"Andy" wrote in message
...

"Phil L" wrote in message
.uk...
Ev wrote:
"Dave Fawthrop" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:45:50 GMT, "The3rd Earl Of Derby"
wrote:

pmsl.

New gov policies...
The green tax code

I expect that all they will do is to tax incandescent bulbs off the
market.
As I saw low energy bulbs this week at 99 p each, this will be easy.

Even though I consider myself to be fairly eco-friendly, I absolutely
hate these useless CFLs. The specs say that they are equivalent to
100W incandescents but I think they are dismal and completely
inadequate.

Thy are if you don't give them five minutes to warm up, for those five
minutes it's like being in a cave.


Not just that, if you're walking out of the living room into the hall and
up the stairs etc, the CF lamps are just too slow for the purpose. Same
with the loo, you often need good light in the loo yet only need it for a
short while and having to hang about while the lamp warms up can be a
drag. The same can be said of kitchens etc.

I also have a 25W pygmy lamp in my understairs cupboard, I appreciate the
fact it comes on instantaneously to full brightness as I usually can get
what I was looking for ( beer ) in only two or three seconds.

Question: how come the strip fluorescents in my kitchen come on with only
a 2 second-odd delay to a decent initial brightness, whereas compacts are
so much slower?

I was once told that fluorescent tubes use the same amount of power during
start-up as they do in 45mins normal running time. In other words, in power
terms it's not worth switching on or off a fluorescent tube unless it will
be on/off for at least 45 minutes. Does this apply to CFL's too? How much
power do they consume before they're up to full output?

Peter


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