Think I have lost interest in the concept in general. I’ll cope and adjust with what basic household lamp is no longer on the Home Depot shelves and still be able to get what is as a designer an efficient lamp. Do a study into the ‘1986 IMACT terms and conditions and how such would
effect the theater/movie industry in general. It did some but also forced some improvements.
Halogen is not a gas - no such thing, it’s an
effect. There is a combination of gasses that when combined have this
effect commonly called
halogen gas. Your scoops are not going away, the 1Kw DKZ lamp is already
halogen and there is 500w and 300w versions of these
Mogul Screw lamps available in both
halogen and special
incandescent versions that like the above will no doubt get exempted. You can still get a 150w
PAR 38 lamp for instance, just not the normal
incandescent versions. Go long life,
dichroic color lensed, Cov-R-Guard, Saf-T-Gard, 130v/HRG, Krypton,
Halogen, Cool Beam
etc. in 150w. This much less a
Watt Miser lamp was available from way back - crappy lamp replacement for the 150w lamp which got followed up by the higher in luminous output 120w
halogen PAR 38 lamp and lots of other versions of the simple
PAR 38 lamp. The industry will not have had so many choices in replacing the 150w
incandescent PAR 38 lamp standard to the industry were it not for the government stepping in out of energy efficiency to discontinue domestically a
line amongst other lines of lamps. Heck, your standard T-12 40w
fluorescent lamps might not have had their improvements were it not also for IMPACT efficiency standards which puts us these days up into the 32w T-8 90+
CRI range.
HMI lamps being discontinued or being more something that causes global warming due to their heat impact on air conditioning systems or is it energy efficiency by way of
power plants making
power to
power them up? Funny, them figures about global warming really never define it in the headlines. It’s as if an
incandescent lamp is the direct source of global warming instead of an indirect cause of it. Standard industrial
HMI lamps and other types do get hot but their luminous per
watt efficiency is more than that of a
incandescent lamp in your closet. A little harder to fight even if the 24/7 lamp on use in factories about equals that of households in general. We are talking headlines here and PR programs here. Consider a fifth grade education of the electorate on those that sign onto the law that will save your future. Could either fight the problem or make headlines and get the law passed by will of force by way of those who are green and active. So, you could say fight the
HMI,
Sodium Vapor,
Mercury Vapor etc. including Tin Hallide lamps also but you would loose the attention span of the fifth grade reading
level electorate in interest. Now go for the
incandescent verses
halogen lamps and there is something that filters down to a
level everyone can understand. Heck, even on “This Old
House”, you have the electricians and designers instead of telling you amongst thousands of types of “
halogen” lamps, for an under counter use, “these are
halogen lamps” as simple end statement as to how the kitchen is being lit.
It’s all about either
halogen good and bright, verses
incandescent bad.. after all for J.R. public - it’s what they know and what they know and what exciting new technology will fight this - compact fluorescents given away at WalMart will solve the problem to the extent they understand... Put a
halogen lamp into a standard
incandescent fixture and you might have a fire. Put a compact flourescent into a standard
incandescent fixture you fight
CRI amongst other things. This including
phase harmonics and on/off times really screwing up the lamp life of the compact
fluorescent lamps which than puts more
trace elements of mercury back into the
ground by way of direct disposal and costs one heck of a lot more in lamp replacement. Got compact fluorescents all over where I work. The maintenance people are constantly complaining about replacing the same 20,000 hour lamps on a monthly basis. Granted work with huge lighting rigs never did isolate and condition their
power system as recommended a few years ago by me which will have about solved that problem.
Phase harmonics screw with stuff like cordless tool battery chargers and batteries, computers,
fluorescent lamps
etc. This much less messes with the
power supplier if a large enough loading... but I digress in now that I have 55gal. Drums for
fluorescent and
HMI lamps, paying $1K each to properly dispose of them at least quarterly. This as opposed to paying the import tax on
HMI lamps to the government that is supposed to pay for my throwing them in the normal trash can which I’m still paying.
Greening up the atmosphere in exchange for greening up and making the
ground full of mercury. One thing that is not mentioned in all this once demand becomes larger for compact
fluorescent lamps is that the price most likely won’t go down for compact
fluorescent lamps due to the volume market for them. Instead prices will most likely stay the same due to there only being so much mercury available easily and the more lamps you produce, the higher the price for it due to demand. Thus some household that say makes like $12K per year, and say lives down the street from a welding shop is gonna have to pay like $6.00 per lamp instead of like $0.40 per lamp to light their closet or bathroom. This for a much lower
CRI lamp as a start which causes health issues. The more they
strike their arc in the compact
fluorescent, the less lamp life they get out of it. Also due to
phase harmonic issues of say that welding shop up the street, their lamps also might not live up to their expected lamp life. Great news, you pay more for your lamps,
throw out your lamps in causing the
ground harm or paying to dispose of them, all in solving global warming.
Or as the PR people trying to keep a politician in office say it, just go green.
