By the end of this year General Electrics will stop making and selling CFL bulbs in the U.S. The decided to phase out CFL bulbs because retailers have been moving away from CFLs which under regulations proposed for next year will have a hard time qualifying for the Energy Star rating. Smart move I must say. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/b...ent/ge-to-phase-out-cfl-light-bulbs.html?_r=0
Frankly, I'm sorry to see the incandescent light bulbs fade from existence. So far I have managed to avoid the mess of the current bulb technology, but my stockpile of incandescent bulbs will eventually run out. Virtually all the current light technology are noise polluters generating interference throughout the AM and shortwave radio spectrum. The bulb noise just adds to the digital hash from computer-related electronics, dimmer switches, appliance motors and digital switching powe supplies. It is difficult to listen to a distant AM radio station on a table radio. Radio amateurs have to cope with hash from consumer products and cable TV systems. Unfortunately the FCC budget has so badly shrunken over the years that there is little to no enforcement against manufacturers to clean up the radio spectrum.
If you liked incandescent bulbs then I'm sure you'll find this interesting: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...-MIT-makes-them-more-efficient-than-LEDs.html So maybe incandescent bulbs aren't gone forever.
I'm glad to see that they're making a return to incandescent light bulbs, too. They thought for a while that selling the compact fluorescent bulbs would make them more money, but a lot of people don't want them for various reasons. I would prefer to have incandescent light bulbs back, even if they are the original ones. The prospect of having them return and be more efficient before is an even better proposition. As long as they follow through with it and actually start selling either one again after phasing out CFLs. LED bulbs are good too as an alternative. If I couldn't get the incandescent bulb back for better reading at night and it being easier on my eyes, then I would settle for LEDs. I hope incandescents make an official return. Their profit will increase if they do.
I am confused about the idea that an LED or other high efficiency bulb would emit noise or interference frequencies. It is incandescent that wastes energy by producing wavelengths other than light, mainly heat. LED is a cool, efficient light, no breakable glass and a massively longer lifespan. The only reason to prefer filament bulbs that I can think of is habit. And you can get LEDs at a very wide range of intensity and color, including those that mimic the old bulbs.
Penny and others, the documentation on interference by LED lights dates back to at least 2012 with research by the ARRL (American Radio Relay League). I'm sorry there are too many links for me to list here, but this search link tells a tale from one national organization: https://www.google.com/search?q=arrl+led+light+interference A number of other sources show up when eliminating the ARRL from the search: https://www.google.com/search?q=led+bulb+interference Be sure to look at the "Related Searches" at the page bottoms. Links include abbreviations of "rf" and "rfi". These translate to "radio frequency" and "radio frequency interference" that are commonly used in the literature. You'll see links relating to traffic lights, AM radios, TV sets and more. Unfortunately the interference isn't limited to bulbs. Put a AM portable radio near your desktop computer and see what happens to reception. My Samsung S6 smartphone drives my AM bedside table radio crazy if I put the phone next to the radio. The wireless charger, when charging the phone, interferes with the radio. Some wallwarts, those cube-shaped power supplies that power so many of today's consumer electronics, are absolutely terrible. Over the years I have encountered rfi caused by motors in appliances and by switching power supplies. I pointed the loca electric company to a house two blocks away -- he found a defective washing machine timer -- and pointed him in another direction of power line noise. That resulted in him finding improperly prepared ends of power lines runs. Cut off, the end of multi-strand cable was just wrapped with electrical tape. Water seeped in, rusting the wire srrands, and when the wind blew the rubbing strands would generate small sparks. It was 2 miles from my place. As someone who grew up listening to international shortwave broadcasting stations and to distant AM stations -- listening to to hometown baseball, basketball, football, and hockey games -- across NA for decades before the Internet began to take hold ~1993 for the public, I'm sensitive to the problems of rf pollution. Sorry, I don't been to belabor the rfi subject. The digItal noise problem to users of the radio spectrum is akin to hobby and professional astronomers who campaign for dark skies against those who would light everything that possible. Hope this helps shed incandescent light on the subject. Questions, please ask.
I'm pretty sure that has to do with other components changing voltage rather than the LED. LED light has come a long way over the past couple of years.
