Finally some decent lights

Spent the afternoon taking my old video camera apart – a TRV15E. The tape mechanism was ‘stuck’. Winding it by hand a few times then doing it under motor power seemed to free it up. Was able to find schematics and mechanical diagrams on the internet, which was kind of cool.
Wasn’t quite so lucky with the tape, which kept shearing. After a few sellotape joins, I decided to take the tape apart and wind it by hand. Wasn’t much better, though I could notice the shear starting and try to do something about it before the tape broke. Didn’t realise the 8mm tapes were that fragile – was worse than dealing with old Super8 film (and anybody who’s ever had to fix a projector will know that they’re anything but delicate).

As for the lights, I avoided the little fluo types because I hated the ambient colour. They were blue and cold and actually gave food a sickly green hue that made it unappetising. I liked the redish orange tones of a tungsten bulb, so the main light in my room was one of the last proper tungsten bulbs it is possible to buy – a 40W oven bulb. There was a 60W in the ceiling mounted light socket, but I tried not to use that much. And by my bed, a 12V halogen bulb.

They’ve finally come up with decent looking LED bulbs. Not weird colours, sufficiently bright as to be useful, and with a good colour temperature (2700K).

The 60W bulb in the ceiling is now a 6W bulb. The 40W bulb in my desk lamp is now a 4W bulb. The 20W (@12V) bulb is now a 1.5W bulb. These bulbs also claim ~15 years with 2h45m use per day and 20,000 on/off cycles (probably because they just don’t get hot). Realistically, one should expect half that – so around seven years. Which is about six years longer than I’d expect from a normal lightbulb, or around seven years longer than I’d expect from one of those god-awful “halogen bulb inside a normal bulb” types.

So I can have all the lights on, write this on my Pi with the old flat screen monitor, and charge my phone while it is playing music, and run the WiFi connected printer (not that RISC OS can use it) and it’ll all be using less power than turning on the PC!

Whoo.

They’ve finally come up with decent looking LED bulbs.

Ah – if only you’d expressed more interest in my downstairs toilet 8 years ago! – cutting edge!

Tho’ what you might have videoed there I cannot even start to imagine!

Sorry – just taking the p**s.

Here in UK Irene ordered and received a bathroom (!) light fitting using halogen bulbs which I judged would use more than the rest of the house put together!

It went back!

You can even get LED replacement tubes for the old 4 foot fluorescent tubes – they come with a replacement “starter” but use the existing ballast as the current limiter so they’re a drop-in replacement. Magic – 15W instead of 58, no flicker, slightly brighter and a better colour. We have two in the kitchen, one in my playroom (office, den, cave, call it what you will) and one similar (but not replacing a fluorescent tube) over Grace’s sofa (replacing an old SAD lamp – she misses the Indian Sun…sadly there’s no UV at all in LED light, but the light is enough to lift the mood if not generate any Vitamin D).

The rest of the house is now almost entirely 9W LED bulbs (replacing 13W compact fluorescents, which replaced 100W incandescents). I’ve not replaced the 12V halogens in the shower room yet, because I’ve not found LEDS that match both the fittings and the 12V AC supply. I’ll probably have to replace the supply with a proper LED driver supply.

And the attic, where lighting was always a problem because of limited headroom, now has stick-on-the-surface LED strips – more magic!

sadly there’s no UV at all in LED light,

I’ve noticed the latest generation of bug zappers use UV LEDs instead of those blue light tubes. Maybe it might be worth looking to see if anybody has made an LED UV lamp to counteract SAD?

if only you’d expressed more interest in my downstairs toilet 8 years ago! – cutting edge!

Yup, I remember you saying about how efficient your light was. I also remember it was so dark with the light on that I pegged it as one of those tube bulbs that takes forever to reach optimal brightness… ;-)

Is a lamp that produces no light at all, but which consumes no electricity at all either, 100% efficient, or 0% efficient, something in between, or even something competely outside that range??

a lamp that produces no light at all

I’d just call that “defective” :)

a lamp that produces no light at all

Not a lamp?

Is a lamp that produces no light at all

Lamp ‘light’?

Turned off?

Is a lamp that produces no light at all, but which consumes no electricity at all either, 100% efficient, or 0% efficient, something in between, or even something competely outside that range??

Division by zero.

Efficiency is output divided by input. If the input is zero…

David: yes, exactly. Efficiency in this case is 0/0, that is, undefined.

Efficiency in this case is 0/0, that is, undefined.

Ah – Schrödinger’s efficiency. It’s either really good or really bad. You won’t know until the bill comes…

Hmmm. The bill, in respect of this lamp at least, should be just the standing charge.

Ah, yes, I see what you mean.