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hydralique

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Interesting article here on early failures in CF bulbs. I've had terrible luck with these, even more expensive bulbs from major brands like GE, to the point that I rarely buy them and won't even consider putting them in difficult to service fixtures - they just don't last.

I think my dislike of CFs reached a peak when I went into the garage one day to check on my laundry only to discover the CF bulb above the washer and dryer had literally come apart at the base, after which the internal wires had broken and the bulb part dropped to the concrete floor and shattered. It left little wires and a tiny circuit board dangling from the ceiling fixture, which was turned on BTW. Thankfully nothing shorted out. I really hope the future of lighting is in LCD lamps, not CF!

 
I too have the impression that CF lamps generally do not live as long as they should according the information on the package. We have them at work and they need to be replaced every couple of months. It must be said that they burn 24/7, there is no switch to turn them off. We have them in the toilets too and when they fail it is completely dark which makes visiting the toilet a bit awkward. As we can't replace them ourselves it can take days before the lamp is repaired. Also, when a CF lamp gets older, it also puts out less light so even in case the lamp is still burning it is better to replace them after a year or so, depending on use.

I think that toilets with incandescent lamps and switches are more economical.

PS
I think that you mean that the future is in LED lamps.
 
I've never had a CFL fall apart on its own like that. I suspect someone or something tinkered with the bulb before it broke.

I've noticed that CFL's have gotten a lot more reliable in the past few years. I've had good luck with the 75 watt equiv. daylight FEIT bulbs I've been getting from Costco. I like the light they put out, and haven't run across a bad one yet in the past two years. And I have a number of them in "difficult to service" light fixtures, including enclosed fixtures where heat does build up. I think these 75 watt daylight bulbs are a bit more expensive than the cheapest FEIT bulbs at Costco, which may explain their better quality and better reliability.
 
CF lamps, not good for all.

When I was little, my father would go around the house switching off unused lights to save energy. Later on, motion sensors automated this task in secondary spaces, like in front of the garage, school hallways, etc. The problem is that CF lights take awhile to warm up before they can put out their full light output. When CF lights are used only when needed, and for short periods, they are often insufficient because they don't have enough time to warm up before they are needed. In short-duration uses it would be better to use a regular light bulb.

For a while I worked in a commercial rum cake bakery and we had a 100 watt equivalent CF light in the big freezer at 0 degrees F. At that temperature, it would take nearly 10 minutes for the light to get bright enough to be useful. We only had to go into the freezer a handful of times per day but we left the light on all day long, otherwise it would be too dark. How much energy was wasted by leaving the efficient bulb on all day as opposed to only using an inefficient bulb for a few minutes a day?

Also, CF bulbs contain Mercury. Last time I checked, that was a hazardous material. Incandescent bulbs contain no harmful elements and are more easily recycled too.

Saving energy is a wonderful goal, but you must look at the big picture,
Dave
 
The best ones I have used

are the Phillips, GE. I like the color spectrum on the GE's best. They have lasted the longest, I am going on 2 years with some of them. Have tried the FEIT, HomoDepot bulbs due to price but they just fail in two months. To HomoDepot's credit even without a sales slip they do replace them but it is a PITA to have to do that every two months.
The Homodepot 150W bulbs are super bright for the basement and they seem to be lasing.
I have almost the whole house covered and am saving almost $25 bucks a month in electricity! Thats huge.
 
UV

Another thought, CF lights put off a lot of UV (Ultraviolet) light, which fades colors, makes materials (especially plastics) turn yellow and become brittle, and if you listen to some more extreme people, UV light is responsible for dying early, warts, underachieving children, poor gas mileage, and IRS audits.

CF lights do have a dark side,
Dave

PS: Believe it or not, I like saving energy, I open the curtains so I get natural light which uses no bulbs. Of course I also like peanut butter in my milkshakes, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
 
CF bulbs

I've never had a problem with them. I've uses them for 12+ years now. I have 3 in my front yard on the house that are NEVER turned off. Cops here say a well lit house is far less likely to be broken into. When I change them I mark it in a calendar and the last one that burned out lasted 2 and a half years!!! My Homo-Depot now offers a bin that you can bring the old ones in for recycling for free.....Bill in Az....
 
