I've worked at GE on the development of this bulb. Dimming of the halogen capsule instead of a sharp turn-off was actually patented by a competitor who never released a product like this. Also, this lamp has just about the smallest room for the driver electronics of all CFLs, so an actual temperature compensation simply did not fit. There existed a different version with heater wire wrapped around the CFL tube instead of the halogen capsule, providing ca. 10-second runup without the light intensity and color changes.

@DennisKrger

Ай бұрын

Would a PTC really take up more space than a capacitor? I sounds even simpler than the cap, so I guess there's a good reason you skipped it, but it seems kinda obvious, even for the time.

@liryan

Ай бұрын

There you have it. A predatory patent ruins the day again

@mr_b_hhc

Ай бұрын

@@liryan But the patent system is so good for the bottom line of businesses... come now be reasonable, they just do not make enough money from us as it is, we have to allow them this protection XD, sigh...

@TheVictorotciV

Ай бұрын

One of the reasons I love this channel is for comments like this. Where else would we have an insider perspective on topics like these? Thank you for your comment!

@jsax01001010

Ай бұрын

I was looking for the patent you mentioned as I'm always curious how companies manage to get patents on relatively simple concepts. In the process, I stumbled upon a patent from Osram Sylvania filed in 2005 for controlling, switching, and dimming a halogen bulb with a temperature compensation circuit, so it looks GE was out of luck with that idea too.

Yo dawg, I heard you like lightbulbs. So I put a lightbulb in your lightbulb, so you can light while you light.

@d3j4v00

Ай бұрын

Somebody had to say it.

@pandapolygon

Ай бұрын

nice april fool joke

@FaithyJo

Ай бұрын

You're the bulb now, dawg

@Konarcoffee

Ай бұрын

Meme literally older than the lightbulb discussed here

@stylis666

Ай бұрын

@@Konarcoffee Dated! 🤣

love how so much R&D was poured into fluorescent lighting only for LEDs to just immediately become the singular best lighting technology, and for old style halogens to probably stay way more common due to cars

@brianfunt2619

Ай бұрын

Well, I think a lot more R&D went into LEDs. Just look at how good the ones on the market today are

@zachbrenner9959

Ай бұрын

​@@brianfunt2619 It was enough r&d that the inventor of the blue led won a novel prize for it

@calebweldon8102

Ай бұрын

Yea it’s kinda boring how often really clever engineering gets replaced by better material science,

@chriscluver1940

Ай бұрын

"Singular best" is a stretch; personally I'm tired of every light source moving to LEDs, ESPECIALLY car headlights. There are trade-offs with any solution, like his "sodium lamp streetlight vs LED streetlight" video.

@brianfunt2619

Ай бұрын

@@chriscluver1940 What is the matter with LED car headlights?

2:30 UGLY? Slander. The twisty bulbs had character and charm. Their real weakness was that I always felt like I was going to snap the things when I went to screw them in tightly.

@orangejjay

Ай бұрын

You were screwing them in using the bulb itself instead of the base that the tubes connect to? 😮

@Cathowl

Ай бұрын

​@@orangejjay Yeah on a NORMAL bulb it feels like a better grip and also I don't like my hand that close to the connection.

@TheAngelsHaveThePhoneBox

21 күн бұрын

@@orangejjay In some light fixtures, that was the only possible way.

Referring to Wikipedia as "this website I found" gets me _every single time._ It's just perfect.

@zyeborm

Ай бұрын

So many people have an irrational hate boner for it.

@johanmetreus1268

26 күн бұрын

as a decade long editor there, the description pleases me immensly.

@DashsChannel

16 күн бұрын

Referring to CFL bulbs as "twisty bois" is what got me. I almost spat out my drink laughing.

@macsnafu

14 күн бұрын

Hey, it might be a really useful site! ;-) But seriously, I'm so tired of people repeating what other people say about not using Wikipedia as a resource, as if they're incapable of deciding for themselves how good the information on any particular article is, and can't actually engage with any argument based on a Wikipedia article.

@johanmetreus1268

13 күн бұрын

@@macsnafu Wikipedia is contrary to the common buzz an excellent REsource, in spite of not being a *reliable source* in itself..

As a child I believed the slow turning on was the reason energy-saving lamps saved energy. We still have a lot CFLs in the house, because they won’t die. I was so happy, when one of the CFLs in the ceiling light in the bathroom died. I could finally install a LED bulb so the light actually turns on when pressing the switch and not five minutes later.

@Lexify

Ай бұрын

My parents told me that every time I complained about how shit they were. The worst part is they still have a bunch of the first generation in their house so when I go to visit in some rooms the lightswitch takes forever 🤦

@veggiet2009

Ай бұрын

Logical

@runed0s86

Ай бұрын

My great aunt had vision problems in her house. I replaced all her lights with led last year. She can actually read her books again! CFLs are slow and full of mercury! Her electric bill is down by over half!

@Aweoe

Ай бұрын

You can just replace them now. Its fine.

@davel4030

Ай бұрын

When this was an issue for me I just installed a single low-power incandescent and the rest were CFL so I would get some light immediately and then a lot of light in a few minutes

The cold starts were great for a light on a wake-up timer... nice dim light that brightened over time to wake you up gently.

@SlickBlackCadillac

Ай бұрын

Feature not a bug

@Tunkkis

3 күн бұрын

​@@SlickBlackCadillac A bug turned feature.

I just want to point out that "fix[ing] the sometimes" is one of the most fundamentally satisfying things in life to me, and I wish we would focus on it more as a species

>15 years ago >2009 What are you talking about, 2009 was like 3 years ag... oh my god

@dickdickling9389

Ай бұрын

My thoughts exactly 😞😞

@matasa7463

Ай бұрын

*crumbles to dust*

@NoahGooder

Ай бұрын

god i feel old

@alfepalfe

Ай бұрын

I recently bought a used 2018 ThinkPad, While the math may check out I refuse to believe it was made six years ago.

