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What will you do about compact fluorescent lights?
Im interested in people's experiences in lighting their historic homes with compact fluorescent lighting and how it has worked for them.
These are the most godawful lights I have ever seen (even the warm tone, expensive ones). All the colors in the rooms look ugly with them.
Other stories welcome.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken the Old House Guy on -
There really is not that much information out there on light bulbs - at least the information I like to see. I have Sears Catalogs etc and the pages or info on light bulbs are always missing. My best source is old movies. For instance the bulbs that would go into a chandelier or wall sconce from 1920 until 1938 are rounded and frosted and look like a golf ball with a point on top. They actually look like a 1960's vanity bulb. The average person would not think these lights are authentic. I originally did not think frosted bulbs were available until the later 20's.
The dates I have of 1920-1938 are apx. I just need to check out some 1939 etc movies to narrow it down and see when the pointed bulbs began. Need to find out the wattage too.
Ken
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Permalink Reply by dawn mohrbacher on -
Early lane fox bulbs were pointed (1882) but I think the first bulbs made to really mimic that shape on purpose would be the McCandless bulbs sold in 1900. They were probably the first that look like a typical incandescent of today.
(I have a bit of a fascination with lightbulbs after having not purchased a home I wanted just for its electric...tube style lightbulbs....fireplace from the 19teens). I wanted that fireplace so bad I can still see it clearly in my mind after voice years lol. It came with two cases of the antique bulbs...which were not worth the extra half a million the old gal wanted for the house over its value unfortunately.
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Runaas on
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I couldn't agree more. I consider myself a very "green minded" individual, but green the way my Grandmother was. To paraphrase her way of looking at going green, it was to "do it once, do it right, keep it up and it will never have to be replaced." Why did the hand mixer I got as a wedding present 3 years ago burn out, while the 1940s Hamilton Beach mixer I just got at an estate auction still hums like it is brand new? That is certainly not green. Nor, in my opinion, is replacing a completely safe, inert object such as a light bulb with something arguably dangerous (chemicals, fires, etc) CFLs. Good thing I have friends in Canada, maybe in a few years they can start smuggling me light bulbs...
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Permalink Reply by desiree mccrorey on -
PStewart wrote:" I don't want to go on and on in one post. Suffice to say the story behind how we got to the cfl law is one of the uglier stories I've learned about in American politics and how the green movement was co-opted by large corporations banning bulbs with little profit margins in favor of ones with significant profit margins."
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I would not at all be surprised by that. Not at all.
I've bought dozens of incandescent bulbs from ebay for several reasons; the primary one being I don't like the strange CFL light. Secondly, my cats like sleeping under a steady warm source. The only safe source like that in my house is the incandescent light fixtures I've set up for them.
I use CFLs, incandescents and LEDs, but I am quite annoyed with the whole lighting situation. Incandescents' longevity is in the toilet, CFLs radiate ugly light and a lot of the ones I've bought don't last either, LEDs are outrageously expensive and are either not bright enough or give off very harsh light.
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Permalink Reply by PStewart on -
You are probably aware that originally, incandescant light lasted thousands and thousands more hours than the current 1000. It has to do with the thickness and properties of the filament. If you read up on the Phoebus cartel in teh 1920s you will see how the light bulb industry fixed the market so planned obsolescence was baked in.
I hate consipracy theories and find most of them laughable. This one is actually true.
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Permalink Reply by Phil on -
My parents have matching exposed-bulb fixtures in their 1925 living room. The fancy bulbs that have always been used in them left the market in the 1970s and by 1980 their stash was dwindling. So my dad bought some little disks from Brookstone that you put between the bulb and the base that were supposed to lengthen light bulb life. I think that only one bulb has burned out in the last 30 years of daily use! Not sure how they work, but they somehow cut the flow of electricity to the bulbs, making them 1/2 as bright. Regular low wattage bulbs don't necessarily last longer, though, so my anecdotal hypothesis has always been that thick filaments are probably less efficient at transferring electricity to lumens, and bulb makers must thin them down as the wattage is lowered, but my parents are designed for 40 or 60 watts and are maybe only drawing 20, hence the long life. But, I really know nothing about the science behind it, so it is all just a guess.
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Permalink Reply by Franz on
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The science is simple, the small disk contains a diode. The diode blocks half of the ACwave going to the bulb and wastes it off to heat in the socket.
What people fail to realize is the majority of incandescents are manufactured to operate on 110 volts as they were in 1940, and the majority of US PoCos have long since upgraded to a standard of 125 volts.
Until wonderful politicians saved Earth by repealing the Laws of Physics 125 volt lamps were still manufactured and sold.
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Runaas on
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This thread made me think, and so I did some (brief, lazy, why don't I google this) research on diodes to increase bulb life. Found this thread from 2005 that explains it pretty well: http://www.electronicspoint.com/diode-series-light-bulb-t8645.html
To summarize, basically it is possible to wire a diode into a light's wiring (no need to buy special sockets, etc, just an appropriately sized diode). The downsides mentioned on the site are:
Reduced efficiency of the light bulbs (you use less power overall, but you get an even larger decrease of light)
Difference of color spectrum (more red) which actually would make the quality of light a little more "authentic" for our antique homes (eg, more like an Edison bulb).
Light bulbs will flicker, which may be bothersome. One possible suggestion was to simply wire fixtures with even numbers of bulbs to have opposite polarities so the flickers cancel each other out, as in wire two diodes to filter positive, two to filter negative. No suggestions for if you have three bulbs in a fixture :)
Sounds like something I'll have to look into...
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Permalink Reply by Ken the Old House Guy on
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My earlier post about round frosted light bulbs being used in chandeliers and wall sconces was wrong. I was using old movies as my guide. Apparently there were pointed bulbs on the market in 1920 - guess the movie sets did not use them until 1940.
Here is a link to a catalog from 1920.
http://www.archive.org/stream/LightingEquipment/CCA67236#page/n1/mo...
Regarding the reproduction bulbs being sold - does anyone know if they are accurate reproductions? Do they give off the correct wattage/ brightness and color tone for the period?
Ken
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Permalink Reply by Franz on
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The pointed DARK bulbs shown in the catalog survived a long time.
Mainly thy survived because people removed them from fixtures and stored them because they cost a lot of money, probably twice the cost of a standard bulb of the same wattage. Many were still in the warehouses of electrical distributors in the 60s on the "if there is a god we'll sell them some day shelves".
They were produced in clear, white and a terrible shade between orange & brown. General Electric Guides of the 50s, a 2" thick hardbound full line catalog showing everything short of locomotives, nomenclatured the DARK bulb as Candella.
The only candlelike quality of the DARK bulb was the shape of the envelope. In the 60s a shortline bulb manufacturer came to market with a clear enveloped bulb similar in shape that featured an iron filament that offered a much closer representation of a flickering candle. Those wholesaled around 5 bucks a bulb. They also produced about as many lumens as a birthday cake candle.
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Permalink Reply by Franz on
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Accidental discovery this week,
Anyone looking for the candleflame shaped clear light bulbs will find them in both mazda and candella base available at Dollar General.
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