Lots of problems in going green - good things about doing so also, lots of details. Details I’m not going to worry about yet, I’ll adapt and overcome just as normal for our industry. Most likely the normal lamp will be all that is effected and to some extent this will be a good thing. A good thing similar to setting the thermostat at say 78 degrees and not going lower would also be a good thing but less simple thus less sexy. One cannot win an election on saying smelly people are sexy due to them fighting global warming. Instead one wins elections due to replacing heater lamps with ones that don’t cause as much heat. So you can keep your thermostat set at say 76 instead of 78. By way of just replacing the light bulbs the elected official has saved the planet and kept you within your comfort zone. Just like a war and tax cuts at the same time. Anyone attempted to buy cable of late? Every time I have attempted to buy
feeder or any other type of cable in the past couple of years has resulted in my supplier stating the
current price of copper and warning me to buy more than I am asking for. Every time he is correct as it’s already over $4.00 per
foot for 4/0
feeder cable what was only $1.50 per
foot four years ago. That’s a war, think of what the price of mercury futures will look like if these laws go into
effect. Is there even a mercury futures market?
Don’t fall for what hype the news papers spew out and elected officials want you to see in voting for them. No your
HPL lamps won’t go away, nor will even your 40w
incandescent lamps go away if you go with a more efficient version. Just gonna cost more for efficiency as it is probably right in doing so as opposed to having a disposable product society. While those who only make at best $12K a year will seriously be hurt if it’s a question of buying a light
bulb or bread (yes I say
bulb instead of lamp - those most hurt by all of this terms), as a socially contious type of thing, paying more for more efficient lamps is something that could be important. Now is we can get say the corner grocery store that sells lamps and some day sells compact
fluorescent lamps to also recycle them. Put out a multi-million or billion dollar educational add campaign to save your local waters and landfills from all the accumulated mercury that will now be deposited in them. Even those areas with trash sorting will now be having problems due to mercury exposure to the workers - it’s going to become more expensive to even “Blue Bag.”
Me, I don’t worry much about what’s going to replace the standard
incandescent lamp, as posted in other topics, there is lots of technology out there and under development that the market not congress is coming up with. This not to say I’m a market sider and a push from the politicians doesn’t help bring about the change over from the standard household lamp, only that I tend in this issue given I have above a fifth grade reading
level where it comes to lamps, and already lived
thru one earth shattering change to the entertainment lighting market (IMPACT 1986 -), I know it will all be fine and perhaps while more expensive possibly push the market towards better things. Anyone remember the 85
Watt “
Watt Meiser”
PAR 38 lamps? Really crappy and didn’t last very long as “the alternative.” Instead of forcing say compact fluorescents on the country as the headlines might infer, instead there will be other things more efficient and cost effective TBA have no fear. Such hype about having to fit something
LED into your S-4. Isn’t gonna happen for at least a few more years have no fear. If it could be done yet, it would be. Since it cannot be done yet it’s not something that can be mandated for replacement.
What one should more worry about given they would also no doubt be exempt is #4515 pinspot lamps. Just at a wedding in ‘middle of nowhere Wisconsin over the weekend. They had four lamps in addition to what the DJ was using to light his own over the control table
mirror ball in his own lighting rig. Sometimes it’s a
halogen #H4515 that’s little to no better in quality, mostly it’s a straight
incandescent lamp with very limited hours of lamp life. Gee a 100 hour lamp, now there in addition to many other DJ type lamps is a really inefficient lamp, but one that really doesn’t seriously
effect the air conditioning much. Sonlite is the only brand I’m aware of that makes a long life version of this lamp. This granted they don’t list how many CB
candlepower the lamp puts out as opposed to the standard
incandescent or improved
halogen versions of the lamp.
So panic, your local bar and club or wedding place, much less party places and DJ’s will no longer be able to lamp their mirror balls... Ain’t gonna happen. If you can still buy a
mirror ball lamp at your local mall or guitar shop, you will be able to get
HPL lamps that have a wee
bit more
Luminous efficacy.
This much less if it were that California were to pass such a law about lamps in not being able to sell
HPL lamps, you would see places like Bulbman, Bulbtronics and even Ushio pulling up steak and moving across the boarder to Nevada in still now a question of “interstate commerce” selling to their customers. Next day delivery 6PM FedEx cut off time becoming the norm for next day as opposed to
send a runner if in the area will be lived with. You are talking major interstate commerce issues anyway for say a
HPL lamp and such details once any such seemingly sweeping law is passed will be fine detailed out or there would be real trouble. Gee, what would happen if them elected officials in doing a fund raising dinner could only be lit by way of compact
fluorescent lamps - and store bought crappy ones at that? Would take a lighting company and designer with some balls... Some also bad
CRI LED fixtures thrown in also perhaps but “totally green” not just in fund raiser concept in lighting but how the candidate looks on
stage also. That would be cool to make such a statement, heck, would be cool to light their press conferences with green lamps also. Have no fear, ain’t gonna happen.
