Light Bulbs

All the terminology confuses me. I'll have to google all the terms before I go shopping for them to make sure I'm buying the right one that I want.

 

@Chrissy Page
It isn't the cost of the electricity, Chrissy, which makes alternate light sources attractive, but rather conservation of resources used to produce it. Something has to be burned to produce electricity, whether it's Uranium, Natural Gas, Oil, Coal, or even Hydrogen in the Sun. 'Course, Sunlight and the wind are really exceptions, but both nonetheless lay "waste" to natural environment. Solar requires the taking of huge tracts of ground, as does also wind-power. Both are killing wildlife at alarming rates. If we assume the lives of animals are unimportant compared to humans' "need" for gratification, then, no problem. A lot of folks do not think that way.

 

I guess I don't think that way. I'm not much of a tree hugger. I always figure you think you're saving one thing but that turns out destroying another.

You might as well go live in a dark cave if you don't want to do harm. I'll buy the kind of bulb that doesn't trigger migraines for me.

When you visit a casino, don't you think that's a big waste of electricity and power. It's just for fun....casinos aren't needed. Shame on you, Frank! Also what a waste of food the All you can eat Buffets are. Tsk tsk.

 

@Chrissy Page

I hate to say this, and maybe I shouldn't, but I didn't provoke it; you did.

Your post is wretched, Chrissy.

 

Wretched? I'm pretty sure you aren't doing everything to save the planet, Frank.

You're the one that stated I'm destroying the planet by the lightbulbs I buy. I'm pretty sure my few bulbs don't do as much harm as other lights everywhere. I told you ...light triggers migraines for me.

 

I agree, I also don't go around purposely doing harm to anything if I can help it. I'm also not going to be anal about
Picking one thing over another when in the long run it won't matter anyhow.

 

Strange that there might be a disagreement about light bulbs and the environment. Hmmmm....

Anyway, a number of months ago I posted a thread regarding light on one of more forums I was involved with at the time and I think this was one of them. It was regarding the number of frequencies that each type of manufactured light produces and how our brains react to those frequencies.
The short version is simple: Although we may perceive manufactured light to be continual, the light source is actually "blinking" light. We do not see it that way but our brains DO pick it up. The more "blinks" per second the harder our brains have to work.

I don't feel like looking at my own studies to get the particulars right this second but, In a study among students and office workers it was the florescent light that was found to be the critter that accounted for headaches and the state of being tired shortly after exposure. If you remember back when fluorescents first came in, schools loved the soft, almost yellowish florescent lights but it was found out much later that some seizures, laziness, migraines and even bad study scores were attributed to the lighting. When the schools changed out their lights the scores immediately went up, and medical issues were brought to a minimum.

Incandescent lighting works at a far lesser frequency level so there is less work for the brain so incandescent might be the way to go if it wasn't for my now favorite type of lighting which is "full spectrum" or LED lighting.
It sort of copycats the Suns light, works cooler and uses less wattage than any other type of bulb. It's easier to study by, work by or just have in the house so you can "really" see what you're doing. Although it might cost more than incandescent or florescent the medical, physical, and mental savings by using the bulb are tremendous not to mention far better for the environment.

 

I haven't figured out what type of light triggers my migraine (aura) but it's not soft light.

A camera flash can and also just coming in from a very sunny outside to a different light inside has also triggered it.

My last one was when the AC guys were at my house. I opened the front door and it was so sunny that I could barely see the guy. Then he came in and installed the thermostat. I had my aura starting and by the time he finished the installation and wanted to show me how to work it, I could barely see.

Thankfully it was a Honeywell model like my daughter has and I know how that one works.

 

I have known quite a few people who have migraines. One in particular had to go get a shot of morphine when she had a bad one and then rest in the dark and quiet at the hospital. A couple others merely stated that they found a quiet and dark place in their home in order to weather out the occurance.
I really do not wish for you to become your own "lab rat" but you might want to try placing a full spectrum light in whatever room you enter your home just to see if your "sunlight to artificial light" experience is made better.
If, perchance you go from your full spectrum light room into another artificial light room and have an occurance then your answer would be in the type of lighting and you could go from there.
Again, the full spectrum light is more expensive but if you no longer have to medicate and hurt so often then it might be worth the added cash.

Note also that full spectrum light comes in a wide variety of strengths just like the incandescent bulbs do but quite often in lumins rather than wattage and some of them can even be used with a variable resistor to determine how bright you wish the light to be. Oh yeah, you can Bing or Google the wattage/lumins conversion chart to see what you might need.

