Misc Stuff

We shut down our satellite TV a few months ago, and mostly haven't missed it. We can get the Rays games we want to watch via MLB TV, well except for the Yankees games and the weekend national broadcasts. We can get most other things via Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu+.
What we can't get are two events on NBC Sports, the Tour de France and F1 racing, because the TV Cartel (the cable and the Satellite providers) have decreed that they are the only way you can see these things. There is no technical barrier, there is even an NBC Sports app for my iPad which would stream the events - but I can only access the stream if I have an account with Dish, or DirecTV, or Time Warner, or Comcast, or whoever.
And it sucks, because these are the only two things they have to offer me, and they charge way, way too much money to make it worth while.

so over the past couple of years, i've mostly converted the house from incandescents to CFLs, with a noticeable impact on the electric bills. i've noticed a couple of things in that time:

1) spiral CFLs come right up to their full illumination fairly quickly; CFLs in special envelopes that simulate conventional incandescents generally do not.

2) in most fixtures, spiral vs fake bulb doesn't matter, just use a spiral

3) equivalent wattage clams tend to be shaky, learn to think in lumens and treat watts as the power consumption measurement that it is

4) CFLs may have issues in "rough use" situations. i have an exterior light next to a heavily used exterior door; the slamming of the door seems to affect CFLs more.

but the big thing that i'm here to write about today is this one:

PAR30 CFLs in a recessed can don't really have much longer lives, the heat appears to be an issue. i have had two out of four i installed in the kitchen die after 2 years, whereas the other CFLs in the house seem to be going on and on. the PAR30s also seem to have not nearly the light output you want, and are particularly slow to produce what light they can.

so i replaced one of the defunct PAR30 CFLs with a halogen (i have a bunch in the basement left over after the conversion), and i checked out current LED prices.

while most of the LED bulb prices are still priced a bit high, i found Philips brand LEDs in the PAR30 format at Home Despot for less than $30. still high, but with projected brightness and long lifespans, i figured it was worth a crack. so i bought a 730 lumen warm white (2700 color temperature, same as conventional bulbs) LED bulb and installed it.

1) it's quite bright

2) it comes up to full brightness in about a second

3) the color is a fine match for the existing halogens

4) my wife wants more of them swapped in.

not sure about the longevity, obviously, although there are claims of 20+ years. we shall see.