@katrinabryce

Ай бұрын

I bought my first CFL bulb in 1996 which was 28 years ago 👵🏻. Mainly because I got fed up with the tungsten ones burning out.

I'm convinced that Alec could make a 30 minute video about paint drying so interesting that I'd sit glued to my screen the entire time. Best channel on KZread.

@charliesullivan4304

Ай бұрын

You joke but there's interesting chemistry in that - evaporation of solvents but also polymerization reactions, sometimes with the air it's exposed to, possibly enhanced by catalysts which used to be toxic heavy metals but are usually less toxic now.

@thegingineer0

Ай бұрын

Brown paint's got some super interesting properties as it dries, since it has some hue changes as the different dyes react at different times. I'd gladly watch it.

@eaterdrinker000

Ай бұрын

Powder coating! That might require him to seek an industrial setting, just as Destin Smarter does.

@jaredwilliams8621

Ай бұрын

Didn't he kinda do that with the whole Christmas light painting videos?

@nitehawk86

Ай бұрын

@@charliesullivan4304 Dammit you have convinced us. We need a paint-drying video!

One of the good things about this channel is there's no huge over-sized microphone taking up 1/3 the image, and the sound is recorded with just the right amount of natural souding room reverberation to sweeten the audio.

In the early 2000s, I swipped a CFL from a house I was leaving with 5 other tenants. It had a "globe" envelope, started very dim, and had a long warmup. The temperature was nice and low (I too am sensitive to clinically white interior illumination.) I used it as my bedside lamp for about 12 years, during which it came on in the morning when I woke up and burned all day until I went to bed. I still miss that bulb.

I did the conversion of the 5°F for y'all: It's -15°C, 464° Rankine, 215.15 Kelvin, about -3°Rømer, -6.7°Newton, 180°Delisle, and -16°Réaumur Edit: Whoopsie - 0x8badf00d caught me in a mistake; it's not 215,15 Kelvin, but 258,15 Kelvin!

@quantisedspace7047

Ай бұрын

+1000 for not putting a degree symbol alongside the K.

@ericw.1620

Ай бұрын

Should have had everything other than C

@omnirath

Ай бұрын

@@ericw.1620the rest of the world aside from the us left the chat

@mortisCZ

Ай бұрын

I expected Celsius and Kelvin my good sir but you have outdone yourself. It's been years since I ever had to convert from those strangely inverted °Delisle.

@VishalDudhani

Ай бұрын

❤ i love you 💓

Alec, have you considered covering ventilation as a topic? ERVs, bathroom and utility room fans vs in line duct fans, hood vents, etc? Air quality is on a lot of people's minds, and it would be cool if you covered all of the HVAC acronym!

@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648

Ай бұрын

This is also a possible side issue as talk is going around (to much consternation of the old fashioned set) about disincentivizing the gas stove due to the higher level of indoor air pollution it can generate compared to electric technologies. One obvious answer to this is better ventilation, but in order to avoid home heating energy waste needs to kick in only when needed for an operating gas stove. This should be a concern of kitchen remodelers and architects.

@somethingsomething404

Ай бұрын

@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648could you imagine using a gas stove when it’s -30 outside if it required ventilation, depending on how much fresh air we’re talking the furnace might not be able to keep up at super low temps

@Mystprism

Ай бұрын

Furnaces typically recirculate indoor air, they don't draw from outside. On a well sealed modern house you really get very little fresh air unless you open windows. It also drags down the efficiency of bathroom and hood vent fans because they're fighting the negative pressure they create in your house.

@M_J_nan

Ай бұрын

A very good idea now when you (not Scandinavian) people start to insulate. It's unnecessary to repeat our mistakes. Good insulation must be accompanied by sufficient ventilation - otherwise poor indoor air quality and mold forming...

@Mystprism

Ай бұрын

@@M_J_nan This is precisely the kind of thing I'd like to see Alec get into. Mainly the use of ERVs to be energy efficient while ventilating.

My dad was an energy saving nerd. We still have some early CFLs in use, but everything was replaced with LEDs when they burned out. My dad used the very blue LEDs at first, but they have all since been replaced with soft white LEDs. Much better. I won't use anything but soft white LEDs in my own apartment.

I have been a lighting consultant and owned my lighting supply for over 43 years and it’s been the energy laws that my state, California caused the country to eventually have to follow. In the beginning of the mandatory use of CFLs, dimming as not an option and one color temperature was how we got them. Slowly they added the colors but, as usual, each manufacturer had a different idea of what a 3000 Kelvin or a 2700 Kelvin so you could not mix manufacturer’s as you could see a color shift. We also had a lot of issues with screw in units when the socket had to be in the up position and then there were life expectancy issues when the lamp was used in an enclosed fixture and bad light output when used in exterior fixtures in cold environments. I, for 1 am glad we have moved on and we do sell an interesting LED replacement bulbs that fit the existing PL type fixtures but if you can, replace the fixture with a dedicated LED light source given that you can get more light, higher lumens per watt in a safer package and will last 35 to 50,000 hours compared to 20,000 hours and should be disposed of as hazardous waste. My 2 cents.

As a seventy-one year old, I consider myself fairly technologically intelligent. I am a retired broadcast radio engineer which had to be a jack of all trades. But I always learn something new from your videos. Keep up the good work.

@quickbf

Ай бұрын

High 5

@mikemandell132

Ай бұрын

You must love all these CFL and LED videos with their cheap junk (mostly) switching power supplies which create enormous RF interference. You also surely know the FCC certification on this junk is only a manufacturer statement of compliance and nothing is or ever has been actually tested by the FCC.

