Posts Tagged ‘Watts’

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Home Theater


2008
09.23

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Much has changed in the five (!!!) years since I bought my last home theater components, so here’s an update on all the major pieces:

h3. Amplifiers

Way back when the thing was to get a big gigantic amplifier. Personally, I tended to a compact AVR and then having amplifiers in the speakers. So I ended up with the Onkyo DS989 and then these Definitive Technology speakers with 1,000 watt amplifiers. Now, the trend is to what are called Class D (for digital) amplifiers, they are 90% efficient compared with Class A/B (50%) and run much cooler. The other trend across all components is folks moving to web distribution. “Audioholics”:http://www.audioholics.com/education/amplifier-technology/10-things-about-audio-amplifiers points out:

h4. Axiom

Axiom A1400-8 is a good example at $3850 list. (I actually bought Axiom speakers for a mini-home theater and they are great). Although the monster still weighs 58 pounds, it outputs 200 watts per channel into 8 channels in a single package. Wow, that is a great buy.

h4. Emotiva

Emotiva XPA-2 is another web-only distributer. Although it is only two channels, it is huge costing $800, it delivers 500W into a 4 ohm load, so it is truly a monster amplifier set. It’s pretty common for the cost per channel at the high end to be $700 per channel. For instance, the Denon POA-A1HDCI costs $7000 and has 10 channels. You are going to need a big shelf for the Emotiva as 2 channels weights 75 pounds.

They also make an “XPA-5″:http://www.emotiva.com/xpa5.html which is the same thing in five channels also delivering 200 watts per channel and weighs in at 58 pounds as well and is $800 so a real deal. You basically want the XPA-2 for your main left and rights and then use the XPA-5 for the other channels.

h4. Outlaw

I originally got into this with the Outlaw Audio AVRs, got one for my Dad and then one for downstairs. These are were really inexpensive at the time. Now “Outlaw”:http://outlawaudio.com seems to make just about everything. The highest end is their “Model 7900″:http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/7900.html whcih is 7×300 watts per channel for $3500 weighing at 145 pounds! It needs two 15 amp circuits just to run.

Now the purists are still going to use Class A amplifiers (which are 20% efficient) because they are supposed to be purer. Class A means that the outpu amplifiers are always on even if there is no signal. They have low distortion, but have low power. Class B have output transisters that switch on and off and have 70% efficiency. Most designs use Class A/B which means one output stays on and are 50% efficient. Class D are completely different, they are switching amplifiers with a high switching rate.

h3. A/V Processors

This is a fancy name for the preamp or frontend. These today have HDMI switching and can handle HD internally, so you hook all your inputs into them and then switch them to your front projector. When I assembled my first system, I never used these inputs. I would just hook thing up directly to the RPTV or whatever, so there wasn’t any switching loss. When you look at all the devices today, most projectors like the “Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080″:http://www.projectorcentral.com/epson_cinema_1080.htm now only have a single HDMI port so that you really need to have a switcher to make things work.

For instance the “Denon AVP-A1HDCI”:http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/processors/denon-avp-a1hdci/ is a good example. It is $7000 so more like a new car, but the lower end Denon AVR-5308CI AVR has nearly all the feature.

Or another example is the “Integra DTC-9.9″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/integra_updates_their_groundbreaking_processor/ which is $2000. It has ISFccc controls, THX Loudness and Audyssey Dynamic equialization. Should be good given how good the DTC-9.8 was.. They has have receivers the DTR9.9 which is a 170watt by 7 channel unit for $2500.

“Rotel RSX-1560″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/rotel_gets_marks_attention/ is $2600 with 7 channels of Class D amplifiers for $2600 and ships in October.

