[Greenbuilding] U.S. Energy Mark Day

[David Bergman]

In the long run, I think Jason and I are in agreement about lighting, 
but I do have some points of mild disagreement....
And I'm experiencing a deja vu -- apologies if I've already written 
much of this in previous posts.

At 11:42 PM 3/30/2008, Jason Holstine wrote:
>  Every
>dimmable CFL we've tested is piss poor.

They don't dim down to the levels of incandescent, but I don't know 
that I'd go so far as to call them piss poor. I've been using some on 
my nightstand fixture and elsewhere for several years and I find them 
just fine -- you just have to know that if you dim them too low, they 
start to vibrate or flicker.

>And when you use them for short
>cycles (generally less than 2-3 hours min) you shorten the ballast life.

I've been told that the rule of thumb is that, if the light is 
typically going to be on for less than 15 or 20 minutes, CFL's may 
not make sense because of the shortened life (though you still get 
the benefit of the energy savings).

>The future lies with LEDs b/c of their efficacy--dimmable, good light
>temp and balance. Oh and no mercury so that issue goes moot.

I've yet to find a comparative LCA on CFL vs LED. I suspect we're 
going to find environmental issues with the production as well as the 
eventual disposal of LED's -- we've no idea if those will be more or 
less an issue than CFL's. (Witness a recent article on the toxicity 
issues from PV production in China, which is where most of the CFL's 
and LED's come from.)

I really excited about LED's and I can't wait to start making 
fixtures with them, but they're not the answer quite yet (though they 
are great for some situations). The light quality from many of them 
is not wonderful (the MR16 and PAR replacements I've tried here were 
pretty harsh, even with warm color temps), the lumen output is 
currently too low for most incandescent or CFL replacement purposes 
and, of course, the cost is still high.

The recessed LED fixtures I've seen (Progress, etc.) are decent but 
not as good or bright (or as good looking when off) as incandescent 
or CFL cans.

And I'm bothered by the fact that you cannot replace the "bulbs" on 
most LED fixtures (I'm talking about LED-specific fixtures, not the 
LED bulbs that are designed to retrofit into non-LED fixtures). LED's 
are not standardized like other bulbs and they are integrated into 
the fixture. This is partially because they're supposed to last so 
long (the thinking is that you'll be ready to replace the fixture 
when the LED's die, assuming they last as long as advertised) and 
partially because they are evolving so fast.

Another point: LED's are good at a different type of light than 
fluorescents. I recently tried to relamp some diffused linear 
fixtures in a restaurant using LED strips. (The fixtures had been 
designed with incandescent tubes.) The LED's turned out to be 
problematic from a wiring point of view (we could not use the 
existing supply wiring) and, more significantly, they created 
pinpoints of light versus a continuous light. We elected to use 
dimming fluorescent tubes instead even though the price was not cheaper.

>People LIKE
>THEM BETTER. They're like any new technology--think to CDs, LCD TVs,
>etc.--price will dive and quality and choice will continue to improve with
>time.

Agreed, and as I wrote above, I can't wait for that to happen.


David
DAVID BERGMAN ARCHITECT / FIRE & WATER LIGHTING + FURNITURE
architecture . interiors . ecodesign . lighting . furniture
bergman at cyberg.com    www.cyberg.com
241 Eldridge Street #3R, New York, NY 10002
t 212 475 3106    f 212 677 7291