Halogen to CFL conversion for torchiere

Wires, breakers, outlets, switches - be careful
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kevm14
Posts: 15201
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Halogen to CFL conversion for torchiere

Post by kevm14 »

I could have posted this in Energy I suppose.

I've had a torchiere halogen lamp since at least high school, and it moved to college, to my two apartments, and how it's been in my house for 6+ years. It originally accepted the 300W halogen bulbs, though I had switched to the 150W years ago since 300W was unnecessary. The bulbs do last a long time, but it burned out recently. Rather than throw another 150W in there, I thought it would be interesting to investigate retrofit options, like CFL or LED. The best option turned out to be CFL.

My local ACE Hardware had all parts and materials used.

This is roughly what the lamp looks like with no bulb:
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Torn down just to the bulb holder:
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I bought two regular sockets with integrated on/off rotary switches. I also bought some thin aluminum stock, bent it using a 2x4 and a mini-sledge, drilled the appropriate holes and used one original screw to fasten it to the lamp base. The other hole was large enough to accept the light socket and I used its own nut to secure it.
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These are 20W bulbs which approximates the original 150W (actually a little more light). I used wire nuts to splice everything together.
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Here it is powered on. I can individually shut off bulbs, though I don't plan to.
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No more halogen!
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Additional notes: I did not like the GE Reveal CFLs. Their white point was pleasant but the color rendering index is terrible. It is particularly weak in the deep red. I looked at a Netflix mailer and it looked orange. Very obvious.

So I returned the Reveals and bought the regular 2700K GE bulbs and while they are more yellow, the CRI is better. Of course, neither match the quality of the halogen light. And I do read in this room (textbooks) so that matters. Also my monitor is calibrated, so I guess I'm more picky in this room.
Fast_Ed
Posts: 550
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:45 pm

Re: Halogen to CFL conversion for torchiere

Post by Fast_Ed »

This is much less flammable too!

Though there is a bit more mercury in it... How much? I have no idea.

Need pics of netflix envelope to illustrate lack of red light. Of course.. maybe the camera will be innacurate in it's registering of the color red.. And, what if my monitor is incorrectly calibrated?

I'm beginning to develop some anxiety over all of this. Maybe you should just leave it to my imagination..
kevm14
Posts: 15201
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Halogen to CFL conversion for torchiere

Post by kevm14 »

CRI of the GE reveal CFL bulbs: 70

CRI of the regular 2700K GE CFL bulbs: 82

70 is terrible. A lower number means there are more valleys across the color spectrum. If the lamp is not producing the wavelength, it can't reflect to your eyes. Halogen is basically 100. Note that white point is largely just the arithmetic mean of these spectrum values.

http://cssnorthamerica.com/pdf/lamp_com ... _chart.pdf

Best CFL appears to be ~91.

Spectrum comparison:
http://www.topbulb.com/find/cri.asp

RE: the Netflix mailer - it is supposed to be a pretty saturated red. It looked orange under the Reveal CFL. I walked it over to my window and using daylight, it looked red. Under the regular 2700K CFL, the deep red matches the daylight much better.

I believe CRI is also an issue with LED lighting.

For eye strain, if you can't find (or don't have) high CRI CFLs, your next best bet is halogen (actually better but taking into account energy/heat....).
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