[Tig] bulbs for the home

[woz]

>>  I first used them in my outside light housings. Almost no useful
>> light

>> came out, as due to the different dimensions
>> compared with ordinary incandescent bulbs
>> the source of the light was now well in the roof of the lamp housing

A few things here;

The light output of these low power lamps is significantly reduced when they 
are not up to temperature, In the home this can be a couple of minutes, but 
outside on a cold evening it can take a lot longer, so the first impression 
one has on swich on, is that they aren't very good at what they are supposed 
to do.

It's sometimes possible without much effort to modify the reflector and 
reposition the lamp to some degree to overcome the dimensional problem, and 
the lamps are available in a variety of shapes.

What I can't understand is why no one seems to make substitutes for the most 
common domestic reflectors such as R50, R63 and R80's, the available fluoro 
lamps look awful in those fittings.

The green picture is not as simple as it's painted, there is a large 
non-green overhead in the manufacture and disposal of the low power fluoros, 
as they contain toxic electronic components.

In my opinion, saving with dichroic halogens, which are still quite 
fashionable is a myth. Inevitably in a good installation the light is 
pleasant and comfortable (and I've seen many bad ones with much glare!), but 
although halogens provide more light output per watt  compared with standard 
incandescents, people put more of them in, usually too many.

As an observation the people who get the biggest savings, and do the least 
green damage are those who don't illuminate a whole room so they can sit 
down and watch tv or read a book, they have a local lamp illuminating the 
parts they need to see.

Can anyone tell me if there is a dimmable fluoro with which my present 
dimmers will work ok?

I really can't understand why there doesn't seem to be the same degree of 
interest in tumble driers, which use about 40 times as much power as 
standard light bulb (per unit of time used of course).

woz