@opera5714

Ай бұрын

GE R&D was developing one with a toroid in the center and exited the gas back in 1980. I saw the prototype. It didn't go anywhere.

@mernokallat645

Ай бұрын

@@mikemandell132 In European countries we have CFLs which actually use proper EMI filters. I'm not sure about North America.

CFLs starting out dim was a huge bonus for me, when I was a teenager my mom would wake me up in the morning by just opening the door and flipping the light switch on. Great way to start your day getting blinded as someone says "time for school". After replacing the lights in my room with CFLs I no longer got blinded first thing in the morning.

@Luciano_Intorno

Ай бұрын

I really miss the slow start up in the bathroom, like mentioned in the video. It was great to be able to see that you were peeing all over the floor in your 3 am stupor without getting blinded by a full powered light.

@meneldal

Ай бұрын

@@Luciano_Intorno I think it sucks that they don't really make low power leds for bathroom, no I don't want a 40W incandescent equivalent, I'd take 15W to not hurt myself. Thankfully there's a solution, battery-powered leds that are motion activated and give you just enough light and last a pretty long time.

I wanted to take a moment of your time and say Thank You for all the years of informing and educating us. I have spent countless hours viewing your videos and it has impacted my life, "positively". THANK YOU.

Seeing the "ground breaking light bulb from Phillips" brought back some serious memories, my father was an architectural advisor for a very wealthy neighborhood near me and these were all the rave. He would quite frequently take me on trips to see job sites and those boxes were everywhere! His passion turned me into an architect and I very much so remember these and feeling like they were foreign damn near alien lightbulbs when I was a kid!

Alec, I recently replaced the taillights on my MK6 VW Jetta, and you'll be tickled to know I specifically bought new fixtures that have amber colored rear turn signals; thus righting a decade-long wrong.

@ajc5869

Ай бұрын

In some Mk4 Golfs and Jettas and all Mk5 Passats I always thought it was so cool how VW made the entire lens red, yet the turn signal was amber when lit. Always impressed me!

@pandapolygon

Ай бұрын

nice april fool joke

@taxirob2248

Ай бұрын

In the part of the California vehicle code that sets basic equipment standards, amber turn signals on the rear of a vehicle are specifically forbidden. I looked it up when I was a cabbie and had come across a Crown Vic that had them, and so I wondered why all of them didn't.

@dosmastrify

Ай бұрын

Now somebody knows it's a turn signal The second it illuminates!

@asharak84

Ай бұрын

@@taxirob2248 Is this an odd april fools joke, or just a mistake? Takes 2 seconds to check - amber or red is allowed at rear, amber or white at the front. California Vehicle Code 24953

Glad you changed the thumbnail to say it wasn't an april fools, genuinely wouldn't have clicked on it otherwise.

@IstasPumaNevada

Ай бұрын

I wish I'd noticed that.

Thank you for captioning your videos!! It allows me to enjoy your content much easier :)

Ah - growing up in central Queensland it was rare to notice the low light output at the start for CFL's due to the ambient temps for most of the year. The lower heat output coming from the desk lamp next to you was always appreciated though. My Dad was an early adopter of these when they appeared on this side of the world. Pity LEDs took so long, it was years after I saw their power consumption comparisons on a Mythbusters episode before I could even buy one LED bulb in a specialty lighting shop over here! Oh, and I'm with you on the "thumbs down" to red turn signals cancelling the brake light. "I'm slowing down so I can turn" is clearly understandable with separate brake lights and turn signal light.

@DooMMasteR

Ай бұрын

Yeah we had CFL lamps with G23 sockets in the early 90s already, and 2G11

“According to this web site I found”

@wheressteve

Ай бұрын

I wonder where I could find a website like that ? It appears it could possibly be useful and one day may even be popular.

@gothicfan52

Ай бұрын

wikiledia? wikindedia? what was it again?

@firstletterofthealphabet7308

Ай бұрын

@@gothicfan52It’s Wikifeet, trust me.

@OrigamiMarie

Ай бұрын

Funny every time 😆

@thejunkman

Ай бұрын

@@wheressteve It is hard to find these days, sometimes you have to get the 2nd page of google, past all the sponsored results.

I absolutely loved the CFL for a bathroom lamp, it didn't blow your eyeballs out at 2am in the bathroom.

@andrewt9204

Ай бұрын

Why I just keep a fairly bright led nightlight on in there, it's like 3 watts. It's sufficient most times unless I really need the mirror for shaving.

@vwestlife

Ай бұрын

A nightlight plugged into the outlet solves that problem too.

@microwaveoven2

Ай бұрын

Then it dies after 1000 on/off cycles

@tl1024

Ай бұрын

@@microwaveoven2 willing to accept that, can't buy a traditional bulb anyway.

@GERALD_786

Ай бұрын

walking through the bathroom just to take a dump at the middle of the night and all of the sudden you meet the gate of heaven

Am i the only one that likes the look of curly cfl bulbs? I wish they would make led bulbs that looked like curly cfl bulbs.

@zyeborm

Ай бұрын

I liked the look, but they sucked in every other way. You could if you were a mad lad get a (broken?) CFL, blow,wash,suck? the phosphor out of the inside of it then string a flexible LED filament through it. You can buy them fairly cheap. You're going to want to lube the filament and the tube and use a pull string to get it in there but it'd work. Print up a new base for it or something with a power supply in it.

And you know what gives consistent output? This channel. It's consistently amazing.

As a kid I enjoyed the slow startup of the CFLs, especially in the winter mornings. My eyes had a chance to "wake up" and adjust to a brighter room more slowly.

