"D Yuniskis" wrote in message
...
Hi Arfa,

Arfa Daily wrote:
I have now found an internet site selling all varieties of incandescents,
including 60 watt pearl, so I shall be stocking up post

puzzled Can't you (still) purchase these over-the-counter?
I'll admit to not having gone shopping for any recently (as I
have several dozen of various bulb types on the shelf) but
i didn't realize they have (?) disappeared...


In theory, they have this side of the pond. There was EU legislation put in
place - that our government of course felt it necessary to sign up to -
which phased out incandescent bulbs with a pearl diffuse envelope. 60
watters were to be the first to go, followed by 100s. Clear envelopes
however, were to remain available, at least for the time being. So all of
the supermarkets and sheds stopped selling 60 watt pearl bulbs, ahead of the
'ban' to make sure that they complied, and were not left with cartloads of
unsellable items on their hands. However, as I understand it, due to a
governmental administrative snafu, the actual legislation was never enacted
in the UK, leaving the way wide open for internet sellers, to just carry on
as they were, and take full advantage of people's natural tendencies to
stock up. I guess that the supermarkets etc have not restocked to make sure
that a) they don't catch a cold if the situation suddenly changes, and b)
they don't look bad that they've sold out on their eco-bollox credibility
ratings.



(which also makes me wonder if lead solder has gone this route)



No, not really. Standard leaded solder has disappeared from all commercially
available electronic equipment, with the exception of classes of items such
as avionics, life support, and military (draw your own conclusions on this)
which have been granted dispensations to continue to manufacture in leaded
technology. This has been the case since June 2006 when the RoHS directive
came into full operation. However, there is no requirement for equipment
manufactured and brought to market before that date, and perfectly legally
constructed using non RoHS compliant materials, including solder, to be
repaired using anything other than originally specified non-compliant parts
and solder. Indeed, it is considered to be not particularly metallurgically
good to mix the two types of technology. There is also no requirement for
items constructed for your personal use, and not to be offered for resale,
to be constructed with lead-free parts and solder. For these reasons,
traditional 60/40 solder is still readily available from all the usual parts
supply houses, and is expected to continue to be for the foreseeable future.



haste. I have also just started trying out the halogen versions of
traditional light bulbs, which still seem to make it into the eco-bollox
"book of energy savers", even though they only consume a few watts less
than their equivalent light-output 'traditional' tungsten cousins. Thus

I found the halogens to be a harsh light. Love them outdoors
(can you spell "bright as day"?) but I've removed all of the
indoor bulbs.


Really ? I have found the light to be perfectly pleasant, if perhaps a
little bright. Maybe that is your interpretation of "harsh" ?



far, I am impressed. I now have a 70 watt actual, 100 watt equivalent,
fitted to my hallway main light fixture. It is very bright, very easy
(for me anyway) to see by, and has a good colour spectrum, not in the
slightest way offensive to my eyes, unlike the CFLs, which no matter how
much anyone says that *they* can't tell the difference with, *I* can ...
d :-\

We're waiting for dimmable LED lamps (that won't require growing
extra limbs to purchase)...

Although like CFLs, they do seem to be getting a little better, I've yet to
see any that come close to other lighting technologies. My local supermarket
has a number of floodlight fixtures for the car park, split between wall and
pole mounts. Until a couple of weeks ago, these were fitted with some kind
of metal halide or maybe high pressure sodium bulb. Whatever they were, they
were a pale yellow, and did a grand job of lighting the car park in all
weather conditions. They have now replaced the fittings with white LED
arrays. I would guess that each one is probably a 10 x 5 matrix, so 50 LEDs.
They are so bright that you can't look at them so what power rating are they
? 1 watters ? or 3s maybe ? Whatever, still a pretty significant power draw
over 50 of them. However, bright as they are, the light from them is
"harsh" - there's that word again - cold and shadowy. They don't actually
come close to the performance of the previous floodlights, whatever exact
technology they were. It will be interesting to see how well they penetrate
fog, as we're now into that season. When low pressure sodiums were first
introduced for street lighting, as I recall, fog penetration - which *is*
inescapably good for yellow light - was one of the cited advantages for the
technology. Certainly where you find white (mercury vapour ? egg shaped
bulbs) high intensity street lighting in use, it performs nothing like as
well in fog.

Arfa