[geeks] Quiet CFLs

[Nathan Raymond]

On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Nadine Miller <velociraptor at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Sep 29, 2012, at 9:45 PM, Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net> wrote:
> > At this point I'd go with LEDs anyway.  I don't intend to buy any more
> CFLs.
>
> Any pointers to good options (or even good info sources)?  I found a
> surprisingly good single LED desk lamp at Fry's and bought it on the spur
> of
> the moment, but haven't investigated anything for the purposes of general
> lighting.


As an initial experiment a year ago I bought three A19 LED bulbs from
Newegg on sale for $10 each, and put them in my bedside floor lamp (two
bulbs up top, one on a gooseneck mid way). No issues so far, been happy
enough with them.  I don't think the brand was anything remarkable (can't
remember what it was).  Newegg sells quite a few these days:

<
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100017125+6003036
95&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subc
ategory=2896&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=15&AdvancedSea
rch=1&srchInDesc&cm_sp=ledlightbulbsubcat-_-flashstorefront-_-a19
>

I also have two LED desk lamps, an Ikea one (similar to their
current Jansjv model) with a single LED behind a lens and one from
Microcenter which I got on clearance and has a strip of a few dozen LEDs on
an arm, partly exposed.  Both are still working fine after a couple of
years, they each have their pros and cons.

Photography is a hobby of mine, and if I owned instead of rented I'd be
torn right now between LED and halogen, because it's fairly easy and not
that expensive to get high Color Rendering Index (CRI) halogen A19 bulbs
that product accurate colors and aren't overly intense in the blue
spectrum.  The CRI situation with LEDs seems much more complicated right
now, and I would guess more expensive (I doubt there are $10 A19 LED bulbs
with a high CRI...)  Hopefully by the time I own someplace, high-CRI LED
bulbs with a balanced spectrum will be plentiful and affordable.

- Nate