@tomhsia4354

Ай бұрын

Nice profile pic! I personally find the instant on LEDs to be more favourable. My solution to lights being blinding is to have a weaker, easily accessible light in the room.

@DJ-rf3bn

Ай бұрын

I agree there's a certain charm to CFLs.

@n900video

Ай бұрын

I programmed my LED bedroom light to do this in the morning, precisely for that purpose😀

@philopharynx7910

Ай бұрын

I use a dimmer. I turn it down as I'm winding down for bed because lower light helps me get ready to sleep and then when I wake up they are already low.

@grandetaco4416

Ай бұрын

I enjoyed sitting in the bathroom doing my business when I suddenly I got this weird realization that it got brighter in the room. I loved watching our light sensing night light suddenly turn off after a minute of CFL warm up.

"Unenclosed CFLs work great at room temperature" "Oh, don't tell me you're dead. Well hold on then, I gotta get a different bulb"

@renakunisaki

Ай бұрын

They work great until they don't work at all.

It's great fun when you rant! Greetings from Sweden, the country with snow half the year, and we never have problems with snow or ice on our street lights or car headlights...

Very interesting and informative. The effort in making those time lapse recordings (of lamps starting in the cold) so succinct and clear to show a point is great! Alec, your deep dives are like relaxing nerd meditation to me. ❤

Your descriptions are always on a new level of meta-commentary.

@Breakfast_of_Champions

Ай бұрын

Only comparatively.

@nitehawk86

Ай бұрын

I am commenting on your comment about meta-commentary.

Aggressive Amalgam is my favorite Math Metal band

@philopharynx7910

Ай бұрын

Didn't they branch out into Chem Rock?

feels like a long time since I have been that enthusiastic for a TC video ! This one's brilliant and inspiring. Great recipe overall.

Fluorescent light complexity is the result of decades of development where they were the only bulb technology that could save energy. I started to scratch the surface of this complexity when I had some T12 bulbs fail to light, bought some LED replacement tubes, turned out the old magnetic ballasts couldn't light the LEDs or the fluorescents anymore. Got new electronic ballasts and the old fluorescent bulbs worked again. In the process of reading spec sheets I came across instant start versus rapid start, and all kinds of other differences that I had never heard of before. I suspect some engineers spent their entire career refining fluorescent light bulbs.

I still use CFLs in my bathroom for the very reason you mentioned. When you first turn on the light you're not blinded by bright light. It gives time for your eyes to adjust.

@k6usy

Ай бұрын

Dimmable LEDs are a thing. My GE Z-wave smart switches have a cool feature where if you hold the switch in the down position when the switch is off the light will come on at 1% instead of the last setting. It’s nice for those midnight runs to the kitchen.

@mernokallat645

Ай бұрын

As a nerd obsessed with plasma I will stick to my fluorescent lamps forever. LEDs are boring to me.

@BabyMakR

Ай бұрын

I have never seen a CFL take more than a second to reach full brightness. Of course, I live in Northern Australia, and have never experienced a night colder than about 6dC, so that might have something to do with it.

@BabyMakR

Ай бұрын

@@mernokallat645Pretty sure LEDs still use Plasma. Just a much smaller amount of it.

@Tony-pq3xv

Ай бұрын

@BabyMakR My CFL's take about 5 seconds to reach full brightness even at room temperature.

I received one of those “groundbreaking” yellow Phillips LED bulbs for free from a college recruiter event back in 2012. I still use it in my reading lamp and it’s still my favorite reading light. I’ve probably gotten much more than $60 worth of use out of it! Awesome product, and outlasted a few other led bulbs I’ve bought since then.

I’m glad you have a lot of time for this stuff . You give me answers I may not find on my own , you may be…..different , but all the science / electrical, and engineering types are . And I say thank you !

Loved the episode. As far as Farenheit and Celcius goes: it's not really easy or convenient to search this stuff on mobile. When I watch your video on a computer - sure. it doesn't take much time, but on mobile device it's a chore. Thx for the great video! PS. My favorite episode is still a video about color brown :D

1:18 Not only do I remember that Philips bulb, I have one in service to this day. Sure it was a bit pricey, but it's in a location that is hard to get at. It's longevity and 'instant on' have made it's initial cost absolutely worthwhile.

@Green__one

Ай бұрын

My experience is pretty much the opposite, I had tons of those bulbs, but they had extremely short lifespans, way shorter than incandescent, and were ridiculously expensive. I did like the color rendering, but any hope of saving money over the long run vanished really quickly when I discovered how short their lifespan was.

@ToyKeeper

Ай бұрын

I'd like to have one of those for historical purposes. I don't even like its ugly yellow beam; I just like what it meant for the lighting industry, the first LED bulb to win the L-Prize Competition. Plus, remote phosphors are really cool.

@Breakfast_of_Champions

Ай бұрын

I have three of these, all still perfectly OK.

@somethingsomething404

Ай бұрын

I remember the days when they cost 25x that of an incandescent but people still bought them for the energy savings

@Dutchreason

Ай бұрын

These generally tend to run pretty hot. I've had one catch fire in the last year... well producing smoke. It did not have a cover on in (upside down as an unprotected ceiling light).

Lol its wild to me to hear that dope looking spiral-shaped bulb being called "ugly." Never even occurred to me that someone could have preferred the look/shape of an incandescent lightbulb. Nor did the ~1 minute to full brightness ever bother me at all.

@darksu6947

Ай бұрын

Those funny shaped bulbs are the dopest dope I ever smoked

@chitlitlah

Ай бұрын

Why would anyone think a helix is ugly compared to an egg? And the time to full brightness, it depends on where it is. In a closet where you're just going to turn it on, grab a shirt, and turn it off? It could be pretty annoying. In almost every other location where you're going to leave it on for many minutes to hours? Why does it matter?

