Re: CFL's and X-10

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Ian Shef" <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9AC67A33EC838vaj4088ianshef@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Bobby Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> news:Yq-dnaK2h4iHrMPVnZ2dnUVZ_gqdnZ2d@xxxxxxx:
>
> > <jawladar@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >
news:de0efdbe-d3cb-42bc-adab-fc6f24d411f5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <SNIP>
> > I understand CFL save lots of bucks, and I use them where possible, and
> > I appreciate the tip but I'd really rather have the HE incandescents
> > that
> >
> > 1) don't afflict my X-10 gear,
> > 2) don't darken considerably over time,
> > 3) don't care if they're cycled on and off by a motion detector,
> > 4) don't care if they're installed base up or down,
> > 5) dim at least two or three steps on X-10 without buzzing
> > 6) don't cause "relighting" or "flickering after turnoff" problems
> > 7) didn't have even a teensy weensy bit of mercury in them  (-:
>
> I want to add one to this list.  Living in the desert, I have nine ceiling
> fans in my house.  I have been using CFLs in the lamp assembly for some of
> them.  In this application, the CFLs are pointed downward at an angle, are
> subjected to any vibration from the fan, and have a service life no better
> (and maybe worse) than an incandescent bulb.  Thus:
>
> 8) Don't become unreliable in common household applications such as in
> ceiling fans.

I also should add another one at the request of my wife:  9) that they fail
benignly, without filling a room with acrid burning plastic smell and smoke.
While I realize that they aren't going to catch fire, and that electrically
speaking a CFL failure is a lot less likely to blow a circuit breaker than a
tungsten bulb, my wife is very sensitive to burning smells and the CFLs
really spook her.

That reminds me of a pet peeve: CFL bulbs that say "remove by grasping
plastic base, never by glass tube" as if there's ever been enough ROOM in a
standard lamp head to get your fingers and the bulb's electronics bay in
there at the same time.   Hopefully, in a few years, the big bulb makers
will be able to develop incandescent bulbs that convert the IR portion of
the light back to visible light and HE tungsten bulbs can be used in all the
places that CFL's have problems.  Or maybe universally as CFL's flicker on
into history with the eight track tape machine.

--
Bobby G.