Lights

eddiej

Folks,

2 quick questions, in the new house (almost) and at the moment we have straight forward lamp holders hanging out of the ceiling, we also have 7 recessed spots (3 in kitchen and 2 each in bathrooms). First one can you get energy saving lights bulbs for the dirty little spot lights. Second we have been looking at light fittings but i really want to stay away from those bars of spots as the bulbs cost a whack. Does anyone have any suggestions as to lights that look tres cool and still can take advantage of energy saving bulbs

PS how does one work out the energy use of a light and how do ye convert this to €€€€€€

Cheers

eddie:)

Borzoi

http://www.lowenergyworld.com/ have a wide range of bulbs for both standard and spot fitings, including some real long life LED stuff

How to work out cost:
ESB charge by the kiloWatt hour, which is if you ran a 1kW appliance for 1 hour, its abour 14c.

A 100W bulb for running for 10 hours is 1kWhr, cost 14c
A 20W CFL (or similar) running for 10 hours is 0.2kWhr, cost 2.8c

A low energy long life CFL, can last 20000hours, so savings are big!

dts

A standard 40W lightbulb if left on for 24 hrs would cost you abaout3 to 4 cent. It just isnt worth calculating.
The things that cost you are anything with a heating element. Ie cooke, kettle, fridge, hotpress. TV's and lighting cost nothing to run. Oh and dont belive the hype, keep your things plugged in on standby as they will last alot longer than if you keep switching them off.

patrido

hi eddie, are your recessed spots mains voltage or ELV (transformer)?

if they are mains GU10s there are CFL lamps available in 7w and 9w, with a life of 15,000 hours (your typical GU10 has a life of 1000 hours). They cannot normally be dimmed, however.

There are also LED versions available. It is difficult to find a true white light from an LED (as opposed to blueish white), and these also cannot normally be dimmed. The light output isn't yet equiavalent to halogens yet either.

Your choices are limited with ELV. There is a quite nice MR16 replacement made by color kinetics and sold here by ECI lighting.
http://www.colorkinetics.com/products/pro/lights/iwmr/

It is available in two types of warm white, is dimmable, and lasts 50,000 hours. The light output is only equivalent to a 20w halogen (there is a 50w equivalent due early next year) but they cost a whopping 70 yoyos each!!!!

re:energy saving...
1 unit of electricity (1 kw/h) costs about 14c.
1 unit is equivalent to 1 kilowatt (e.g. ten 100w bulbs) running for 1 hour.

you work out the saving based on the reduced consumption in terms of watts, and the reduced number of purchases based on longer lamp life.
A 9w CFL costs 17.50 but lasts 15,000 hours.

To get 15000 hours from GU10s you'd need 15 lamps. Likely to be 15x3.50 minimum = 52.50. Purchase saving = 35.00.

15000 hours at 50w = 50*15*0.14 = 105.00
15000 hours at 9w = 9*15*0.14 = 18.90
Usage saving = 86.10

The exact numbers are probable debatable but u get the idea

CJhaughey

I have replaced a lot of R63 reflector bulbs with Omicron CFL spots, I could only source R80 fitments but that is actually better as they throw more light.
I know that you can get R63 CFL reflectors from omicron but as to who stocks them and where you get them they are not a common item here in Ireland, in the UK try http://www.bltdirect.co.uk/cat189_1.htm

eddiej

Hi all thanks for the info,

Just wondering what are GV10 and R63 /R 80

also how come a 50W ordinary bulb can be replaced by a 9W \cfl one

Cheers

eddie

patrido

just different types of lamps (bulbs) for different fittings.

R50/R63/R80 are screw ins for downlighters popular a few years ago.
MR16 are low voltage (ELV) halogens, that are really popular these days in spots and downlighters.
GU10/GZ10 are similar to MR16, but run on mains voltage, and are increasing in popularity.

also how come a 50W ordinary bulb can be replaced by a 9W \cfl one

it's all to do with lumens per watt. a lumen is a unit of light. flourescent are the most efficient at about 80 lumens per watt, cfls give 60. your ordinary light bulb gives only 12 lumens per watt.