LEDs vs. Fluorescent Bulbs

Wandering through the home center this week to pick up a few things, I came across a clearance bin of LED bulbs - 4 x 60W equivalent, GE, soft white - 98 cents. I picked up two boxes. This morning I decided to go through the condo and pick off the handful of remaining fluorescent bulbs that got enough use to justify replacement,

I ended up replacing four bulbs - two hallway ceiling fixtures, a bedroom table lamp, and my front porch lamp. I've gotten used to the fluorescent warm-up over the years; kind of like a propane or kerosene lantern while camping - takes a while to come up to temp. I'm 100% sure I went through the condo and replaced incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs when I first moved in (2009); this is a fairly quick product lifespan. It's a testimony to the reliability of fluorescent bulbs that I've got a box of spare / replaced bulbs kicking around - rarely if ever had to replace the fluorescent devices.

I'm a bit too Yankee frugal and environmentally conscious to just toss these. I'm sure whoever is settling my eventual estate will be grateful for the task.


I did a quick survey of the remaining fluorescent bulbs - back deck (almost never used), rear basement door (ditto), two bedroom ceiling fixture bulbs (rarely used, mini receptacle), and a couple of 3-way floor lamps. There's an old pull chain fluorescent tube fixture in the basement (24" long, tool bench lighting). Nothing that gets used or left on a lot. I've also got a few incandescent bulbs left - some ceiling track PAR lamps in the yoga room, on a dimmer.

Next time I'm in the home center I'll check on the availability of 3-way LEDs and dimmable PAR LEDs, and if I see another bulb bargain I might replace these stragglers as well.

Remember when one had to replace light bulbs regularly - when flicking a switch and getting the soft pop and bright flash of a bulb burning out was a thing? I can't remember the last time a bulb went bad...

And I have to wonder if there are stats out there about the reduction in residential fires related to the thermally cooler and lower current drawing lighting tech of the modern era. Once upon a time, the watts consumed by lighting was a pretty significant part of the home electrical panel load - I have to believe it's become almost insignificant.

Tuesday morning musing by a power quality engineer with a bit too much time on her hands!

The Shoemaker's Children Go Barefoot (no more)

For someone who makes the bulk of her income working with power quality, my own computer systems have been fairly under-protected for many years.

I picked up a stand-by UPS (APC Model ES550) many years ago (maybe 10? hard to say, might have been my second device); it has served me reasonably well. And even though I'm well aware of the nature of stand-by UPS (time delay before inverter switches on, step wave inverter output) it's done a pretty solid job of keeping my computer up and running.

A few days ago, my home office lost power for a bit - clocks were reset, the computer switched off - and I realized it was time to upgrade the office UPS. I picked up another APC - a line interactive, sine wave output model RS 1000MS - rated for 1000VA / 600W.

It's got plenty of juice for my needs - sitting at about 20% of load / 37 minutes of battery time with my desktop, monitor, cable modem, and a small backup server and peripheral hard drive. I'm much enamored with the front panel LED screen and the PowerChute software. And while I have not set my computer up to hibernate at the command of the UPS, that's a possibility.

I go back a long ways - when a buck a watt was perhaps a reasonable price to pay for a small UPS. So to get all this for about $150 - well, I'm not complaining.

And I took the time to run my house cable through the internal TVSS and the Ethernet from the cable modem back to the computer through the UPS - so I've got a better chance of surviving nearby lightning strikes / transients - related to both transient voltages and ground potential issues. I'm not at the point of driving a ground rod and connecting an external ground though. I'm down in a basement and close to the residence service panel, so not super worried about ground issues.

And I've also spent some time separating critical loads (computer, monitor, cable modem, exterior drives / servers) from less critical loads (printers, speakers), plugging these latter into the TVSS only outlets. And while I was down there with the system off, untangling the cable spaghetti, wrapping and tying off cables, neatening things up.