“Home Theater Magazine”:http://hometheatermag.com is where I started with Home Theater and it is still the top google hit when you index for it. In terms of processors, they liked the $7,000 “Anthem STatement D2″:http://www.hometheatermag.com/preampprocessors/908ant/. This shows the maturing of the category with HDMI switching. The big issue here is that there are bunch of different flavors, 1.1, 1.2 and the latest is 1.3 which apparently passes more color information. The Anthem is a 1.1 switcher. It has four inputs and one output so would work if you wanted to switch in say a Comcast DVR, a MacBook for DVD playback and Internet and a Wii for games. These high end units are using the Gennum chipset which handles most tough signals well. And it comes with a microphone that you connect to a PC to do in room equalization. Pretty cool. And with Blu Ray, we are entering the era of true lossless audio, so it should sound amazing.

h3. Projectors

Unlike amplifiers or processors, there are relatively few vendors of front projectors, so that makes the job easier. But “Cedia”:http://www.projectorcentral.com/cedia_2008.htm just happened so, the main news is the new projectors are coming and aren’t reviewed yet, so if you can stand it wait a bit and see how these new models work out.

h4. High end projector

These are competing in the $4-8000 sweet spot.

“Panasonic PT-AE3000″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/090408PannyPJ/. This is an update to the really good AE2000. It has better picture quality and on the current battleground of contrast ratios, it is better. But, it has something call Fraem Creation, so in 1080p/60, it generates half frames and plays them at 120 frames per seoncd to eliminate motion blur on LCD projectors. It arrives at the end of October.

Epson 7500 UB. Much better black levels and they have FineFrame which is alos half frame interpolation. It arrives in December. It a follow on to the PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 LCD projectors which have been cheap and decent performers. “Home Theater Magazine”:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/090608Epson/ thought it was the best looking projector out there. $5000 in December.

“Mitsubishi HC7000″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/090508MitsPJ/ which has improvements in contrast as well at 1000:1. $4K in late October. It runs silent 17dB and has HQV Reon video processing. Its claim to fame is that it handles the anamorphic 2.35 lense natively FWIW

“Sony VP-VW70″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/sonys_new_projector_lineup/ at $8000 has a higher contracts ratio and you have to get from an installer. The previous “Sony VP-VW60″:http://www.hometheatermag.com/frontprojectors/1107sonyvw60/ which was a decent performaner at 93 at $5000. The VPL-HS10 is the entry level Sony at $3500.

“JVC DLA-HD750 or RS-20″:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/090408JVC/. JVC is so confusing because they have two model designations for everything. The RS line is for installers and the HD line is for everyone else. The big improvements are full white balance controls and color managmenet in the RS-20. $7000 for the HD750 and $6000 for the HD350.

The current winner in the low cost projector wars are JVC at $5K and $8K and Sharp at $2K:

“JVC DLA-RS2″:http://www.projectorreviews.com/jvc/dla-rs2/ remains a winner at the high-end, but the above models are big competition. It is the current holder of best quality and highest contrast. Although it is over a year old and uses LCos. They are a niche manufacturer, but really have good “out of the box”:http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/JVC_DLA-RS2.html color adjustments according to HDTVExpert.com. It is identical to the JVC HD100 reviewed by “Home Theater Magazine”:http://www.hometheatermag.com/frontprojectors/408jvcdila/ where it got a 96 for performance, but at $8000, is really, really expensive.

“JVC DLS-RS1x” or the “JVC DLA-HD1″:http://www.hometheatermag.com/frontprojectors/607proj/index1.html is $5500 so really cheaper. For the true videophile, you have to get the RS2, but many folks will be OK iwth the really high contrast of this LCOS projector. It scored at 94 performance in “Home Theater Mag”:http://www.hometheatermag.com/frontprojectors/607proj/index4.html so not a bad tradeoff. They did think it was loud though.

h4. What is 2.35 all about

The trend is for “2.35″:http://www.projectorcentral.com/235_home_theater.htm screens which are even wider than the 16:9 in DVDs. Basically, you buy a wider screen and hope it fits in your room and the main issue is that with 9 foot ceilings, you are limited in width, so a 2.35 screen is actually the smallest you can fit there. The rub is that all current projectors are 16:9 native projectors, so to show 2.35 aspect, you buy an anamorphic lense that goes in front of the projector and stretches it. Personally, it all sounds like not really worth it, but that’s what the bleeding edige is all about!

