Dude, I'm just reacting to the way you're speaking to me. (misguided opinion? If you're going to talk to me like I'm some child or airhead, I'm going to do the same to you)
As far as jumping to conclusion on the environmental debate, I'm the LAST person you're going to see supporting Greenpeace. I try very hard to found all of my arguments on a strong, scientific basis.
Why am I so certain that the price of LED bulbs will come down? The same reason that CD & DVD players don't cost $2000 today. If you're going to talk about economics, act like you know something about it instead of letting me do all the talking so that you can pounce on what I say when it's convenient (ahhh debate tactics...). As far as the "flicker" issue, you're commenting on an issue that can easily be resolved through engineering, if it hasn't been done already...a hint on that would be AC->DC conversion and capacitors in the circuitry of the bulb.
Lastly, there are plenty of industries where we have regulated out a product for an inferior one in the name of efficiency and safety. I don't see why incandescent bulbs should be any different.
Here's 3 points, not written by me:
Quote:
1. When incandescent lights are powered by AC, the power through them isn't constant. Each half-cycle there is a surge that heats the filament slightly above its equilibrium point, followed by a power sag when the filament cools down again. The output of the incandescent therefore varies slightly over a half-cycle, but it takes sensitive equipment to detect this variation.
This flicker does not happen if the light is powered by constant DC voltage.
2. If the light emitting diode (LED) is powered by rectified AC current without any filtering, yes it will flicker and even go completely out when the current goes to zero. Filtering to change this rectified AC into DC will reduce this flicker to an arbitrarily low level.
3. Being basically a gas discharge tube, a compact fluorescent light (CFL) flickers because it needs a fair amount of voltage each half-cycle to start the discharge and will go out when the voltage drops below a critical voltage. However, the CFL tube is coated with a fluorescent substance that will continue to emit light for a short time after the excitation stops. The flicker is therefore not as bad as it might be.
The CFL's flicker can also be made less noticeable by running at a higher voltage and frequency so that the CFL gas will emit over a greater percentage of the cycle and there will be a shorter duration for the dark periods.
|