What kind of light bulbs do you use? (i.e. incandescent, fluorescent, LED)

Flourescent, incandescent burns hot and consumes a lot of energy and LEDs i heard something about mercury.

The Dark Side of LED Lightbulbs - Scientific American

 

Whatever ones are cheap.

 

All of my house has LED lighting, but my beside lamp uses an incandescent bulb. That's really bad, I know, but the incandescent one was the only fit in the house that's been lying around for quite a few years and I haven't yet replaced it. I should probably get around to that; I refuse to use the heat lamps in my bathroom because they waste energy, so I can't exactly excuse using a beside incandescent light.

 

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure they're flourescent?

 

i just installed LED lights throughout my apartment. They cost more, but save energy. What I did not realize, my apartment now lights up like a hospital floor

 

I don't use compact flourescent light bulbs, i use the long ones. While they do contain mercury in the it's less then in the LED bulbs. If there were bulbs that were mercury free i'd use them.

 

I use a mixture. We have a very small place, and do not drive a car, so I figure if I have a few incandescent bulbs left that I like better, no big deal; we don't use nearly as much energy as the average American; we don't have a dishwasher, a microwave, a huge TV, and so many other things that seem so common, I'm not gonna feel guilty over a few piddly light-bulbs that make reading easier, and things look better.

 

I have a mix. Many old incandescent light bulbs still in service in little used or lightly used lights. They will likely remain in service until they burn out. Many will get replaced with incadescent lights, as long as the supply I have holds out. Saving bulb money matters more in this context than energy savings, at least at this point, given my current economic position.

My most heavily used light uses a CFL, and I've had no complaints. I have CFL bulbs in a couple of other lights, too.

My primary reading light is still incandescent--I somehow did not like the light from a CFL the times I tried it. But I have used some sort of incandescent replacement (looks like an old style bulb, but uses less energy--I think the bulbs are a halogen design), and was happy. I'd be willing to revisit/retry CFL and try LED in this application given the chance.

I also still use incandescent lights of some sort on Christmas trees.

---------- Post added 23rd Sep 2015 at 06:09 AM ----------

Actually, a dishwasher probably can save energy, at least when properly used (running full loads). It may use a lot of hot water at once, but the hot water use per dish is probably lower than hand washing. Plus it skips the dishpan hands and drudgery.

I don't have a dishwasher, either, but it's on my list of "I want" for the next place I live.

In my situation, I don't get wrapped up in saving energy with lighting because while I try to be frugal with energy, the place I live is so old and so poorly built that lighting is the least of the problems.

 

I have gone towards LED's but still prefer candles.

 

My dad is a big fan of LED bulbs. He has them everywhere in their house.

For me, I have CFL's in the hallway, the floor lamp in the master, the spare bedroom, and the table lamp. The kitchen, bathroom, and my nightstand lamp are all incandescents due to fixtures.

 

Whatever the ones are in my lights. I got no idea. All o care is that they make my room bright enough to see in.

 

My lights are mostly fluorescent ... but 'real' fluorescents! (you know the long ones, not that CFL crap)

For lamps and stuff like that, my preference would be good old Incandescent

The only type on 'LED lights' I use are Christmas lights...

I've also got a couple yard lights.. one being Mercury-Vapor, another being HPS . stuff like that is real lighting :lol: not LEDs or CFLs

 

I have a few lights that are the Hue LEDs, but only ones that I want to control with my phone.

As Incandescent lights burn out they are mostly replaced by CFLs, but only because they last longer and I am to lazy to keep changing them. If they lasted as long I would use incandescents because they are cheaper.

Lights make up so little of my power bill I really don't care which ones except for not wanting to change them often. I also have a few uses where incandescents are the only choice. I am a ham radio operator, and needed a heat source to maintain temperature in a repeater cabinet in the winter time, a 100W incandescent on a thermostat worked great! There was no need for an 1800W heater. Also the 200W incandescent makes a great 50 ohm dummy load for a transmitter, it is very near 50 ohms and is a pure resistive load and gives feedback that it is absorbing RF energy. Those are two jobs that cannot be replaced by CFL or LED.

 

@DMark69:
Modern CFLs with electronic ballasts can cause radio interference (the old original CFLs with magnetic-ballast don't have that issue)

You probably know this already... but the resistance of an incandescent changes between its 'off' and 'on' state (ofcourse if you're not putting out enough power to light it, that's a non-issue)

 

I recall incandescent bulbs being used in children's ovens. The heat was enough to actually bake a (very) small cake. And I recall a children's cookbook that even had plans for a larger oven that used light bulbs for a heat source. (I bet that plan is something you wouldn't see in a children's cookbook in today's lawsuit happy, overly protective society!)

I've never done anything with ham radio. However, I've dabbled a bit with collectible tube radios, and recall "dim bulb testers" that used incandescent light bulbs (wired in series with a radio) used in trying to bring a long unused radio back to life.

---------- Post added 23rd Sep 2015 at 11:03 PM ----------

I've had that experience. Although it seemed like interference varied--one really cheap CFL seemed a lot more problematic than a more expensive name brand.

 

Yes, where the radios are being used, if a CFL causes interference I go back to incandescent there too.

The resistance of the bulb does change, but when it is on a 200W light bulb uses approximately 200W of electricity P/E=I 200/100(approx)=2Amps E/i=R 100/2=50 ohms. Yes this is not perfect, but is close enough for the application. Yes when I use them as a dummy load, I put about 100W through them usually, and that is plenty to light them.

---------- Post added 24th Sep 2015 at 08:10 AM ----------

 

They look like Christmas lights.