Energy Efficient HTPC setup? - Page 4

That's right. Let's all buy good old American Made CFL bulbs. What? There aren't any American Made CFLs? Is that because of the highly toxic pollution generated in their manufacture? Or maybe because of the labor intensity of twisting those cute double helices by hand? Chinese Sweat Shops to the rescue.

You can buy american made incandescent, LED or halogen?

One such source: http://www.aerolights.com/index.html

They do put fluoride in the water supply.. There is no doubt about that..

It is the problem with the where they get the fluoride from that is being questioned. The good fluoride found in toothpaste or, the garbage they put in the water is a carcinogenic/radioactive waste product that is causing several problems with children and adults today.

I really can't understand why anyone would say the light that CFLs produce actually looks good. Color blindness comes to mind, lol.

There are full spectrum bulbs if you are worried about how a cfl will affect the hues of your wall.

CREE LED's from Home Depot produce better light than any hot tungsten filament ever produced.

I never considered the glow of hot molten metal a good source of light. It has lots of reds and yellows in it.

Some of us are more concerned with the pollution that is created by generating more elecricity to keep those tungsten filaments hot, than with how the color of the walls looks for 3 hours that we use the lights.

If these are outdoor lights, bugs can't "see" LED light. But, even the specific "bug" incandescant or CFL lights attract bugs that rely on heat to locate light source. Besides, who cares what hue my outside walls are in the middle of the night? I don't.

Somebody just can't let go of the "old shoe"

Actually, heat plays little role in the bugs finding the light - and they find LEDs just fine:
http://www.energycircle.com/blog/2011/08/17/correction-led-lights-do-attract-bugs

Take a look at this other forum’s thread, especially message #13.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?345152-Ultimate-Light-Bulb-Test-Incandescent-v-Compact-Fluorescent-v-LED-Pop-Mechanics

That is what I usually see in articles about lamp spectra. There is no way a CFL gives off comparable color compared to other sources. If you Google you will find more of the same.

On a similar note, Home Depot, at least by me, has a display showing 3 different lamp color temperatures. You place your hands under a light to see how they look in warm, cool, or daylight lighting. The bulbs are not all the same type, IOW they use incandescent, CFL & LED. But it does give you an idea how color temperature affects what you see.

What I’ve read & tried, is using a daylight temperature bulb if you’re trying to figure out if those dark socks you have are black or dark blue. A warm color bulb does not have enough blue in it, so you need a daylight bulb or take your socks over to the window to get some natural daylight, presuming it’s daytime of course. A daylight bulb would be good in a walk-in closet but a warm lamp would usually be better in a living room.

Post 13 came to the conclusion that CFL's look good and work great for photography. It also said that RGB LED's suck.

Our interpretation of the machines say that CFL's put too much light out at RGB but that to people they look great.

That, my friend, is a matter of opinion ..

"Look great" is a matter of subjectivity. "Look great" to whom?

In my humble opinion, they are horrible. The light they give off is so incredibly offensive. They strobe several times per second and cause headaches, nervous system issues and eventually people just snap and shoot up a whole building full of people.

Actually it's a matter of science. There is a property of illumination known as 'Color Rendering Index' and most garden variety fluorescent bulbs rate pretty low. Here's a chart from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index


Edit: Also of note from that same article:

If you see the bulbs strobe then they are defective. Maybe you bought a really bad batch of bulbs and that is why you are saying such crazy things.

No, it's not something you can see, it happens to many times per second, like interlaced TV.

It isn't a matter of science, I can say they look like hell and you can day they look great. What you were pointing out isn't a study of how great they look, it was a study of the degrees Kelvin the various lights are.

That doesn't speak for how natural the light looks to me or you.

Opinion.

I disagree. The LED bulbs I have all look great.

They strobe something like 20k times a second. Once again if you can see this then your bulbs are defective. I have trouble believing that this gives people headaches. 60hz fluorescent tubes give me headaches so I believe that(newer ballasts are 20khz or so).

I like daylight bulbs, as far as seeing the difference in the light of CFL vs incandescent, they look the same to me. The idea that CFL's will make you go crazy and shoot people is just another ridiculous statement from you. Any proof?

I heard CFL's in a bunker killed Saddam Hussein.

I've never seen so much cfl hate, very impressive

- Reporting suggests that fluorescence lighting in contrast to incandescent light aggravate the symptoms of dyslexia. Probably the main problems are caused by UV radiation and blue light, emitted by cool white tubes (Irlen method 2008).


Neurological:
Headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, memory loss,
irritability, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, weakness, tremors, muscle spasms,
numbness, tingling, altered reflexes, muscle and joint paint, leg/foot pain, flu-like
symptoms, fever. More severe reactions can include seizures, paralysis, psychosis and
stroke

"My son was extremely agitated when I used them in his bedroom lamp, because it too runs hot so, I used CFL's in there. Until I figured it out, he couldn't sleep, he was moody, agitated and aggressive. Once I did some research and figured out what it might be, I quickly replaced his light bulbs with regular ones and instantly, he was back to 'normal'. That was the end of CFL's in our house. So I continued to do more research on CFL's and discovered some things that disturbed me."

Personal experience of this woman, myself, and everyone with problems adjusting to the light including PSYCHOSIS which could cause a person to shoot up a building http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/11/harrisburg_man_who_murdered_hi.html could very well just be reason to leave the things on the shelf at the store and buy something more healthy.

The government has done all this research and still chooses to subsidize them (EPA Report posted earlier [for example]). Something tells me they like America medicated..

Did you post a meaningful link that I missed?

UV radiation and blue light both come from the sun, btw.

I am not going to do your research. I'm just giving you facts and snippets.

Honestly, there are about 1000 sites I could give you a link to that say that CFL's are dangerous.


You know how many that say that they are totally safe? ZERO.

Do you know how many cases of psychosis have been linked to CFL's? ZERO.

How many cases of anything beyond cuts from glass have been linked to CFL's? ZERO. Prove me wrong.

What kind of light bulb is totally safe? NONE. LED's maybe.

I've replaced 1/2 the halogens in my kitchen and master bathroom with LEDs. I have tried three different brands of LEDs, and finally settled on the one with the best color. It's indistinguishable from the halogen, and they are less than $9 each. These are GU10 bulbs, which are more of a challenge to design in an LED than a bulb shape. So, on the same ceiling in the same room, there are LEDs and halogens side-by-side. It should be obvious if there were any differences.

I've compared my bulb halogens (all Pharox brand) with incandescent and there's virtually zero difference. Even friends that can't stand CFLs have agreed they would use these in their house. I can't speak for other brand of bulb style LEDs, because I haven't tried them. Unfortunately Pharox is no longer selling in the USA, too bad. When they would put the bulbs on sale for $25 for 5 and free shipping, I would order a bunch. I am down to zero incandescent bulbs, 1/2 CFLs and 1/2 LEDs. I much prefer the LEDs.

Anybody have a good source for reasonably priced dimable (via existing dimmer switch) LED puck or similar under cabinet lighting?

To each their own I guess. I have no problem with them, and my kitchen is cooler with only 1/2 of those halogens gone.

I bought a couple of the Philips AmbientLED, 60W equivalent, 805 lumens, 2690K temperature bulbs. I had an LED & an incandescent in matching table lamps about 5 feet apart. Not that I could tell the difference between 2690K and 2700K warm light, but the LED is a tiny bit warmer looking than the 60W incandescent. Most LEDs that I've seen are 3000K so perhaps this particular Philips model is one of the exceptions.