@Kitteh.B

Ай бұрын

No offense, but 'never occurred to you someone would prefer the look/shape of an incandescent'? There's a whole trend right now of "Edison-style LEDs" that use led strips in the shape of fancy filaments to mimic the color and look of old bulbs. It's been a thing for almost a decade

@LRM12o8

Ай бұрын

Well then you're a pretty isolated special case... 😅

@radellaf

Ай бұрын

I don't know _why_ but I loved the clear incandescents, and the look of horribly inefficient dimmed bulbs. The helix just seemed like such a kludge. Take a hot tube, wrap it up in a sizzling hot ball, and then stick heat-sensitive components right on top of it. The engineering, I'll admit, spoiled my appreciation for them. Perhaps, had they been sculpture vs functional, I would have thought them aesthetic.@@chitlitlah

This is one of those channels one stumble upon and oh, boy, I wasn't ready for how much I would love him.

I worked at Home Depot in the electrical department from 2005-2016. I remember every single bulb you showed, and the price point of the yellow Philips LED. Customers made fun of that Yellow Philips LED price and that bulb so much!

My parents used a standard CFL in the garage forever in a cold climate, I don't know if it was in any way useful how dim in started out but I definitely got used to it and expected it growing up. I was visiting over last christmas and flipped the light on one night and about fell down the steps it was so bright, like the view from the neighbors house in Christmas Vacation. Guess that old bulb finally bit the dust and got LED'd!

@melissasmess2773

Ай бұрын

😂

@tomhsia4354

Ай бұрын

I tend to accidently massively overspec LEDs when replacing CFLs, I keep underestimating the effect of age and the warm up do to their brightness. You'll definately be feeling it when I LED the house, my housemates can atest to that.

@brianmiller1077

Ай бұрын

I replaced a CFL with one of those 3 way aimable LED units (from MENARDS!) in our garage and it's like Daylight in there. Did I leave the Garage door open? Nope, light's on.

@Zerbey

Ай бұрын

I had a CFL for my garage that I bought in 2001 that served me faithfully over 4 different houses before finally failing in 2021. 20 years of service. Felt like I'd lost an old friend.

@lajya01

Ай бұрын

I had tubes with old fashion ballast in my garage and they were totally useless below -10c. At least, CFL would eventually come around with enough patience.

My oldest CFL is also my worst performing, and under the worst outdoor conditions! Takes several seconds to illuminate, takes a full minute to get bright, yet it survives -15°C to 40°C each year for at least the last fifteen years!! That's nuts.

@gplustree

Ай бұрын

The ones that take the longest to warm up also tend to survive the most cycles. There are different ways of starting a fluorescent lamp which cause different amounts of damage per cycle, and result in different initial brightness (I think maybe also steady-state brightness too). Anyway the slowest-starting CFLs are often also the most efficient and long-lived ones.

I used to work at a bank which had these extremely slow bulbs. It took about 5 minutes to get to full brightness. This video answers so many questions I had about them.

Thank you for your videos, Alec! They’re a real treat. I can’t help but wonder what odd collections you have built up, but I’m glad you have,.

I appreciate your onslaught and fight against red rear turn signals. As a European transplant living in the US, the amber turn signal reigns supreme and is way less confusing. I say that as an owner of a Mustang, whose sequential turn signals are some of the cooler out there. (Get it? They're LED. So cooler.)

@BixbyConsequence

Ай бұрын

We're different for sure. I recently drove someone from overseas and they were flabbergasted to learn that one simple green light is meant to control both through-traffic and left-turns. "How are you supposed to know if it's ok to turn?", they asked. I told them "When it looks like you won't die!"

@billharris6886

Ай бұрын

Richard, trouble adapting may be due to what you are used to seeing. I grew up in the US and have been driving since 1971, I don't notice any difference between the amber or red turn signal, I just look for the flashing light as a notice of an impending turn. In the US, turn signal lights didn't become a standard feature on cars until the 1950's so, as a result, when I first got my driver's license, there was a significant amount of training associated with Hand Signaled Turns.

@immabird7861

Ай бұрын

First we need to get people to actually use their turn signals then we can worry about distinguishing blinker vs break light.

@billharris6886

Ай бұрын

@@immabird7861 Agreed, that's a good point!

@CptJistuce

Ай бұрын

​@@billharris6886I've lived in the US my entire life and have a vast preference for amber turn signals. A flash of red prompts a bit of mental processing to determine if the car is breaking briefly, turning, or hazarding. A flash of amber means a car is turning (or hazarding). The reverse of this was actually cited as a reason to mandate the third brake light. Since it is JUST a brake light, it is an immediate and unambiguous signal of braking. Animated brake lights are a complicated solution to a problem that only exists because we, as a country, allow cosmetics to be more important than safety.

Speaking of General Electric, did you know that they sometimes rebranded their fuses for a client? I've been volunteering on a 117 year old museum ship, and I found a bunch of fuses in the ship's ancient fuse panel. A lot of them are General Electric branded, but I found a few which were of the exact same model, but had one of two other types of alternate branding; one was a pair of diamonds with s's inside the diamonds, while the others were branded with a simple "C.P.R." - or Canadian Pacific Railway, the ships' original owner. Neat! I don't know if it would be worth covering for an episode, but I thought it was neat to share.

@gamemeister27

Ай бұрын

Huh, sounds like the physical object version of white labeling, which I guess probably predates the software version I'm getting familiar with at work these days.

@mtnentertainment3454

Ай бұрын

@@gamemeister27 Physical objects definitely predate software white labeling. Lots of manufacturing companies (and chinese factories) will apply any branding you want to your order of product. This is why all these drop shipping stores are all selling the same things but with different brands. This is a very old practice.