h4. $2000 projector

For work we wanted a “low end”:http://www.projectorcentral.com/1080p_home_theater_projectors.htm but high quality 1080p projector. Thanks to “Projector Central”:http://www.projectorcentral.com/home-theater-projectors.htm, we settled on the “Epson Home Cinema 1080 Projector”:http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/projectors/epson-home-cinema-1080/ which is a 1080p unit that is a “budget unit” at $3000 list. You still to ISF set the thing to calibrate it. The main issue with front projectors like this is to be able to get it to project properly with the right offset and zoom. A 110 inch screen for instanct works with this unit from 10.4″ up to 23″ which is incredible. Although in looking at all the reviews, the “Sanyo PLV-Z2000″:http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sanyo-PLV-Z2000.htm is probably the leading model just based on image quality that is very high and low price under $2000.

Working up from that $2500 price point are three units, the JVC DLA-RS1, Panasonic AE2000 and the Sony VPL-VW60

Technology-wise, there are three competing “technologies”:http://www.hometheatermag.com/advicefromtheexperts/707projectprimer/, LCD, LCoS (including JVC D-ILa and Sony SXRD)22 and DLP. For a long time DLP which are really micro mirrors had a huge performance advantage. Most of the competition in the key under $5000 projectors are three panels of LCDs or LCoS. LCD and LCOS are usually three panels of red, green and blue while DLP is a single panel with a color wheel that spins. The major trick now played is what is called auto IRIS, this resets the brightness depending on how birght the scene is so it makes the contract look better than it is natively. So while DLP are more expensive and have darker blacks, with autoiris and lower cost, the LCD/LCOS dominate the low and mid-end.

h3. Projection Screens

These are the unsung heros of displays. For $500 at 100″ diagonal, you can get an awesome one according to “Projector Central”:http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection_screens_review.htm. They recommend the Grandview Fixed FRame White Screen 1.0 Gain. Take less than 30 minutes to build.

If money is no object, then get the STewart Studiotek 130 which is 18.5% brighter.

h3. DVRs

Well I just hate the Comcast DVR, it is this really clunky Motorola unit. “TiVo HD XL”:http://blog.hometheatermag.com/cedia2008/tivo_goes_thx/ is the ticket. It uses CableCard, so you can hook it up to Comcast and record 150 hours in HD for $600, unlike the Comcast DVR which is more like 15 hours worth at most and it has the TiVo user interface!

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Next Generation Home Theater


2008
09.18

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If you were to build a Home Theater today, it would be much different from a few years ago. Here is what I’d get:

* Epson 1080p projector. We just got one for the office. Kind of a miracle of technology
* MacBook Blu Ray. Ok, this hasn’t shipped yet, but if you look at it a MacBook has digital optical output through a Toslink Mini, it has DVI output as well, so it is a really nice digital device. Also for control, you can have another Mac control it as the main controller, or control it through your iPhone or use the infrared thingy. Pretty cool and it saves you from getting a dedicated DVD player that you have to control. Plus you get Internet and gaming on the same box. The best thing will be if they ship it with a solid state drive, so you don’t have to worry about hard drive failures
* Time capsule galore. Digitize all your movies and stick them on a terabyte server in case you get tired of flipping. With Blu Ray, the disks at 30GB each, so you only get about 30 on a TB drive, but for DVD quality, ,you get more like 300.
* AVR. You still need something that has got big watts to drive the speakers. Last time I used Onkyo and then switched to an internet brand called Outlaw, so need to recheck this.
* Speakers. Of course you need 7.1 output as well.
* Home distribution. With wifi everywhere, you can use Airport Express to feed just about any existing stereo or more simply, stick an iPod Touch with Logitech Pure Fi everywhere. This has great speakers and is also an AM/FM clock radio.

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Climate: Voltaic Solar Bags, LEED Platinum and solutions


2008
06.22

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!

