consumed tungsten vapor cooled into a black powder like substance. In the case of a Halogen bulb, the glass bulb is reduced by ninety percent to the size of a capsule while further reducing the size of the filament structure. The end result is the Halogen Cycle capsule with quartz mineral glass as the outer structure coupled with the Tungsten filament. When turned on, the tungsten filament is consumed and vaporized. While in its vaporized state, tungsten begins to materialize as it cools onto the interior wall of the quartz mineral glass and then separates from the glass to be infused back into the filament. Thus called the Halogen Cycle, which replenishes the tungsten filament until the argon and xenon gas is consumed. That is why the average life span of a Halogen capsule hovers around 1500-hours give or take 150-hours.
Now enter 2003, the "Green" Environmental Era, where excessive energy consumption must be reduced by about sixty percent. The primary reason for this was the gradual increase of greenhouse gases and secondary is to decrease the environmental impact in terms of landfill waste. When bulbs are burned out, they usually end up in our landfills. Glass can be recycled, but in most cases this is not the case. It is thrown away with the rest of the trash so this extra glass is wasted away in our landfills. All the environmental lobby can do is encourage the consumer public to recycle old bulbs.
Since energy consumption is the highest portion of the bulb more than the waste, the next generation in lighting technology was the florescent bulb. To be more specific, it is the compact florescent bulb, which is a small spiral glass tube filled with mercury and phosphor coated in the interior wall to produce the light. Mercury Gas creates light in the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and the white light that we see is when the phosphor coating within the interior wall of the compact florescent excites due to the absorption of UV. Sound like a mouthful and the easy way to test this is to hold a compact florescent bulb to a black-light and watch the phosphor in its excited state. Compact florescent bulbs like with their larger cousins require a high-voltage ballast starter to generate the necessary power spike to excite the mercury gas environment housed within the bulb. Once excited, the voltage begins to taper just enough to keep the gas in its excited state thus allowing for the phosphor to absorb the UV generated (usually short wave ultraviolet).
Like with all gases, once energized consumption of the gas occurs and the darkening of the phosphor is a clear indication as to life of any given compact and standard florescent. Since a gas is being consumed rather than a glowing tungsten filament, the amount of energy consumed is dictated by the wattage output of the tube and heat is significantly reduced. Higher wattage CFL requires the electronic ballast to be calibrated to increase sustained voltage output after starting voltage has been applied which can be programmed easily with today's technology, but the efficiency of the bulb in both energy and light output is lower to a slight degree. Compact florescent bulbs key technology standpoint is energy savings coupled to light output. Take for example, a seven watt CFL on paper generates about the equivalent light output of a 45-watt incandescent filament bulb. To be more specific about light output, a 7-watt compact florescent bulb when fully warmed up does come close to a brand new incandescent filament of 45-watts or 340 to 400-lumens of light. That is by far an achievement by many standards especially when trying to reduce power consumption.
Here are the downsides with using florescent lighting technology. For one, the use of mercury gas is a essential component in order for the phosphor to absorb enough short wave UV energy to create the white light that perceive. Mercury gas is considered to be one of the few gases that can cause health issues while the second component is literally hazardous to ones health, which is the phosphor coating that provides the illumination. As for waste products concern, none of the components within a compact florescent bulb can be used again due to the design of the electronics governing the tube. If one were to recycle one of these bulbs, the only reusable components in a CFL would most probably be the glass content composing the tube structure. The argument here is where most people would say that all of the bulb can be recycled, but that is not really the case. The plastic casing is actually resin sealed with electronic ballast and starter, which are the primary components to electrify the mercury gas contained within the glass tube. With all of this going for CFL technology, then the only possible part that can truly be recycled would be the glass component governing the tube. The phosphor coating within the interior wall of the tube can't be reused due to UV exposure as it degrades over time and more so when exposed to oxygen.
The compact florescent bulb does consume less energy over time as compared to sustained consumption incandescent filament types, but only when they are new to mid-life. As the gas is slowly consumed within the tube, the power requirement to maintain the level of light it generates must be increased to maintain the 7-watt figure or 45-watt light equivalent. All of these factors combined, the average energy saved during the consumption phase of the CFL is only during the first 2000-hours of most of these 7-watt bulbs 8000-hour life span. The remaining 6000-hours is a gradual climb to nearly triple of the 7-watts consumed to energize the mercury gas thus providing UV to be absorbed by the phosphor coating within the glass tube generating white light. Sounds like a mouthful and it is since most consumers don't really factor in the costs of manufacturing these CFL bulbs. Here is another part in which I basically reiterate that CFL bulbs aren't really all that energy efficient is the part about ambient temperature.
The best ambient temperature range CFL or all florescent bulbs operate in is between 85 to 60-degrees Fahrenheit. Not a really wide range there and once a person factors in location and climate, these bulbs come to be at a disadvantage. Look at a CFL and one would notice that there are little vents near the base of the bulb. Those vents are to keep the electronic ballast and control regulation circuit from getting too hot since during the startup phase where the CFL begins to light up, the electronic ballast charges the mercury gas with 32kV/3.0A for one-full second in which the bulb flashes and dimly lights up with a gradual climb to full brightness. This is typical with all CFL and standard florescent lights. I think many of you are looking at the 32kV/3.0A starting figure and wonder what am I talking about "That is not true, the CFL only consumes whatever it says in the package."
