Philips "Halogena" energy saver

[yuandrew]

I came across a new Philips light bulb on the shelves at Home Depot.

If anyone remembers the Philips Long Life "Square Bulbs" from the mid-80's to the early 90's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCnp1nv3UkY; well, they're back but with a change. These newer bulbs have a halogen "inner capsule" in them and also incorporate some sort of infrared reflective coating on the interior of the bulb to reflect the heat back onto the filament to produce 30% more light for a given wattage.

At this time, they have two different wattages available. There's a 40 watt version that was supposed to be as bright as 60 watt and a 75 watt version that was supposed to be as bright as a 100 watt. It sounded a bit over-stating but the lumens were 800 and 1600 respectively. A pack of two is about $10

Unlike compact fluorescents, they can be dimmed easily and have no mercury in them.

 

[mdocod]

sounds like IRC tech, I was looking for them at home depot awhile ago because I keep hearing about them on the AM radio, but no luck... I'll have to check again.. Do they sell any versions in bi-pin bare halogens? or MR-16s?

 

[yuandrew]

Re: Philips "Halogena" energy saver (update)

Well, it's been four months since I first posted this thread but I ended up buying a pack of the 70 watt (100 watt equivalent) bulbs today. I'm only using one of them in a table lamp as of now.

 

[yuandrew]

Some Pictures:


The Package

Looks pretty ordinary

Trying to get the inner capsule

 

[cat]

I wonder what the point is. They're not as "energy-saving" as the usual fluorescent type energy-saver ' long-life bulbs.

 

[2xTrinity]

I wonder what the point is. They're not as "energy-saving" as the usual fluorescent type energy-saver ' long-life bulbs.

For applications where fluorescents don't work well, these are still better than standard incans. for example, rooms with frequent on/off cycling, or dimming fixtures (dimmable CFLs are pretty glitchy last I tried them).

 

[StarHalo]

I wonder what the point is. They're not as "energy-saving" as the usual fluorescent type energy-saver ' long-life bulbs.

Some halogens score a 100 CRI. I'll pay a little extra for that.

 

[snarfer]

I thought that all halogens were 100 CRI. Are there some exceptions?

 

[StarHalo]

GE's Reveal Halogens are probably not 100 CRI since the bulb glass is neodymium-doped. There are probably others, but I'm not familiar with all of them.

I've been searching for the perfect indoor light bulb for many years now, and am still looking. Halogens do indeed have great color rendering, but every one I've tried is so warm that the colors don't look entirely correct from all the yellow. I'm getting good results from the newer CFLs, namely from Sylvania. Their "Soft White" is a very nice even 3000K with unusually good rendering for a florescent, and the "Cool White" 3500K has color rendering like I've never seen from a CFL, though its color temp is too cool for most rooms.

Still searching..