 

It doesn't happen all the time so I don't know if besides light what else might be a trigger. I only get the aura and it's not painful just not fun and puts me out of commission for 20-30 mins. I do feel out of it the rest of the day though.

A sudden change in light is more apt to cause than a gradual change and adjustment.

I will have to research and pay more attention when I get one.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated.

 

@Bobby Cole

Boy, oh boy! You have whetted my appetite for technical argument, and you might by now, know what that means! Where might I start? Why might I? 'Spose it's due to electricity being my life, I guess.

Frequency to most folks means trips to the bathroom, Bobby! As a young'un srudying Electric Theory in Freshman high school class, I began to finally grasp what was going on with electricity producing light. Everyday electricity sent into our homes and businesses turns on and off very quickly, constantly. Edison's light bulb cannot turn on and off 60 times every second, because the filament is so hot, it simply glows with a constant light output.

Gas contained in a tube, as in a fluorescent lamp, DOES turn on and off, as fast as the Alternating Current does. So, the result is a "fluttering" sort of light. Aside from the possibilities with physiological effects, accidents have happened where a spinning object, say, a part being worked on a machine tool, happened to be turning at the same speed as that fluttering light was turning on and off, and the eye perceived the machine as standing still! It's called "stroboscopic effect". Widely used to measure the speed of rotating objects, later in wide use onstage as theatric nonsense. Ala Kiss, Alice Cooper, etc.

LED light is produced in neither of he two ways above, no heated filament, no gas discharge, but rather passage of electric current through a special kind of "valve", a "diode" Each diode, thoug, can survive with only very low voltage applied. Heated filaments can be made to work at almost any voltage desired. Gas-filled tubes need quite high voltage. So, our houses having 120 volts would instantly burn out an LED diode. First disadvantage. Not a big one, though. Needing about 5 volts each, we string 25 LEDs like Christmas tree lights, in series, and they run on 120 volts! But, one quits, and they all go out. But, seeing them on all the new cars & trucks, (those red tail-lights are really attention-getters!) it wouldn't surprise me if LEDs are being made to operate at 12 volts. If not, then connect 'em in pairs of two in series.

Now, my IMPONDERABLE: LEDs are bound to produce "fluttering" light, if operated on Alternating Current", are they not? Thus, similar physiological effects. Perhaps you can tell me if the new LED light bulbs for general use convert the A.C. to D.C., something I do not know. Ibought a 100-watt equivalent bulb just yesterday, for my shop's drop-light. It is quite heavy, as though some kind of iron-cored device is contained. I'd like to know. More about those bodily-effects, too! Maybe my mind is so foggily-cluttered constantly, I've never noticed any effect from fluorescent lights, for example. I loved "Cool-White", though, and was dismayed when the Fed banned them.
Frank

 

Ah yes, @Frank Sanoica, a fellow enthusiast! Actually, LED's do flicker but at a higher rate than most artificial types of light so the retina isn't being worn out so quickly. The Hertz rating for incandescent and LED is about the same with the exception of rectified LED's which jumps to around 120 Hertz versus about 60. The higher rating the less noticeable it is to the retina.

But let's go one step higher which is the Kelvin measurement which I KNOW you'll be interested in. Everything, as you know, emits heat and radio waves in the form of frequencies. Even color has it's own particular frequency which is what we're examining.
A normal florescent or even incandescent works at an optimum of 4000K whereas a biologically tuned light (LED for example) works at around 14,000K which is much closer to the reality of natural light, heat and color.
In almost all tests performed on students, whether in the college level or grade school level the rooms that used biologically attuned lights garnered better scores from nearly all of the students. Note: the students were all tested using both types of light but the rooms were identical in every other way down to the positioning of the teachers pencil. (I made up the pencil part but it does sound good, doesn't it?)

One other thing about florescent light is that it can compound many diseases such as epilepsy, Lupus, Ménière's disease (migraines) and I dare not even try to spell the disease for those people who are super photosensitive to light frequencies. Even our pineal gland is affected in that our circadian rhythm is totally disrupted by the effects of non-biologically safe artificial light which includes both incandescent and florescent light.

In short, it's mostly about color frequency and how our brains perceive what the retina is exposing it to.

 

@Bobby Cole
I find the coiled tube, whatever they are called, are offered predominantly in color output of around 2000 to 3000 K, whereas my eyes "like" 5000+. Those are available, but one must look for them, as they are in the minority on the shelves. "CFL" I believe they are termed, "Coiled Fluorescent Lamps".

Pressed for time, but "Ahll Bi Beck!"