3 ms·

Yes because you could heat the room with gas heating, which is about 3x cheaper. And if you are in an area that uses a lot of gas/coal in the electric generatio

Yes because you could heat the room with gas heating, which is about 3x cheaper. And if you are in an area that uses a lot of gas/coal in the electric generation, then you will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions too. Or you could run a heat pump, that wins about a factor of 5. I learned this from this excellent resource: https://www.withouthotair.com/ https://www.withouthotair.com/ There's an argument that

PeterStuer 9y ago
So you're saying 'it depends' on the differential in methods for producing electricity versus your other heating sources, which makes sense. If I have a solar roof for the electricity, vs an oil from fracking powered heating solution, then the lightbulb's 'waste' heat would certainly be preferable. Part of the reason for asking in the first place is because I'm quite sensitive to the light quality as produced by an incandescent bulb, preferring it vastly over even the most 'modern' 'energy saver' bulbs.
- abainbridge 9y ago
  Yes. And I think there's some benefit to the planet from incandescent bulbs being a simple and cheap technology to manufacture (although I have no justification for this belief). Anyhow, I agree about incandescent bulbs being nice. I never found a CFL I was happy with. The Philips LED bulbs are very good though: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Bayonet-Light-Bulb-Frosted/dp/B01KHILBIE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Bayonet-Light-Bulb-Frosted/... They don't flicker (and I'm someone infuriated by PWM'd lights on modern cars). They achieve full brightness instantly. The colour temperature and spectral rendering index is good. They are much more reliable than some similar unbranded bulbs I've seen (about 15 such bulbs were installed in my kitchen area at work. They fail at a rate of about one per month, in a manor consistent with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Pemtc3Uhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Pemtc3Uhw). They do cost £9 for two though. They'll need to run for about 500 hours to pay for themselves (vs incandescent). I reckon the first one I bought has run for about 2500 hours by now.
  - PhantomGremlin 9y ago
    The older Philips LED bulbs were very high quality. Dimmable, no flicker, power factor corrected. Here's a youtube teardown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKAub54sLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKAub54sLU Compare the internal circuitry with the youtube video you linked to. Yours were a cheaper design. No wonder the bulbs failed so quickly. Nowadays Philips seem to be selling both a higher quality and a lower quality bulb in each wattage. To me the purchase price isn't an issue. I have a few places where I run bulbs 15 or 20 hrs a day. So moving from 60 W to 10 W in those locations made an incredible cost savings. Where I am in the USA, a 1 W load on continuously costs $1/yr. So saving 50 W in a location that's on about 80% of the time saves me $40/yr in electricity. For just one bulb.
- dwild 9y ago
  I'm pretty sure you don't need to generate more heat in the summer though, so that's still a loss there.
  - PeterStuer 9y ago
    No, you could switch to led outside the heating season.
usmanshaikh06 9y ago
Recently Fully Charged published a video on Heat pipes. How its 400% efficient(if you measure in terms of heat units added or removed from the house) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWgkl7W9xU0&t=623s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWgkl7W9xU0&t=623s

PeterStuer 9y ago

So you're saying 'it depends' on the differential in methods for producing electricity versus your other heating sources, which makes sense. If I have a solar roof for the electricity, vs an oil from fracking powered heating solution, then the lightbulb's 'waste' heat would certainly be preferable. Part of the reason for asking in the first place is because I'm quite sensitive to the light quality as produced by an incandescent bulb, preferring it vastly over even the most 'modern' 'energy saver' bulbs.

abainbridge 9y ago
Yes. And I think there's some benefit to the planet from incandescent bulbs being a simple and cheap technology to manufacture (although I have no justification for this belief). Anyhow, I agree about incandescent bulbs being nice. I never found a CFL I was happy with. The Philips LED bulbs are very good though: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Bayonet-Light-Bulb-Frosted/dp/B01KHILBIE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Bayonet-Light-Bulb-Frosted/... They don't flicker (and I'm someone infuriated by PWM'd lights on modern cars). They achieve full brightness instantly. The colour temperature and spectral rendering index is good. They are much more reliable than some similar unbranded bulbs I've seen (about 15 such bulbs were installed in my kitchen area at work. They fail at a rate of about one per month, in a manor consistent with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Pemtc3Uhw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Pemtc3Uhw). They do cost £9 for two though. They'll need to run for about 500 hours to pay for themselves (vs incandescent). I reckon the first one I bought has run for about 2500 hours by now.
- PhantomGremlin 9y ago
  The older Philips LED bulbs were very high quality. Dimmable, no flicker, power factor corrected. Here's a youtube teardown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKAub54sLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWKAub54sLU Compare the internal circuitry with the youtube video you linked to. Yours were a cheaper design. No wonder the bulbs failed so quickly. Nowadays Philips seem to be selling both a higher quality and a lower quality bulb in each wattage. To me the purchase price isn't an issue. I have a few places where I run bulbs 15 or 20 hrs a day. So moving from 60 W to 10 W in those locations made an incredible cost savings. Where I am in the USA, a 1 W load on continuously costs $1/yr. So saving 50 W in a location that's on about 80% of the time saves me $40/yr in electricity. For just one bulb.
dwild 9y ago
I'm pretty sure you don't need to generate more heat in the summer though, so that's still a loss there.
- PeterStuer 9y ago
  No, you could switch to led outside the heating season.

usmanshaikh06 9y ago

Recently Fully Charged published a video on Heat pipes. How its 400% efficient(if you measure in terms of heat units added or removed from the house) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWgkl7W9xU0&t=623s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWgkl7W9xU0&t=623s