A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

22 April 2016

My long, cautious journey to an incandescence free home

I used to be an early adopter of innovative, energy efficient, lighting technologies. But early compact fluorescent bulbs tempered my enthusiasm. Knowing I was using less energy made me feel virtuous, but the harsh greenish-blue light and balky ballasts left me irritable and depressed.

I quickly realized my priorities were wrong. Subordinating bright, friendly, light to energy efficiency produced a psychologically hostile environment. What I needed were warm and pleasing lights that also were energy efficient.

Ergo, I reverted to standard incandescent bulbs until spiral CFLs with better color rendering and a 2700°K color temperature became affordable. Then I replaced the incandescents in lamps that would be turned on for at least 10 to 15 minutes. That left incandescents in several rooms that I entered for only a few minutes at a time.

The new CFLs used less energy, rendered color well, and in summer, radiated so much less heat that I no longer needed air conditioning in my library/office. But they required several minutes to reach full brightness, and were intolerant of on-off cycles; thus they weren’t suitable for situations where I needed full brightness at once.

LED bulbs, which do reach full brightness at switch-on, held promise as replacements for my remaining incandescents. But chastened by prematurely adopting CFLs, I began testing Edison base LEDs. As I feared, the early products were as bad as the early CFLs. Their bluish-white light, higher in color temperature than direct sunlight, rendered color poorly. Their electronic drivers burned out quickly. They were low on lumens. And they cost far too much.

Again, I waited for improvements. Six or seven years ago, I purchased for eight dollars each, two eight-watt LED bulbs claiming to throw as much light as a 40-watt incandescent bulb. Although the manufacturer claimed they threw light omnidirectionally, they functioned as floodlights, making them unsuitable for base down installations. I installed them in my base up porch lights, where they work very well indeed, reaching full power instantly even in below zero weather.

Efficient, reliable LED lamps that render color well at a color temperature of 2700°K are finally affordable. Dimmable LEDs are available, too, although they cost more and are less efficient than non-dimmable bulbs.

Sixty-watt incandescent equivalent LED bulbs costing approximately $2.50 each now occupy all of my closed ceiling fixtures, and open fixtures where I need full brightness at switch-on.

The current LEDs are good enough, but not perfect. They’re not really omnidirectional, so I’m sticking with CFLs in situations where I need genuinely omnidirectional bulbs. CFLs are slightly less efficient, and contain minuscule amounts of mercury, which makes some people nervous, but they throw light evenly, making a room warm and pleasant. That’s more important than a little extra energy efficiency. And I’ve handled enough mercury to respect it, but not let it paralyze me with fear.

Still, my home is finally incandescent free, featuring only CFL and LED lighting. Two dozen used but still viable incandescents, including a couple of hot running 150-watt halogens, occupy a box in my storage cabinet next to at least a dozen boxes of various sizes and shapes of CFLs. And I have a couple of 300-watt halogen portable work lights that I use so rarely there’s no economic case for replacing them with fluorescents or LEDs.

Along this journey, I learned a few things:

  1. Light for everyday living must be warm, bright, and friendly. We want — I would say need — energy efficient lights with those qualities.

  2. Spiral CFLs are the better choice where omnidirectional light is required. They’re also available in larger sizes. I have several 65-watt spiral CFLs in my garage, each as bright as a 300-watt tungsten filament bulb.

  3. Energy Star qualified lights have high power factors and better color rendering. Some can be dimmed. If you don’t need dimmable bulbs, less expensive non-dimmable LED bulbs work just and well and cost considerably less.

  4. For vitually all household purposes, buy CFLs and LEDs with a color temperature of 2700°K. For areas in which colors should appear true, buy bulbs with a .9 or higher color rendering index.

  5. Computer controlled LED lighting systems are great in both backwoods cabins and the cabins of Boeing 787s — and have a sky high price tag no matter where they are installed. My advice…well, you neither need nor want my advice on that kind of extravagance.

  6. Experiment — and temper your expectations.