Light bulb efficiencies compared - GIF

[Altair]

Incandescent, fluorescent, and LED light bulb efficiencies compared.




Previously:

Light bulbs under X-ray - photo
Machine for inserting mounts into lightbulbs - GIF
Light bulb fitting guide - photo
Levitating light bulb - GIF
Handmade light bulbs - video

[BuffaloJohn]

No - I have to call BS on this. While a CFL needs a little more power, I know that LED bulbs have been dimmable far more easily because the voltage to the lighting element is lower and easier to use chopped and inconsistant power such as a hand cranked dynamo.

[mwmkravchenko]

No - I have to call BS on this. While a CFL needs a little more power, I know that LED bulbs have been dimmable far more easily because the voltage to the lighting element is lower and easier to use chopped and inconsistant power such as a hand cranked dynamo.

Both the CFL and the LED use a circuit to step the voltages into higher for the CFL and Lower for the LED. They both have Capacitors in circuit. That will smooth out the hand cranks. The LED's are much more efficient than either. All you have to do is look at power input for a 100 watt equivalent LED. It's 17 watts. Versus 100 watts for an incandescent. A CFL equivalent is higher. Plus they died epically in our house. We switched to LED's from IKEA 7 years ago. Only two have died. Using CFL's I was replacing them every year to two years. Pieces of junk. Had no real problems with the incandescents until I had good LED's.

[Frank S]

Both the CFL and the LED use a circuit to step the voltages into higher for the CFL and Lower for the LED. They both have Capacitors in circuit. That will smooth out the hand cranks. The LED's are much more efficient than either. All you have to do is look at power input for a 100 watt equivalent LED. It's 17 watts. Versus 100 watts for an incandescent. A CFL equivalent is higher. Plus they died epically in our house. We switched to LED's from IKEA 7 years ago. Only two have died. Using CFL's I was replacing them every year to two years. Pieces of junk. Had no real problems with the incandescents until I had good LED's.

I didn't know I had a problem with incandescent bulbs until the LEDs came along. CFLs never really tripped my trigger, I mainly didn't care for them because I am a switch off guy I don't use lights for decoration. To me a lamp has 1 single purpose to provide enough illumination for me to see by, and only when I am in the area. the CFLs hated my practice, their life cycle was dismal. The Leds seem to be a lot better at this though I don't notice them having much more than double the life cycle of the old filament incandescent bulbs, the saving grace for LEDs is their power consumption, not only in total watt hours consumed but the initial current draw. instead of a fixture with 5 globes requiring 300 watts using the old 60 watt bulbs the load now is only 40 watts. To me that is a huge difference.

[BuffaloJohn]

My problem with the comparison is that it is an unfair comparison. OK, efficiency to me may mean something differently to others, but having spent two decades designing switching power supplies, I chased efficiency.

LEDs are nothing more than current to luminance converters.

Incandecents are basically resistors.

CFLs are voltage devices - ionizing is a potential function.

The converter for the CFL is not designed to function in this setup. There isn't enough storage capacitance in the circuit. That makes it look much worse. I don't have any love lost for CFLs - I dislike them extremely.

However, this setup had the incandesent at a similar intensity to the CFL.

BTW, incandecents make fantastic loads. I was testing a current sensing circuit and the best way I could test various loads was to use incandecents. I found a string of garden incandecents at 11w per bulb and I was able to reliably test down to 5 bulbs in series (11/5 w) as well as 40/60/75/100 as standard bulbs.

[BuffaloJohn]

My problem with the comparison is that it is an unfair comparison. OK, efficiency to me may mean something differently to others, but having spent two decades designing switching power supplies, I chased efficiency.

LEDs are nothing more than current to luminance converters.

Incandecents are basically resistors.

CFLs are voltage devices - ionizing is a potential function.

The converter for the CFL is not designed to function in this setup. There isn't enough storage capacitance in the circuit. That makes it look much worse. I don't have any love lost for CFLs - I dislike them extremely.

However, this setup had the incandesent at a similar intensity to the CFL.

BTW, incandecents make fantastic loads. I was testing a current sensing circuit and the best way I could test various loads was to use incandecents. I found a string of garden incandecents at 11w per bulb and I was able to reliably test down to 5 bulbs in series (11/5 w) as well as 40/60/75/100 as standard bulbs.

[mwmkravchenko]

My problem with the comparison is that it is an unfair comparison. OK, efficiency to me may mean something differently to others, but having spent two decades designing switching power supplies, I chased efficiency.

LEDs are nothing more than current to luminance converters.

Incandecents are basically resistors.

CFLs are voltage devices - ionizing is a potential function.

The converter for the CFL is not designed to function in this setup. There isn't enough storage capacitance in the circuit. That makes it look much worse. I don't have any love lost for CFLs - I dislike them extremely.

However, this setup had the incandesent at a similar intensity to the CFL.

BTW, incandecents make fantastic loads. I was testing a current sensing circuit and the best way I could test various loads was to use incandecents. I found a string of garden incandecents at 11w per bulb and I was able to reliably test down to 5 bulbs in series (11/5 w) as well as 40/60/75/100 as standard bulbs.

After I typed the capacitance line I looked a bit. I haven't examined a CFL inverter in years. It is indeed a tiny amount of capacitance. Not enough to smooth the incoming voltage.

Using incandescents for a load is still among the safest way to energise a item under test or even to act as a dummy load. For higher power an electric water heating element in water of course and for free air a n electric dryer heating element. Fairly low inductance for both too!