Si wrote:
In message , Peter Parry
writes
On Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:49:23 GMT, Mike Scott
wrote:

Shame about the dimmers in other rooms
though: are there dimmable low-power lights around?

Sort of, but as you dim them the colour rendering, which isn't
particularly good to begin with, gets badly skewed and the resulting
output tends to be shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum
creating exactly the opposite effect to the one you want.

You presumably have measured this Peter. My human experience of dimming
my 70W CFL is that the colour balance is reddish when first switched on,
becomes more neutral as it warm up, and having got to temp' doesn't
change as it's dimmed.

The very best CFLs I have installed will at 17W just about match a 60W
ordinary bulb, but are nowhere near as good as a 50W halogen.


The 11W devices are practically useless.

I reckon at best a real life gain of 3:1 on energy.

If they don't pop in the first few months, they seem to last better than
bulbs, true. I have put them in a lot of places that are sub
critical..outside lights mainly.