Check out “inhabitat.com”:http://www.inhabitat.com/ for more kooky ideas like this. And also about trying to build a “LEED Platinum”:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/5ive_diary_of_a.php house which is apparently incredibly difficult and timeconsuming. Requires all kinds of documentation.

One cool site is “wecansolveit.com”:http://wecansolveit.com which is all about just being a single person and trying to make it happen.

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LED Light Bulb and CFL Reviews


2008
05.29

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There are so many brands of CFL (Compact Florescent Lamps) and other energy efficient LEDs that it is hard to know where to start.

h3. “Consumer Reports”:http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/home-garden/home-improvement/hardware-building-supplies/lightbulbs/compact-fluorescent-lighting-10-07/overview/bulbs-ov.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=2&searchTerm=light bulb

They have done the most intense study including running the bulbs to see how long they last. It cost $26 per year for a subscription to their site and another $26 for their magazine. I’d recommend it as they do great work and don’t accept ads. I use them religiously for buying cars to check reliability. And they’ve done CFLs too! The did note that they really did a full stress test of these bulbs and all were OK except that 7 of nine Feit Ecobulb ESL13Ts failed after 3300-3900 hours so you want the Fiet Ecobulb Plus ESL13T/Eco which is working through 5000 hours. Others were GE 8000 Long Life 41525 and N;Vision 423-599 which still worked after 7600 hours (despite reports from many that ehse were no good). Ecobulb Plus and N:Vision claim they have half the mercury (2.5mg vs 5mg).

They have some good advice for types of fixtures, use spirals for lamps, flood CFLs for cans. Buy Energy Star certified (not all bulbs are!). Soft white or warm white look like traditional incandescents running at 2700K

For table lights, they tried the Bright Effects (Lowe’s) 70% efficient, GET Soft White 60, Philips Marathon 60 (Costco) 66%. These are 65-70% efficient compared with 14% for a typical incandescent. OTOH turn on time was 25-36 seconds for CFLs.

For recessed flood lights, they tried the GE Floodlight Soft White 65, 43% efficient and 131 second to turn on, Philips Marathon Energy Saver Reflect Flood 16 BR30, and the Sylvanid 16 watt flood 65 BR30

h3. “Popular Mechanics”:http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html

They didn’t test reliability, but mainly color and liked the Westinghouse Natural Light $6, Phillips Marathon $3, MaxLite MicroMax $4.50, Sylvania Daylight Extra $6, Westinghouse Soft White $6, GE Soft White $5 in that order.

h3. “LA Times”:http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/emeraldcity/2008/01/the-quest-for-a.html

They have a good compendium of quick reviews like the NY Times piece below.

h3. “NY Times”:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/garden/10lighting.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=garden&oref=slogin

!http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/01/10/garden/10light.graphic.ready.html!

In summary, they liked the TCP SpringLight/Soft White, MaxLite SpiraMax and the GE Energy Smart for their colors, but didn’t test reliability.

They hated the TCP n:vision (also poor reliability noted in Popular Mechanics user comments). They also didn’t like the color of the Sylvania Bright White Designer Choice, GE Energy Smart Daylight 15, Sylvania Micro-Mini, MaxLite MiniBulb or the Greenlite Mini 13. There was also slight buzzing from GE Energey Smart, Sylvania Designed Choice and TCP Spring Light/Soft White.

They did like the light of halogens which last twice as long and require less energy by a little like the Daylight Plus, Sylvania BT15 and GE Edison 60.

