[ale] OT: Office lighting

[Jeff Hubbs]

Geoffrey wrote:

> 
> 
> Dow Hurst wrote:
> 
>> Some of the newer fluorescent lighting doesn't hum very bad or flicker
>> at all.  I got an incandescent bulb replacement that was fluorescent. 
>> Has a curly tube and puts out about 90watts worth of light.  It is very
>> much like white sunlight without the greenish sick hue of the past.  Go
>> to Home Depot and take a look at the displays.  You can tell which
>> lights will work.  If your really worried about interference and noise
>> then run them thru a UPS to smooth out the mains fluctuations.  Your
>> plenty geek enough to get away with that. ;)
> 
> 
> I hope so, I've rewired my whole basement. :)
> 
> Well, I broke down and went out to Home Depot and picked up 6 recessed 
> light fixtures along with 3 50 watt halogen bulbs.  6 Fixtures: ~$40, 3 
> bulbs ~$24.  And these were the more expensive fixtures as the ceiling 
> will be insulated. I figure to install three fixtures for now and see 
> how that does.  I can always use the fixtures elsewhere in my basement 
> if I don't like them in my office.
> 
> Anyone know if you can put a dimmer on a halogen bulb???
> 

Yeah, you can.  The downside is that because of how light dimmers work, 
the bulbs can "sing" a bit. 
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/lights/lightdimmer.html#buzzing can 
explain it as well as or better than I could.

I like using compact fluorescents as well and I thought I found a good 
deal on them at Big Lots, only to get one home and find that it had that 
very, very cold blue color that just plain looks wrong in a table lamp. 
    These days, CFs are balanced fairly close to tungsten at least as 
much as you can get via phosphors but I would prefer them a tad cooler.

In fixtures that use non-clear (i.e., frosted or cut-style glass) 
globes, I like to use clear-envelope incandescents when CFs won't do;  I 
  find I get more light for the same wattage.  Other than that, my eyes 
really abhor a naked filament (apologies to Roger Penrose).

- Jeff



---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.