Woohooo Philips set to Win L prize goodbye nasty Flourescents !

MrBlobby

MrBlobby

MrBlobby

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Ugh why do they have the requirement that the colour must match? Horrible yellow incandescent light is rubbish, give me something closer to daylight any day.
 
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Personally, for me one of the main criteria for a bulb should be if it is dimmable or not, I have remote controlled lights and like to be able to set the levels of them via dimming so I can change from nice and bright to lovely soft light really simply.

With the current generation of energy saving bulbs you can't do this (ok there are dimmable ones out there but at about £8 each I'm not wasting my money on them!!!) and as such I am not using them!!

If these new bulbs are dimmable, and are stupidly highly priced when they eventually hit the high street, then I'll use them if not, I'll stick with my incandescent bulbs for a while yet!!
 
I guess if you have dimmers already then it's important to you, if not then it will not be.

But meh anyway.
 
Skyfall said:
I guess if you have dimmers already then it's important to you, if not then it will not be.

But meh anyway.
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Yes, it is important to me, for some people I guess lighting is merely a functional utility to save them from sitting in the dark, for me it is part of the asthetics of the room and actually a very important part, I like to be able to vary my lighting to suit my mood etc.

I have no problem with the idea of change when it comes to the introduction of new technologies, what I don't like is being pushed in the direction of something which has been introduced which does not match the capabilities of the existing technology!!!

MrBlobby said:
One of the conditions of the LPrize
http://www.lightingprize.org/

http://www.lightingprize.org/pdfs/LPrize-Revision1.pdf

Products shall meet the following requirements: - Must be compatible with at least three (3) widely available residential dimmers. - Must be continuously dimmable to at least 20% of maximum light output without visible flickering.
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Now that is good news, if they are compatible with the type of dimmers I use...lol

At least whoever came up with the requirements has used their brains and thought about how people actually use lighting etc!!!
 
I'd have thought all residential dimmers worked in the same way (triac based interrupter, creates 50hz PWM control)? Any linear dimmer will get far too hot to be installed in the typical fashion.

Anyhow, LED technologies are much more readily dimmable than flourescent. I'd expect all LED based lighting to be compatible, maintaining without flickering is the challenge as it's such a low frequency control.
 
No idea how the dimmers work (is it not magic?) The ones I have are built into X10 controlled units and I'd want those to still be useable or I shall sulk!! ;o)

Valve
 
Most flourescent bulbs/tubes don't work properly with normal dimmers. You may find some work even if not specified as dimmable, but may have a reduced range of control, create orangey spots at the ends of the tube(s) and ultimately will reduce bulb life.

LEDs dim nicely, just unfortunate the most simple dimming method uses the very low AC mains frequency and unlike with an incandescent, there is no sustained light emmision between pulses, so flickering is more evident. Some kind of capacitor smoothing circuit is all that's likely needed though.
 
Janesy B said:
How many fluorescent tubes are dimmable? I don't think any are.
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That why I've still got box loads of the old 'banned' 100w bulbs. :D

Do have a couple of the 100w equivalents which are halogen things... not tried them yet.

Dr.EM said:
Most flourescent bulbs/tubes don't work properly with normal dimmers. You may find some work even if not specified as dimmable, but may have a reduced range of control, create orangey spots at the ends of the tube(s) and ultimately will reduce bulb life.
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Most fail in a few short minutes.
 
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