Obituary for the 100W Bulb (and tips for real efficiency)

 

Full Text of Atlantic Electric Supply's Obituary for the 100W Bulb:

Lamp, Hundred Watt

The light of Hundred Watt burned out on Jan. 1, leaving the world a little darker but with more energy. Hundred Watt was eliminated by an industry in which he was once revered despite last minute congressional efforts to save him.

This venerable member of the Lamp family was always a welcome guest and brightened countless lives for more than a century. Known to his friends as 100A, Mr. Lamp was also referred to as "the filament" by his detractors. He was often compared to Santa Claus in his ability to deliver smiles and light.

Born in 1879 in Menlo Park, NJ, to the late Thomas Alva Edison, Hundred Watt grew from a dim carbon filament to a bright tungsten Lamp. He leaves behind three siblings: Forty Watt, Sixty Watt and Seventy-Five Watt, all of whom suffer from terminal low lumen efficacy syndrome. (that's lighting-industry speak for "not energy efficient")

Hundred Watt is also survived by his son, Seventy-Two Watt-Halogen, who bears a striking resemblance to his father but is not quite as bright. In addition, Hundred Watt is survived by a nephew, Twenty-Six Watt CFL, whom many find slow to warm up.


I thought this was cute, so wanted to share with my fabulous readers. Lighting is incredibly important to creating beautiful interiors. I'm sure that you've noticed the difference in paint colors, fabric, or makeup when you move from one light source to another. Not only do Interior Designers learn a lot about lighting, there are many that specialize only in Lighting Design. I do agree with the need to improve energy efficiency, but I don't agree with the banning of incandescent light bulbs. There are many roads to better energy efficiency, but this is not a good one. Just blindly banning incandescent (to be followed by halogen) bulbs is not a solution and will leave us all with the bad color-rendering, slow warm up times, and poor dim-ability of CFLs. Yuck

Other Roads to Efficiency

Thee are other means to reach energy efficient lighting in your home. The best long-term solution is adding dimmers. Dimmers are an easy DIY project and dimming your incandescent or halogen bulb by just 10% will double the bulb life. That's right - DOUBLE. And this becomes exponentially more efficient as you dim it lower and lower.

"Dimming your incandescent or halogen bulb by just 10% will double the bulb life. That's right - DOUBLE. And this becomes exponentially more efficient as you dim it lower and lower."

If you are a lover of good lighting, like myself, and want to know more, you don't need to take a lighting design class. I recently stumbled upon a book Losing Edison. A book review is available on the Blog Freedom Light Bulb.
Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com