On the other
hand, every year I walk about the shop with the various lamp manufacturers and we discuss what might be advantageous to develop for lamps. One of the things last discussed was a more efficient $4515 lamp, amongst other lamp/
fixture type lamps that could be improved. I get such visits yearly by all but from GE whome I have never met a rep. for, this much less met the head of Photo Optics in. Give them ideas, some times such concepts of what to improve go way up the chain of command and are TBA hush hush to the market, other times, yep... we really made a mistake in that lamp I get out of them in talking frank. Other times, I
send a sampling of say 150 bad lamps back as a random batch to find out what the heck is going on here, and it might lead to a industry improvement in something I’m noting but the industry has not yet.
Such lighting manufacturers really in general love to push their
LED lights for the
OEM market. Every time I meet with most of them, I’m looking at some sample of how bright the
LED lamp has got. It’s still not replacing a
halogen/
incandescent lamp yet however given the
point source of light concept. More realistic will be the
advance to the lighting industry in general once
ETC loses it’s patient on the
HPL lamp. This both for the advancement of the
HPL lamp and for the industry in general.
Is it time to replace the
scoop with say a Color Blast
fixture? The Ovalite did get replaced by the
scoop, perhaps with time especially since the Color Blast has upgraded to a
stage version instead of fragile and not very safe architectural version it’s getting to become a time when the
scoop can be replaced. Still there is the Color
Rendering Index concept of doing
LED verses
filament as a design issue. Sure, you can go IW blast for white or Color Blast (amongst other brands) for
wash light and they will light the
stage but are they lighting the
stage in the same way by way of
CRI? Are they a new paint brush or direct replacement? I’m sure such a question was asked 20 or30 years ago on
stage with the advent of the
halogen over
incandescent stage and studio lamp. Such a
intensity and blue light off the
halogen lamp and now these days off the S-4 and HX-600 over what the designer/audience is used to is different and fake “real” lighting. It’s a cross roads type of thing in many ways I expect. I certainly as a designer have no use for
LED exclusive lighting design given it’s very different and not persay in my opinion full
rendering of the full spectrum of light. It could have
effect but still need supplement to make realistic.
These days I have more and more shows going out without any not just
HPL lamps but without any
filament type lamps at all. In some ways I fear for my future in being as it were the lamp expert where I work. This given arc source lamps are not going anywhere and that is still half my field. Still, more and more shows are doing
LED, got it’s own department and it keeps growing. Still in the end, when one lights the corporate manager in spotlight at the
podium, while moving light arc sources can be tasked to the job and adjusted, to a certain extent, it lacks a certain reality factor to lighting this person a
filament lamp adds. Same with just plain doing a
cyc in my opinion. You can
wash in say
LED but it lacks some essence of depth and other than fake reality for me.
The
filament lamp in general is going places, don’t get all stressed out, other than if the politicians make their sweeping laws in a way that effects what is a micro part to the industry. Such won’t work out... Beyond the draping of the “Nudes” at certain Ashcroft press confrences early in the ‘administration’s press confrences in certain rooms that just happened to have statues, doing away with
filament lamps will make for ugely politicians, much less what won’t work in that technology is not ready to replace
stage and studio lamps yet. Believe me, the
stage and studio market in general is a micro part of the lamp market for all manufacturers, A few tens of thousand lamps of any type for
stage and studio means very little to other than that division of the company than say what the household and industry section of the market buys in lamps per day.
I don’t worry much about what’s debated for the headlines to become a Law for Votes. General concept, let’s ban the standard
incandescent lamp. There is use for it but such uses given even
Reveal’ lamps (which theoretically would also become exempt) would also survive the ban, this along with even the growing market for turn of the last century “nostalgic” lamps is going away quickly. You got say long life lamps for places not very important, compact
fluorescent for places you want to light a room over an extended period of time, than special lamps in general to do what’s important such as the Picasso your politician has hanging in the
hall which couldn’t be
LED or flourescent lit. Devil is in the detail, they have to make a 5th grade educational
level statement which will help get them re-ellected, this much less safe the Earth in some small step that is theoretically viable even if it hurts the under classes they protect, yet still have to allow for what’s necessary or will cost them money, much less grind a valuable industry to a halt.
Phase in periods and no doubt some political consultants advising upon such laws, hoping to high Heaven that the “greening up our houses” campaign such politicians espouse doesn’t rotate back to “now that we saved the atmosphere, we just really screwed up the land, much less our voters cannot afford to buy a light
bulb given prices didn’t come down.... Yea, the “energy task force” early in the Cheney meetings with them did what...? This president would not do such a business GE owns NBC hurting type of thing anyway should such a law come up. Supreme court has it’s also leaning majority. I wouldn’t expect any major lamp choice changes to come up for a few more years. Let’s not jump the gun here. Wait for it, what’s on the horizon will be amazing.
Ushio don’t really make
incandescent lamps by the way, they will be fine. Also, I wouldn't be opposed to replacing say the the FHM with a 650w HIR/FHM version once it comes to market. Be really difficult to
switch, but once forced to it would be better, also the market would be forced to
switch.
AS for the replacement for the FEL above... don't get me starte in what a waste of light such a lamp is now, na we really don't want me to do that. FEL, yep get me to congress and that's first on my
punch list for removing from my pain in the rear for lack of efficient lamp list.