I like CF!
ENEL, the main Italian electricity company offers them for free in various campaigns and so do most supermarkets, I got a ton of bulbs with those campaigns and I must say I'm impressed! Not only the utility bills are some 20% lower but they light up almost as fast as standard bulbs while producing much less heat. I don't know how long they would take to reach full light in a cold, damp place, but for indoor use they're very good, also the light they emit isn't bad, way better than neon tubes and almost as good as halogen lamps they replaced. I only use "classic" lamps for my 1940's table lamp (that can't hold anything else but phisically small bulbs), bedside lamp and in the oven!
After all, by end 2010, standard lamps will be outlawed in most applications so they'll be quite hard to find for all the types of fixtures where you can put CF in.
I think they'll keep selling standard lamps only for "hot" applications like saunas, ovens, or very cold ones like for friges or outdoor lighting.
As far as the duration goes, I think that they sure last more than an incandescent bulb but nowhere near as the stated 6.000/10.000 hours, a realistic value to me can be of about 2.000/3.000 hours.
 
How's 6 Years for a CFL?

I have a CFL that i put into in my kitchen ceiling fan light in 2003. I always mark the date on which I put in a light bulb. I'll generally agree that these bulbs don't last anywhere near as long as promised. But the 6-year-old one was an experiment on my part--I wanted to see how a whiter light would look, so I paid about $7 for one bulb. It gets regular use in the kitchen. Maybe I lucked out with this particular bulb.

On another note, I had a bulb burn out within its 1-year guarantee period. I decided to send it back to the company, in part to see what they would do, and just to let them know about the bulb's failure. The company sent me a replacement bulb. Of course, the cost of sending the defective bulb to the company far exceeded the value of the replacement bulb. Moral of this story--the guarantee on the bulb is pretty much useless.
 
We have CFL's in almost every fixture in the house, and they seem to generally work fine and have a long life.

There is one fixture, however, that burns them out at an alarming rate. I suspect there may be something wrong with the fixture, but I haven't gotten around to switching it out.
 
Oops, a typo: I meant LED lamps, not LCD.

Sudsmaster, the bulb with the base that separated wasn't tinkered with in any way. I took the bulb out of the package and screwed it into the ceiling fixture, where it stayed until it fell apart. My guess is that the two-piece plastic base design didn't like being at an angle - the ceiling fixture is installed on the underside of rafters which are at a 4/12 pitch. The base failed at the joint and allowed the bulb to fall away, pulling out all the internal wiring of the bulb in the process. When I examined the remains I could see some blackened areas on the inside of the base, most likely indicating that the bulb kept operating for some time after the base failed but before the internal wires broke and allowed it to drop to the floor.

For awhile I really liked some of the GE "floodlight" CFs for my patio lights that stay on all night, but after not having one last more than 6 months I gave up on them. They are warranteed, but quite frankly having to save the receipt, box up a dead bulb, write an explantory letter, and post it to GE it simply too much trouble to do every few months.

I'm obvioulsy not the only person to have trouble with premature failure of CFs, regardless of the claims on the packaging, which is why I found the article interesting.
 
There is a direct

correlation between price and life-expectancy as well as slope of light output decline on CFLs.

The ones I buy here in Munich for 7€ or more (11W = 75W), last for many years and they don't go all that dim until after the first two years or so.

The ones for less than €5 are cheap trash and I have learned to avoid them.

The same applies, sadly to LED bulbs - those nightlight bulbs from Walmart which all got too warm, for instance.

Like all technologies, you can buy Durabrand and it will blow out after two margaritas or a vintage Oster and it will run 24/7 forever.

In my parents' house, I paired LEDs with CFLs this summer. That way, there is instant light when it is needed and a very short time later, the full light. Works great, have done it that way here in Germany since 2005.
 