The ones they liked in CFLs were nvision TCP Home Soft White, MaxLite SpiraMax had good color

h3. “Grist.org”:http://www.grist.org/advice/products/2007/12/14/index.html?source=rss

A environmental ezine did their own mini review as well. Short review, but she liked the Philips Soft White $3.88 14 watt

h3. “Greenhome.huddler.com”:http://greenhome.huddler.com

Does have user ratings. There aren’t too many reviews, but for instance for “LED Light Bulbs”:http://greenhome.huddler.com/products/category/led-lightbulbs, they show:

* “EarthLED”:http://www.earthled.com/cl3.html CL-3 and CL-5 are the most 8sued. The big deal is that they are much brighter. The CL-3 is 45w equivalent at 240 lumens, 50,000 hours (that’s 11 years in normal use!). It is $30 each though although you get a 10% discount off right now from “Store.earthled.com”:http://store.earthled.com/
* “EarthLED EvoLux S”:http://greenhome.huddler.com/forum/thread/227/new-earthled-bulb-produces-serious-light?replies=15 is going to be 75 watts. The main limitation is you can’t use it with a dimmer. It also costs $90! They have a good comparison video on “You Tube”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ppqz6zGCE&eurl=http://greenhome.huddler.com/forum/thread/227/new-earthled-bulb-produces-serious-light?replies=15. It actually has a fan built into it as the LEDs get hot!

For CFLs, here are some of the top reviewed:

* “TCP n:vision 14W CFL” which actually in other reviews is called unreliable, so caveat emptor. It is sold exclusively at Home Depot.
* “Greenlite”:http://greenliteusa.com comes up second rated.

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Notes on using CFLs


2008
05.28

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Some great real world lessons here. They are in short, you can’t use them in a can, with a dimmer or where you are turning them on and off alot. (That’s a lot of limitations), but they do save 4x in power. Check out “1000Bulbs.com”:http://100bulbs.com and stay about from the $1-2/bulb ones. You have to pay quite a bit more to get quality.

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

144. RE: The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: PM Lab Test
It’s me ben again on those Service brand full spectrum spirals. These are an industrial product and not sold in stores but are available in eastern Canada thru a company in Nova Scotia called “20/20 Electric in Sydney Cape Briton Island but are made in the US. Ben

143. RE: The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: PM Lab Test
I bought INDUSTRIAL spiral mini light bulbs in 9, 14,16Watt Floods, 19 watt Floods & 23 watts replacing my 40,60& 100 watt inc. bulbs. The brand is “Service Long Life” and my house has 57 bulbs. I have 6 in the basement and 8 outside that I never shut off and the rest are all thru the house. In 8 yrs I have changed 4 of the ones that are never turned off and 1 in the house. I have never had one smoke and the light bill just disappeared. At present time I use a 23watt in the kitchen and one in the wife’s bathroom. 2 16watt floods and 2 19watt floods & 4 14watt outdoors and all the rest are 9 watt. These are Full Spectrum which gives noon day light and is VERY easy on the eyes and easy to be in all the time. 100% no glare. My wife suffers from SAD and finds these lamps help her a lot in the winter time with the long dark days. They cost me $16.95 each and are well worth it.The power co. here sent us 8 GE’s free and so I put one in and then thru them in the garbage.When you buy cheap you get CHEAP. Ben

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

Full Spectrum Solutions “BlueMax” CFLs? They have far superior Kelvin ratings and color rendition, electronic ballasts to prevent flicker, and a binding agent to reduce mercury danger. And they even offer a “soft” bulb for “warmer” colors, without sacrificing brightness or the other features, and dimmable bulbs and fixtures.

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

Use them in fixtures that you keep on for a couple of hours at a time, like in a living room. Fixtures that allow air flow are better too. A CFL’s lifespan can be shortened when you put them in a fixture that’s totally enclosed. Above all else, do NOT use them in dimmers unless the package says you can

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

Auto Cell electronic, brand bulbs have a dual phosphorus coating that allows them to last much longer. I really recommend people who are in the market for High quality CFL, to check out this company. The prices are great, the only catch is the minimum order is a case of 40 bulbs. Autocell.ne

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

VERY BEST CFL on the market sold by Maintenance Engineering. Theirs are absolutely guaranteed for 2 years and produce a nice sunlight color

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

Don’t use them in places where you turn the light on and off a lot. They do burn out quickly that way. Wait for the LED type to use in those places.

The Best Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Scientific Lab Test vs. Incandescent – Popular Mechanics

I get my CFLs at 1000Bulbs.com. They take out a lot of the guesswork by offering quality bulbs at low, low prices.

