Australia to Ban Old - Style Light Bulbs

[Xyzzy]

Fluorescents would make a big difference there.

Didn't he invent fluorescent bulbs?

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

It seems ironic that we are talking about saving electricity when we have all these computers running distributed computing projects 24x7.

... rather than running all those distributed projects on pencil, paper and mechanical calculators with candlelight illumination, for instance.

[davieddy]

I've just moved into a place with gas heating instead of
electric. When I get my gas bill I will decide how much of
the heat generated by my lightbulbs and computer I am paying
too much for.

[Jeff Gilchrist]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

It's not that hard to find, just search for dimmer switch cfl on Google, first result is:

Thanks, Google is my friend. I guess I should have said that I have "heard" they exist but I have never been able to find any up here before. Maybe I can special-order them from the US somewhere.

[moo]

Originally Posted by Jeff Gilchrist

Are there or will there be CF bulbs that *can* be used with a dimmer switch?

I think our bathroom right now has 8 incandescent bulbs on a dimmer switch. The rest of our house has CF, so I think when those 8 are running at full blast it is using more electricity than all of our other lights combined.

I can help with this one I have been looking at toying around with this sort of stuff and what you are looking for is dimmable ballasts there are a few kinds
the old analog ones use a 10 volt system on the control so the lower the voltage on the line the more its dimmed

now this is great and all but you have to go though having a power supply and wiring up the lamps and what not but there is a simpler method its called dali and it is a digital system that relies on 2 control lines what nice is they make a range of dali controllers i have found one for Ethernet control of the circuit and even dmx control so if you want a light wall that pulses with music lol....

here are a few links but i will warn you dali ballasts cost considerably more around 100 dollars I'm guessing, though I'm not totally sure.

Links::
http://www.universalballast.com/tech...02-Install.pdf
http://www.plantservices.com/articles/2004/110.html
http://www.automatedbuildings.com/ne...views/dali.htm
http://www.srmi.biz/Tips.Lighting.DA...ng_control.htm
heres is that ethernet controller / psu for dali circut http://www.starfieldcorp.com/pdf/specsheets/RT03.pdf
http://www.irf.com/technical-info/whitepaper/tp4-9.pdf
http://www.universalballast.com/prod...t/fl_dimm.html

hope all that helps -_-

[akruppa]

Originally Posted by Jeff Gilchrist

Are there or will there be CF bulbs that *can* be used with a dimmer switch?

I know there is one by Osram, called Dulux EL DIM, and afaik there are many others by other manufacturers. You can simply put them in the socket connected to the dimmer switch and they "just work." They are more expensive than simple non-dimmable CFLs (unsurprisingly), afaik the Osram one costs ~25€, and you need to look around a bit to find them offered anywhere.

However, dimming CFLs this way is a bit silly... the dimmer switch uses phase cutting, whereas the electronic ballast tries to keep a constant current through the ionized gas. So with phase-cut supply, the ballast will have a harder time generating the correct voltage (afaik ~100-150V, so it may have to transform up), needs to guess by the cut angle what the desired brightness setting is, and regulate the current through the gas accordingly. From a technical point of view, dimmerable ballasts with 10V or DALI interface, as moo pointed out, are the Right Way to do it, but the installation cost is higher.

Alex

[moo]

Correct but the advantages of dali circuits are more control with scenes unfortunately i have not found any whole house lighting systems that i like lutron is ok but its very proprietary and there was a stage lighting one but that requires dedicated circuit runs.
dali is nice because you just feed 120 volts to the ballast and it regulates for you.

dali uses 4 wires
2 are for power 120/208 and 2 for control the controls are non polarized and i believe can be fed any way

dali from what i have heard is not good for stage stuff due to being slightly slow and the circuit have a maximum size.
that controller with the ethernet port is the power supply and a controller/programmer its meant for larger building installs.

i have found dali to dmx controllers which is kind of nice.

[Jeff Gilchrist]

Thanks for all the comments. Looks like for now we are on hold because my wife doesn't want to see "twist" bulbs in the bathroom, she likes her globes and so far I have only see CF twist bulbs or flood lights that support dimming.

We don't have those lights on for very long anyway so not a huge deal.