Florescent lighting is part of the same category as with high-intensity discharge systems as minimal energy consumption is needed to generated about three-times the specified wattage in light output. In the case of CFL and florescent lights, they fall into the same category as HID. Getting back to ambient temperatures, florescent and CFL lighting systems have a range in which they work efficiently, well in a very warm environment, the driver electronics such as the ballast and electronic control regulation circuit won't be able to effectively control the voltage input/output due to the heating of its own electronics. The tube itself is not factored in since it already hot with energized mercury gas so basically when one sees flickering florescent tubes in hot weather, well that is basically the driver electronics unable to regulate the tube due to its own devices.
Then we say lets put florescent lighting in colder environments, "That should keep the ballast cool and we should have consistent light output."
I wish I could say that this completely true, but it isn't. In fact more energy consumption would be result because of the colder climates. Colder climates such as Alaska, Germany, BC, Maine, just to name a few would make even CFL bulbs unideal environments for efficient lighting. The reason is the driver electronics would have to energize the mercury gas with the starting voltage specified two paragraphs above for a longer duration that the electronics are designed for. As temperatures drop into the colder regions, Mercury gas tends to get heavier and prove that theory, install a CFL in a refrigerator or better yet, wait for the temperatures outside to drop close to 50-degrees Fahrenheit and with a CFL screwed in rather a regular incandescent. Turn the light switch on and you will see what I mean. A rather bright flash followed by dimness and about thirty to sixty seconds later it reaches full brightness. When florescent bulbs are in their operating ambient temperature zone, startup takes less than a second to a gradual full brightness in less than ten seconds. Sustaining voltages to keep the light at full brightness is what lends to the florescent, compact or otherwise energy efficient. Temperature plays an important factor to the bulb's efficiency and with colder climates, more energy is required before it reaches sustained operating voltage. This should give many the idea of what to expect with Florescent technology.
Enter The True Green Lighting Era - LED Lighting
When I say "Green", I meant it as the environmental aspect of the word and not the color. Going "Green" has been all the hype as of late whether it is buying a Toyota Prius (not at all green when one considers how that battery is made, even the Europeans think that this car is not "Green"), Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf (The EU considers that a very Green car), or buying energy efficient lights for their household. Well a law in Germany and now I find other countries are getting involved is to ban the use of energy consuming incandescent and Halogens in favor of more energy conscious technology such as CFL and LED. The latter is what Germany is pushing for and are offering massive incentives to those who wish to switch from even CFL to LED. Look up the site http://www.cree.com and there they have a page that shows lighting solutions for the home that can replace current household fixtures with highly efficient and long lasting LED lighting technology.
I personally can say that I took this route only before I knew Cree existed. The previous solid-state lighting system that I had before the Cree LED era was fitted with Lumileds Luxeon. Each of my GU10 replacements were fitted with dual redundant DC dimming power supplies to prevent any line surges. 64-step digital dimmer by Levitron operated on DC similar for use with track lighting allow for the dimming of the solid state lighting sources throughout the house. Just to clarify, the power supplies were inline with the original wiring for halogen light sources so I had the electrician modify and install the power supplies along with the digitally controlled dimmers. And each of the light modules house the GU10 bulb with three SMD mounted on a heat plate Luxeon R5 LED through piped optics. Each bulb delivered approximately 350-lumens of light with a color temperature range of 5000 to 6000K. I didn't like the color temperature at first but I adapted quite quickly especially when my electricity consumption dropped considerably.
Think about this, my previous lighting energy consumption with 55-watt Halogen beams for a total of 80 of these bulbs and about 100-watts worth of florescent lighting in the kitchen reduced to a total of 500-watt/hour for all of the lighting retrofits done. When one adds up the numbers, this is quite an impressive savings as I once use to pay about $500 to $600.00 in electricity bills now I pay about $10.00 (I am on the SCE program to buy electricity that I generate through solar panel and the base charge is connection fee). This is all good until Cree through "The LED Light.com" approach me to buy my existing system in exchange for a more efficient and powerful lighting solution. All I had to do was pay for the freight costs, which was rather inexpensive to boot.
The Cree LED GU10 drop-in has a color temp of 4500K consistent throughout the board and didn't require 3 SMD LED to produce 350-lumens. A single Cree XRLamp-E through a Fresnel piped optic generated a cool 450-lumens or so with more than adequate cooling material surrounding the solid-state diode. All I can say that the future of the "Green" era of lighting is aimed toward solid-state technology. Initial cost may cause the idea of sticker shock however after about a year's worth of usage will justify itself altogether. High traffic areas such as the Kitchen and Family Room would be an ideal place to start since we use them frequently unless one doesn't cook or store food, which is of course hardly the case in many situations.
To conclude the matter, I have gone "Green" in a rather costly yet beneficial manner since the initial shock has worn off in the form of energy savings over time. It took about three years to recover and now I reaping the benefits of lower energy consumption. I saved more money in electricity consumption switching from CFL to LED technology. Just some food for thought.
Everybody have a great year and take care.
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