Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Clive Mitchell writes:

Halogen lamps are MORE efficient than common lamps but less efficient
than compact fluorescent lamps.

The lamps themselves are, but lighting a room by indirect light
reflected off the floor is horribly inefficient. It's common to
find a kitchen with 500W of halogen downlighters that has a much
lower level of illumination everywhere that matters than you
get from hanging a 60W lamp in the middle of the room.


Hear hear. Halogen downlighter installs are horribly expensive to run.
Fitting standard filament bulbs wil gain nothing. Replacing the
fittings with CFL downlighters will improve things by a factor of 3 or
so, but will still not be energy efficient.

If you want sane running costs, you need to change away from
downlighters. A wall mounted spotlight fitted with a CFL bulb and
pointed upwards makes a fairly good uplighter. A couple of those are
enough for a small room, as one can only really fit 40w equivalent cfls
in them. Spots, pendants, bowls etc can all be mounted on ceilings too.
The trick is to point them at the white ceiling, not the carpet. CFL
lighting is the most economical option, so forget anything not CFL
compatible. For pendant shades, pick white and make sure the shade is
washable.

If you're adding new lights, use a switchbank, each light on its own
switch. Payback is typically within a year.


NT