Yahoo - China Consolidates Grip on Rare Earths

[rjluna2]

Read about Chinese rare earth metal issues that is being used on CFL posted at China Consolidates Grip on Rare Earths.  I wonder if this would affect on the price on those CFL that hits at the store

[Mike]

I stay away from CFLs period. I don't trust them enough to use them in my own home. My parents bought CFLs for the kitchen and bedrooms, but i took mine out and put in LEDs. They're more expensive, but it's worth the extra cost. LED is better because:
no mercury,
no weak spiral tube,
it looks like a real lamp,
brighter and crisper light,
longer life,
no cheap plastic parts,
hopefully won't burn down my house,
saves the most on the Energy bill,
etc.

[dor123]

I would replace my spot fixture with my Osram Duluxstar 8W 827 CFL, with a wall fixture with a 7W 2-pin PL with magnetic ballast, when my CFL will burn out.
It will be more efficient and will last longer and will instantly reach full brightness.

[joe_347V]

Personally I would use incandescent, halogen, or HID in a spot light. CFL spots don't have the "punch" that point sources have.

[Mike]

When the lights outside my house die, I'll convince my dad to buy those ET shaped halogens as they look like mini HIS lamps.

[Silverliner14B]

Did you mean HID lamps?

[Mike]

Yep, HID.

[dor123]

Read about Chinese rare earth metal issues that is being used on CFL posted at China Consolidates Grip on Rare Earths.  I wonder if this would affect on the price on those CFL that hits at the store

The article is no longer works. But R U sure that all of the rare-earths materials that are required for manufacture triphosphors for fluorescent lamps, are available only from China??? It can not be!!!

[rjluna2]

Here you go, dor123: China Consolidates Grip on Rare Earths from The New York Times newspaper web site

[joe_347V]

I believe that the majority of the rare earths are currently produced are from there but there are other sources of rare earths on this planet too.

[dor123]

LED lamps that have built in driver (For mains voltage operation), will never reach the 25,000-100,000 hours mark of LEDs: The driver will always fail before the LEDs, but if the LEDs are poorly made or have poorly made heatsinking.
The typical life of LED lamps, depends on the quality of the driver and may not reach more than 15,000 hours.

[joe_347V]

Not how this really relates to the topic but LED lifespan really depends on the build quality and the design. Also purpose built LED lumes should be better than cheapo retrofit lamps.  

[Mike]

Yeah CFLs and retrofit LED lamps have everything crammed into a tiny little casing and it fries way faster. Lamps with the electronics separete (like PLs, HID lights, and linier fluorescent tubes) will have a longer service life. The same applies for the older remote ballasted clamshells. Those ballasts will keep running and running.....