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Compact Florescent Light Bulb Guide


2008
05.26

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There are zillion new CFLs around and it is so confusing. “Popular Mechanics”:http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html did a review of them that seems to be the only up to date one. Going to Loews was so confusing. They cost between $1-$12 each and the lifetimes, colors and so forth seem so different. Here’s a quick summary:

* CFLs use 70% less electricity than traditional incandescents. That is a huge savings not to mention important for the environment. They also last much longer so its a pure win from a consumer point of view. No reason not to switch now.
* Color. The old florescents were very blue and ugly. These have fixed so that soft white is 2700K and daylight is 3400K so it much more like a good color and not the high temperature, deep blues of old florescents. So most folks will like the soft white which is very red.
* Disposal. You do have to dispose of these properly since they have mercury. You can take them to Ikea at no charge to recycle. This shouldn’t be too often as these things last 8-12,000 hours or 3x longer than conventional bulbs
* LEDs. The long term future are LEDs, but these are expensive at $75 each, but they are even smaller and more power efficient.
* “Cold Cathode”:http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/cold-cathode-fluorescent-bulbs-live-long-prosper-stay-cool-236360.php is the latest technology. Cold cathode are easy to dim and they are much long life, but the main issue is that that they are not too bright. A 5 watt produceds only about 25 watts. So a CCFL products 40 lumens per watt, ordinary CFL produce 80 lumens per watt, halogen are at 20 lumens per watt. As a rough aside, an ordinary incandescent products about 11 lumens per watt. So an 8 watt CCFL products about 300 lumens which is in turn like a 30 watt traditional bulb. Use them when you don’t need lots of power but want something dimmable and they last up to 18000 hours (that is about 18 years, most lighting guys assume you use 1000 hours per year or about 3 hours a day).

There are a blizzard of different bulbs and sizes. The main thing is to get something that is small.

“Energystar”:http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls has a whole guide to CFLs that helps you through the unusual shapes and sizes. They have an “Excel spreadsheet”:http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/prod_lists/fixtures_prod_list.xls of every CFL that are approved.

“1000Bulbs”:http://1000bulbs.com seems to be the only place I can find with the huge selection that a modern house needs including:

!http://www.1000bulbs.com/PAR30-Dimmable-Reflectors/ these are so common in kitchens these days. You have a dimmer and then a can up there the main issues are that if you turn it off in less than five minutes, you really reduce the life of the bulb. You need to leave it on for a while. So this is great for kitchens. Neptun makes a bulb 93019-ADIM that seems perfect It is 19 watts, 8000 hours, 2850K warm white, equivalent of 60 watts and comes in cases of 12. They are $13 each compared with $3 or for incandescent. No reviews on the Neptun. The main issue is that the Neptun is quite a bit longer at 5.125″ vs. the standard PAR-30 which is 3.5″. So, this really works as a replacement for the PAR-30 long neck and not regular cans.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/3-Way-CFL/ There are so many lights that are three-way and you need one that is small enough to fit the harp around the light. From Bartell Drug’s I got a $5 Sylvania, while 1000 Bulbs ahs for $12 a 50/100/150 watt equivalent with 10,000 hours and it is small 5.375inx 2.75in diameter.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/Small-Dimmable-Fluorescents/ these are like regular incandescents but are dimmable. Good for the older cans that take regular incandescents. There are two kinds, one have a sleeve over it to make it look nicer and other which is a raw bulb. The Neptun 61916-ADIM is a good example, 16 watts (70 watt equivalent), 2750K warm white, 8000 hours. Main issue is that at startup you have to burn in for an hour before dimming.

“Cold Cathode”:http://www.1000bulbs.com/Litetronics-Microbrite/ Kind of amazing. These are the narrow base decoratives that are everywhere. Expensive, but they will last 25000 hours if they are so called cold cathode. The main drawback is that they aren’t bright, but that doesn’t matter for decorative. These come in narrow base and run at 30 watt equivalents.