@tomhsia4354

Ай бұрын

@@gamemeister27 I've done translations for a Chinese water bottle manufacturer and they do quite a bit of white labeling alongside their OEM business. In their case, white labeled products are designed by the manufacturer and customized by the client (mainly logo adjustments and CMF options) while the OEM bottles are designed and exclusively sold by the client. They sell some of their white labeled products under a few of their own brands. A shocking amount of water bottles come from the same few factories, I'm guessing the same goes for many other daily items. That industry also has lots of copying, the specific manufacturer I worked for seems to market themselves as NOT copying others. On a side note, Smart Water Bottles are apparantly a thing now for whatever reason.

@fabiogalletti8616

Ай бұрын

@@gamemeister27 I own an hardware store, and in my are is kind of the norm. For secondary items, usually. Like, a brand of "boutique" spanners offers hammers and tool boxes, too, to give full sets. But those low tech items are a generic hammer, painted in signature colour and branded to merge with the set. If clients wants to have a matching color set, and pays premium for it, well...

@chrisl6546

Ай бұрын

@@mtnentertainment3454Bicycles have been like that for ages - only a few manufacturers make most bicycles in China and Taiwan (Giant is one of them, who also make their own branded bikes). They'll build to your design, or they'll do the whole design & manufacture for you. Some of them make their very high end carbon fiber and boutique steel and/or aluminum frames in the US..

Wow, a KZreadr posted a not prank video on April fools, you sir get a gold star 🌟

The effort you put into making complicated topics like thermodynamics approachable and clear does not go unnoticed. Some of the best scicomm out there, this channel.

"And they did it by taking this already lightbulb in a light bulb looking light bulb and going full turducken on it by stuffing an incandescent light bulb in the middle of the fluorescent light bulb inside of the faux light bulb" THE WAY YOU SAY THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I WATCH YOU! (and maybe for the sciency stuff too lol).

@grantstevens5

Ай бұрын

I am totally stealing the phrase "full turducken" from this video. I will have a need for that phrase some day....

@Kristinapedia

Ай бұрын

@@grantstevens5 i work in hardware i bet I could find a use for it! Lol

Amalgam is a great word. Away back when if my dentist was doing a filling he would press an intercom button and say to his receptionist “prepare an amalgam please”.

@shaystern2453

Ай бұрын

the legs of his receptionist, amal?

@Quince828

Ай бұрын

@@shaystern2453 are you from the 1920’s? Because no one has referred to legs as gams since then. Sounds like a line from an old Hollywood movie

@Blue-Maned_Hawk

Ай бұрын

@@Quince828 Well, diälectal differences can be weird like that sometimes.

@SoundsLegit71

Ай бұрын

Ya, those amalgams ruined my teeth. Because amalgams don't stick to the thooth, the dentist has to undercut the fill spot. That means more of the tooth is ground away. Then, amalgams expand over time, like 10 years cracking the tooth. I had 8 molars done when I was 15 and in my mid 20s my teeth would hurt then i'd get a lung infection every 3 months and almost died.

@Quince828

Ай бұрын

@@Blue-Maned_Hawk lol yup

I love your videos. I just enjoy listening to anything you talk about. And occasionally, I learn something or it makes me think! I like that!

I totally agree with the cold start in the bathroom in the middle of the night. The one use case that was a blessing for the cold CFL start.

I actually like the twirly bulbs, they always just seemed more fun to me for no reason.

@grandetaco4416

Ай бұрын

They are the crazy straw of the lighting world.

I don't mind MPH to KM conversion, as it's a pretty easy *1.6. But F to C is hard man. Please keep it up for those that watch the entire video faithfully, thanks!

@RoryGlynn

Ай бұрын

My friend taught me a trick for it. Fahrenheit maps to to perceived heat as percentage. 100 Fahrenheit is 37.7 degrees or 100% hot. 59 Fahrenheit is 15 Celsius or 59% hot. 0 Fahrenheit is - 18 degrees or 100% cold. :p

@hedgehog3180

Ай бұрын

@@RoryGlynn That is useless for everyone who lives in a place with different temperature ranges than that.

@mernokallat645

Ай бұрын

The ironic thing is that the Fahrenheit scale was invented to replace older temperature scales which used fractions. And now the USA is probably the only country that uses it, in the same time using fractions.

@holyknightthatpwns

Ай бұрын

​@@hedgehog3180very few people regularly experience temperatures far outside of the 0 to 100 F range

@RoryGlynn

Ай бұрын

@@hedgehog3180 it's nonsense. It just sounds plausible for about 20 seconds :p

Possibly the most interesting video you've done. Had no clue about many of the things you explained, and I'm normally a very curious person. Been using mostly CFL lamps since the 1980's when the first good ones came out in Europe, which was a Philips with electronic starter, very small footprint and straight tubes, no more flickering starts as the first ones. Crazy expensive though. Was about $18 back then. Still got one from the late 80's, and it works. Have loads of Osrams from that era also from their best line, only one has died, despite being used a LOT, until LED got really good.

6:37 I have a real life example of this at home. I have a 13w CFL light in an outdoor barn light fixture that runs in a dusk til dawn light. When the outside temperature would drop to about -15°F outside in winter, the light output would drop to about 20% of the normal brightness. Normally not a problem since the snow will reflect the light, but neat from a science perspective.

Props for the graceful and careful way you put the old bulb down at 1:40 such that it didn't make a noise. Here's hoping you got that with very few takes! 💡😁👍

My father bought a couple of the non-hybrid CFLs from a shockingly high quality infomercial product. It's been like 10+ years of using them in two lamps and they both still work, nice warm light, take about 5 min to warm up.