We got about 3/4 of our use on CFL light, and I think I may of had one or two that lasted shorter, but other than that, most of them are been in 4 years, will be 5 years in aug when we brought this house.

I have the Home Depot brand.
 
No problems here...

When I moved into the farmhouse two years ago, I began phasing CFLs into my light fixtures. I now have them in every light save for the one in the bathroom, as it is totally enclosed. A couple of the lamps are switched on at dusk, and remain on until I head to bed. The rest are switched on and off, as needed (instead of leaving them on for longer than the fifteen minutes that seems to be recommended), and I have yet to have one CFL fail.

The majority of my CFLs are either GE, or Philips (I like the casing that mimics an incandescent bulb...great for the table lamps). I have a couple of Sylvania, but find them to be way too harsh.

I've had great luck with mine.

Joe
 
1) Temperature - Read the packaging on a CFL. It lists the minimum temperature. A CFL must be designed to ignite in a freezing environment. No surprise that the one in your walk-in didn't do so well. I would agree that for inside fridges and freezers, CFL's are not the best choice. Probably better to stick with incandescents for the time being, until LED's get more common.

2) UV - CFL's put out only a tiny amount of UV. A CFL burning for 8 hours puts out as much UV as one minute of sunlight. Not an issue, and if one is extremely sensitive to UV, the simple expedient of a plastic light diffuser will eliminate virtually all UV.

3) Switching on/off a lot: Incandescent light bulbs' lives are also shortened each time you switch it on and off.

4) Inconvenient locations: Select a better quality CFL that is rated for use in enclosed fixtures. And, rather than leave it on all the time, put in a motion detector controlled light switch. Or use an LED nightlight to help you find your way in the dark to the toilet. A CFL that lasts a couple of years is still going to be more practical than an incandescent that burns out every six months.

5) Defective bulbs - One reason why I shop at Costco is their return policy. I have returned a number of flourescent lights to them for a full refund - usually the Flourex flood lights which I have on motion detectors outside.
 
We've purchased nearly 120 CFL bulbs accross 3 houses, some of which are early Philips ones and are now 15 years old.

We've got a mix of Philips and GE ones, the GE ones I've had 4 out of 15 fail, the Philips has been 3 out of 105. The oldest Modern CFL is now 4 years old and the ones that have failed have occured almost straight out of the box.

The Philips ones cost between about $4.50 and $15 a bulb depending on the type. Philips have a series called Ambience, which are for can lights and the such, these are very slow to warm up and need 2 mins to acheive full brightness. The series called Tornado is instant on at full brightness and I've seen them work down to temps of 3degC.

We've had a great experience, and now have extra brightness in the house as all the twin 40watt bulb fittings now have twin 75watt equivilents in there instead.
 
Here California routinely subsidizes the cost of CFL's. So often the ones I get at Costco are quite inexpensive, relatively speaking. For example, I recall getting a six pack of 75 watt daylight CFL's for about $6. A 10 pack of warm white 60 watters usually goes for about $5. I just wait for the bulbs to go on "sale" and stock up, and lately I only buy the 75 watt daylight CFL's. Similarly, the 300 watt Flourex floodlights (65 real watts) normally sell for $20, but are about $10 when they go on "sale". Usually I don't bother returning the few CFL's that go bad out of the box, but I do return the $10 Flourex lights when they go out.
 
I noticed that newer CFL's have had a significant upswing in failures compared than the older ones from the early to mid 90's. As an experiment, I dissected an old and new CFL to see if I conjure up a realistic answer. I found that the older CFL's had a heat sink on the power transistor while the newer ones didn't. After a little research on the net, I found out that ALL of the manufactures eliminated the heat sinks to generate more $$ from increased failures. Hopefully this greedy streak doesn't follow its way into LED's but that's just wishful thinking.
 
I have not been to impressed fith the CF bulbs, I had one pack of the GE 100 watt equiv. and for the extreme price of them they didn't last very long. I prefer to stick with my GE Soft White Incandescent bulbs in the 25, 40, 75, and 100 watt sizes.

Sam
 

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