Efficient Lighting 56% better than CFL

[AntronX]

At my local hardware store I found these Phillips Alto F32T8 fluorescent light bulbs that run at 100 Lumen per Watt (2500 Lumen at 25 W). I also bought pretty cool dual bulb T8 fixture that has very reflective film coating, and electronic solid state instant start ballast. Hooked it up to kill-a-watt meter and got 44W and 0.96 power factor! These lights are brighter, compared to compact fluorescent lights I was using before. CFLs typically are rated 64 Lumen/W (900 Lumen at 14W), so these Alto T8 bulbs are 56% brighter than CFLs using same power. I had four 14W rated (60W incandescent equivalent) CFLs lighting up my work bench and they pulled 60W together at pretty bad 0.50 power factor. Now, these new lights are brighter, have almost no reactive load and are using less power at the same time!

[TEG]

That is close to LED efficiency...

[AntronX]

I remember looking at Cree data sheet and 100 L/W was achievable only below 1/3rd of maximum power output.

Edit: Cree XLamp® XR-E can do 107 lumen in cool white at 1W, but at max power of 3W it does 200 lm or 67 lm/W.

So, to match light output of my dual T8 fixture I will need 41 Cree LEDs running at 1W each. Cree will have to sell them at less than $1 a piece.

[TEG]

This was a few years ago:

Gadgets: Ultra High Efficiency LED Created

LEDs face the lumens per watt debate

[TEG]

Yes, $/lumen - no contest - LED is still very expensive.

[DaveD]

I believe that the full model number for that bulb is Philips F32T8/ADV830/XLL ALTO 25W. There are other "Philips Alto F32T8" bulbs that aren't nearly as efficient.

[AntronX]

This was a few years ago:

Gadgets: Ultra High Efficiency LED Created

LEDs face the lumens per watt debate

131 lm/W is very impressive. But looking at 683 lm/W maximum theoretical luminous efficacy, it's 19.2% efficient at converting electrical energy to light. For fun, 100 W tungsten incandescent light bulb is only 2.6% efficient, or 97.4% of electrical energy is transferred to heat.

[AntronX]

I believe that the full model number for that bulb is Philips F32T8/ADV830/XLL ALTO 25W. There are other "Philips Alto F32T8" bulbs that aren't nearly as efficient.

Mine says Philips F32T8/ADV841/XEW ALTO 30K hours, 4100K color, 85 CRI. I paid $3 per bulb ($30 for pack of 10 at HomeDepot)

[DaveD]

Mine says Philips F32T8/ADV841/XEW ALTO 30K hours, 4100K color, 85 CRI. I paid $3 per bulb ($30 for pack of 10 at HomeDepot)

Looks like that's the Philips F32T8/ADV841/XEW/ALTO 25W. Good price you found there!

[SByer]

Tube florescents driven by electronic ballasts are quite efficient. The lighting we have on the fish tank is 6 T5s driven by two high-efficiency IceCap ballasts. T5s are even better than T8s at lm/w, though not by much. The bulbs are a bit harder to find - I'm only now starting to see T5s show up at the hardware store.

Tubes, when electronically driven, have many advantages over CFLs - high brightness quickly, no humming, no electrical interference. I switched to electronic ballasts for the garage 4ft T12s, and was happy to kiss the loud initial thunking of the magnetic ballast goodbye. It's just the form factor that can be tricky - tubes aren't in vogue right now it seems.

If you're handy, you can get really good lighting in the form of aquarium retrofit kits - good end caps, ballasts, reflectors. It's all geared towards trying to provide enough light for corals while being as efficient as possible - and not dumping tons of heat into the water that the chiller just has to take right out again. No cheapo builder's specials here.

Even though LEDs are still expensive, I already refuse to buy any more CFLs except for the cheesiest of applications (e.g., the outdoor light by the garbage can).