@melissasmess2773

Ай бұрын

They’re all over my house, they won’t go away, like herpes 😂

This reminds me a lot of Nernst lamps, an old type of lamp which worked in almost the same way - heater and glower - using a ceramic incandescent glower that needed to be hot to work.

1:17 "If anybody remembers this ground-breaking LED bulb from Philips" Why yes in fact I do, because I still have a half-dozen of these installed in fixtures in my place _today,_ working just as well as the day I bought them. So, to anybody complaining about LED life, 15 years for even early-technology quality bulbs is a good real-world starting point. Admittedly a few have failed due to issues with the special soldering technique used to bond wires to the strange ceramic circuit boards used inside, but the actual LED and driver boards are still working great, and most of the bulbs are still fully ok.

Came for goofy light bulb, stayed for amazing science of cfl engineering! Really neat video!

I never got the "CFL is ugly" thing. Then again, the amount of time I spend looking at light bulbs can be measured in the seconds putting it into the fitting, and pulling it out and throwing it in the bin.

@tparadox88

Ай бұрын

I thought it was mostly about the light they put off. I was not as bothered by the cold, flat color fluorescents produce by default, but I can see the point. But I'm pretty sure they figured out other color temperatures eventually.

Always loved the warm up of cfls.

Thanks! I'd noticed those bumps on the CFLs but never knew what they were for, just guessed it was some artifact of the manufacturing process.

Ah yes... mention of the LED Traffic Light "but sometimes".... takes me back to the first time we met parasocially, first Technology Connections video I ever saw. I keep returning for the snarky entertainment but have accidentially learned a lot from these videos since then. :-)

Heyyyy, I like the twisty boi look. Also there is something to be said about the engineering skill going into a device that had to twist molten glass into that spiral. Glass blowing of that level was probably incredibly expensive a few hundred years ago.

I bought 3 of those Philips external phosphor LED "bulbs" when they came out, they really are overengineered works of art and I'm glad I have them.

Wonderful classic Technology Connections video!

22:40 Approximately 150,000 people would be interested in the celsius notation. By not doing the conversion yourself (0.2g CO2 for one google search) you just caused 30kg of CO2 emissions. (This is 66 lbs in silly numbers (see what I did there)). But I have to admit, it was an interesting video 😂

@AllenLantz

Ай бұрын

150,000 sounds like way too much. I feel like that number alone encompasses everyone who doesn't know Fahrenheit and only a small fraction will care enough to know how cold it is. Y'all could also just learn both as many of us have

@fischer-felix

Ай бұрын

​@@AllenLantzWith all due respect, I won't learn an inferior system

@AllenLantz

Ай бұрын

@@fischer-felix well you're in luck, because it isn't inferior. Good luck. Also this is a terrible mindset to have, you should learn inferior things to understand what makes them such. For example, learn about communism and socialism to be able to compare and contrast it (or capitalism if you're someone who thinks that's inferior)

@fischer-felix

Ай бұрын

@@AllenLantz well, I've learned it enough to know I don't want to learn it

@AllenLantz

Ай бұрын

@@fischer-felix sad mentality

I personally had extreme light sensitivity as a child. Those CFL lights that started very dim were amazing for me, as it allowed my eyes to slowly adjust to the light increasing and drastically reduced the amount of paid I was in.

@SylviaRustyFae

Ай бұрын

Ive still got light sensitivity and honestly, yea; those lights were always awesome for that feature. Nowadays i just stick to fairy lights for my lightin needs, and have sunglasses for goin out or anywhere like a store

@spruce020

Ай бұрын

That is exactly why I still have those old enclosed CFL s in my bathroom fixture. No squinting and eye pain when I get up in the middle of the night!

@HenryLoenwind

Ай бұрын

@@spruce020If you ever need a replacement in a decade or two, a good home automation system can switch on lamps at different brightness depending on the time of day.

@kenshinjenna

Ай бұрын

@@SylviaRustyFae I've been fortunate enough to have moved into several poorly lit apartments. Still, as someone who leaves the house and wears glasses, I'd kill for a good pair of transitions lenses.

@SylviaRustyFae

Ай бұрын

@@kenshinjenna Im nearsighted but not enuf for me to decide wearin glasses is worth not wearin sunglasses (and i cant wear one over the other; even if designed for such, as is sunglasses or glasses are both a sensory bother) I needed glasses when in school tho, as i cudnt read the board unless in the first or second row, and even then with squintin heh; i dont drive tho, so that rly only ever bugs me when i go to a store i dont alrdy know what i want from that has its menu on the board Thankfully my fiancee can tell me in most those cases, cuz i aint goin somewhere new alone/without him xD

You are like the halogen capsule in a Bright From the Start bulb. No matter the pressure you may be under, your light always shines bright.

One of my favorite nerds. Thanks for the CFL history.

I always knew it was due to vapor pressure but never knew the technical background. Thank you for explaining that.

I love the lighting episodes! So much deadpan humor.

@somethingsomething404

Ай бұрын

Really lights up my life

back in the dark ages, I got lights for my dad's workshop that were the commercial version of that: metal halide fixtures with a 1000 watt halogen bulb thar ran for the warm up cycle of the MH element. of course, they now have LED retrofit bulbs in them.

Damn dude, I know a lot but I learn something every time I watch one of your videos. Nice job.

22:46 Snark has reached critical levels. Love it!

@NutjobGTO

Ай бұрын

Yeah but it's not metric snark so I dunno what he's on about

@joe-skeen

Ай бұрын

April fools!

@mirothiel8039

Ай бұрын

I am here for the snark. Not disappointed.

@CubicSpline7713

Ай бұрын

@@mirothiel8039 He is working his way towards full Grump, probably by the time he is 50.

