OT: Dimmable CFL

Well I wonder why a lot of city and county road departments switching to LED or installing new LED didn't hear about "the droop"?

I have a set of LED stage lights consisting of reg green and blue LEDs. They're pretty bright and can take the place of smaller PAR setups. The blue LEDs are not flashlight style blue but just plain blue like in a primary color. When they are all on high intensity they do all combine to form a white-ish light suitable for stage. And they can be programmed to do all sorts of patterns. I doubt that this droop is much of a consideration when you use three primary colors to make white light. I do have some 3 watt flashlight LEDs and really haven't notice any droop. The devices look like they are well built and sinked.

Because they're not using blue LEDs.

Regardless, LEDs last much longer than incandescent lamps, and are substantially more efficient, "droop" or not. So they come out ahead.

Sadly I want decent quality light in my home. And no LED I've found yet gives this. They can't seem to give a true daylight which would be fine for some purposes - or a reasonable imitation of tungsten for that 'warm' lighting when required. Good quality fluorescent can though - but the choice of CFLs is too limited at the moment to compete well with that.

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    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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No, not yet. Give 'em time.

I don't know. The $2 CFLs I get at Home Despot are terrific. The basic balance is on the warm side, with no hint of blue or green. Though spec'd at

10K hours, they last about 2K. Which makes the purchase price no different than incandescent lamps.

One way to get "warm" light is to use an appropriate shade. Three of mine are mounted in Ikea glass "bullet" hanging fixtures, the fourth in Ikea's cheap floor lamp. These shades add warmth. I also have two, without shades, in the bath, on the "light bar" over the sink. Their unfiltered light is, to my eyes, close to neutral, and definitely more pleasing the color of "warm" conventional fluorescents in my kitchen.

Did I mention that they come on at more-than-useful brightness instantly, and come to full brightness in about 30 seconds?

I don't know what everyone is complaining about. You can get really good, cheap CFLs right now.

What more do you want?

They've actually had quite a lot. Bit like batteries for cars - we're still waiting for one which compares favourably to a tank of petrol, and billions have been spent on research.

It's not so much the perceived colour, but more what its light does to other colours like paint etc. Due to the spectrum being non continuous or spikey. Of course tungsten alters colours too compared to daylight but in a more subtle way.

There is a vast range of fluorescents available - although not in all tube sizes. The basic white and warm white are generally poor.

;-) At the moment I only use them for outdoor lighting and cupboards. The latter because one of our energy companies supplied them free...

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*I didn\'t drive my husband crazy -- I flew him there -- it was faster

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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I hope I don't sound unduly sarcastic when I ask... You're /that/ bothered by metamerism?

I guess I'll have to photograph my Gretag-Macbeth chart under both the cheapos (with and without shades) and the Lowell ego light (which is supposed to give 90% "accurate" rendering), and see what happens. The latter gives (to my eyes) essentially perfect rendition. (Yes, my monitor is calibrated.)

No - only if a colour I like changes into one I don't under artificial light.

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*Rehab is for quitters

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
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