@mirothiel8039

Ай бұрын

@@CubicSpline7713 it’s when we reach 50 that we have lived long enough to reach maximal snarkitudalness. A master of snark that few in their lives will come close to achieving. It ages like fine wine or whisky. It’s at that age where the subtle nuances of ultimate snarkitude can be achieved and appreciated. A veritable DaVinci of snark he will become.

My elementary school had something similar in the HID fixtures in our Gym. When the lights were first switched on, there were these really bright halogens that would come on for about a minute while the HID lamps warmed up, and then they turned off.

@TravisTev

Ай бұрын

I believe one of my schools had that too. It often appeared in commercial places lit by HID for safety reasons, since after a power interruption HID lights not only take a while to reach full brightness, but can take several minutes to cool down enough to be able to restart at all.

It's just so good to see the right amount of snark again. I've missed it. More snark please! Seriously, it really does make us chuckle :)

My parents built a large addition on to our house and there were about 11 of these globe cfl’s mounted in the ceiling of our new living room (about 13 feet tall and rectangular) All of these lights were on one switch with a few other incandescent dimmable accent bulbs on a separate switch and a ceiling fan with its own lights. I can very much remember coming home at night from school functions and turning on the main lights and it being such an odd light level and temperature. Then, about 5-10 mins later I’d go in the living room and it was hilariously bright and very stark, bouncing off cool tone nearly white walls. It felt like an operating theater once warmed up and was definitely only suitable for use when we, for some reason, needed to see every single thing everywhere all at once. I’d say that the main lighting in that room was used maybe 5% of the time.

Growing up we had a large energy efficient bulb in our ceiling fan in our living room and one of my favorite details about Christmas was waking up having the light turn on and not being able to see the entire living room but after 5 or 10 minutes and drinking some hot chocolate, the room was bright enough to see all of the presents that were under the tree and i got more hyped.

22:55 YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY COMPLAINING SKILLS !!!

@Elesario

Ай бұрын

You underestimate my intolerance for typos!

@343themarine

Ай бұрын

@@Elesario You underestimate my editing power!

@Im_Just_A_Dreamer

Ай бұрын

@@343themarineComplaning?

@343themarine

Ай бұрын

@@Im_Just_A_Dreamer typo, I thought I had fixed before... well, now it should be right.

I had these outside at my last house. They were great as they fired up bright even when it was super cold. The halogen internal bulb would also warm up the CFL tube.

Really interesting take on the evolution of the humble light bulb! Efficiency meets aesthetic design in remarkable ways.

5°F = -15°C for reference

22:50 it's -15C your welcome

@RottnRobbie

14 күн бұрын

_My_ welcome? Whadda ya mean " _my_ welcome "? I didn't welcome anybody, I just got here! ... Oh. Never mind. I just figured out that you meant to type "You're welcome", as in "You are welcome", not "your welcome", as in "the welcome that belongs to you".

No joke, I love those Phillips ones with the yellow trefoil design. I''ve still got one left in service and it looks way better than many of the newer ones that I've bought since.

I also really enjoyed the slow brightening of CFLs in bathrooms, though I also liked it in my bedroom for those early mornings when you just can't handle any sort of lighting; it let you start the day just a tad more graciously.

I had one of the "small ring" fluorescent A19 bulbs in my room growing up ... kind of an initial try at a compact variety of fluorescent bulb. However, my room was in a basically unheated attic. It would often take my light a solid minute or two of flashing, flickering, etc. before it would actually warm the tube enough start to activate the gas in the light during a Wisconsin winter. So much fun.

24:18 That "But Sometimes" video is the one I found your channel through. Been hooked ever since.

I honestly always loved the "Reveal" light bulbs. For the price I really really enjoyed them and would purposefully replace the main lights in the house with them. Great video!! 😊🌎❤️🕺🏻🐶

22:44 I, and almost the entire planet, prefers Celsius to Fahrenheit, but I will admit I enjoyed taking a photo next to a thermometer stating it was 100 degrees in Las Vegas. Greetings from Australia (where we've been metric since 1970).

I appreciate when you also state temperatures in Celsius. It shows that you care about all of your viewers and that you like to pay attention to details. Please keep providing temperature in Celsius. It means a lot to a good portion of the public.

@mfbfreak

Ай бұрын

It's also a good way to get the Americans themselves used to the international system.

@gobblox38

Ай бұрын

Using metric is just the march of progress. But some people choose to absolutely refuse to accept that for whatever reason.

@nolanthedude

Ай бұрын

@@gobblox38it’s just not practical for Americans. Unless you work in a STEM field that requires that knowledge, it makes no difference in your day to day life because everything here is in imperial. It’s kind of like learning to speak German when you live in the middle of rural America. Despite people from Germany telling you that you’re “smarter” now, it doesn’t really benefit you in any way.

@charlesclark3840

Ай бұрын

32 - 5 = 27; 27 / 9 = 3; 3 * 5 = 15; its -15 C. I'm American; I can do that in my head; it isn't hard.

@gobblox38

Ай бұрын

@@nolanthedude there's a lot of economic loss due to conversion errors within US Customary. Switching to metric would eliminate that. Added benefit is that international shipping would be streamlined. And yes, even the few people living in rural areas would benefit from the change.

mixed lamps where common in other gas-discharge lamps. The incandescent part was not only used as a heater element but also to correct the light spectrum giving more warm light and red frequencies.

@rs12official

Ай бұрын

There are also self-ballasted mercury vapor lamps that use the filament to ballast the arc tube.

love your vids , always fascinated in lamps as they changed over the the many years now still have a collection from small to an old 2kw new bi pin for studio ect

I really like the CFL for the middle of the night (or middle of sleeping) bathroom visits. Several decades ago I installed a dimmer switch in my bathroom for exactly that reason. Some activities just don't need a lot of light while others, like shaving, benefit from extra light.