Compact Fluorescent Failures

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I've had great luck with CFLs, which I bought in bulk at Home Depot several years ago--at least 3 years now, I believe. I don't know the brand name, but they came in packages of six, in that horrible, heavy-duty plastic that is almost impossible to open without damaging the contents.

At any rate, I replaced every bulb in my house with them, and all but two are still in service (one burned out in the bathroom about 9 months ago, one in laundry room last week).

I'm finding that not all CFLs are of the same quality and behaviors. The very inexpensive Home Depot bulbs are great. I recently received some EarthBright brand CFLs from my local utility company and replaced the burned out CFL in my laundry room with it (it's a 100-watt equivalent).

The EarthBright bulb starts noticeably dimmer, and takes longer to get to full brightness than the Home Depot bulbs.

I am hard on CFLs, as I often enter a room, turn them on for a few seconds, then turn them off again.
 
qsd-dan: Your dissection of the old and new CFLs is quite interesting, and may be one reason they can be troublesome. I wouldn't mind paying the higher price for CFLs in some locations if they would just last as long as an ordinary incendescent, but in my experience they often don't.
 
LED's have been another matter. I bought a number of LED night lights from Costco in the early 2000's. Most were white with columnar light diffusers that measure about 1 inch diameter by maybe 2 inches long. I think the brand was Lights of America. They looked and worked great out of the box. But within a year I'd say half of them failed - or were so dim as to be useless. I wound up collecting all the failed ones and with a receipt receiving a refund from Costco, but not for all of them. They were a huge disappointment. I never did figure out why they failed - if it was in the LED light itself or in the electronics.

Since then I've gotten a different style of LED night light. The kind with parabolic flat solid light diffusers, and that glow in different colors and intensities. I don't like them quite as much as the plain white ones, but they have had a much lower failure rate. In fact I don't think I've had any of these kinds fail in the past few years.

I also have a number of under-counter fluorescent tube lights - the kind with 12" or shorter light tubes. The tubes on these seem to last a year or so. The light is nice - daylight or close to it - but I'm disappointed with the short lifespan of the tubes. And replacement tubes are about the same price as what I paid for the entire fixture plus tube, although if I ordered in bulk on the internet I could get the replacement tubes for less. Still, they really do wonders for a kitchen counter.
 
CFL's Have Done Well For Me

In 2002, I installed CFL bulbs in my bedroom and living room lamps. (I forgot the brand name, but I purchased them at Homo Depot.) They are still working well today. So well, I bought another set of CFL's (Lights of America) for spares--one is now in my ceiling fan lamp in the living/dining room.
Whatever you decide, my suggestion is to buy CLF bulbs that have the Energy Star label; they are supposed to meet certain standards for energy consumption, light output and durability compared to non-Energy Star bulbs.
 
I like the CFLs

I love these things. I've used them in my dorm rooms, apartments, houses, etc and never had a single one fail! Well....except for the one I punched a broom handle through....

I still have the very first CFL that I bought in 1995 burning strong every single day. 3-way 4 u-Tube style CFL bulb that's in my lamp that's currently lighting this room.

I buy the cheapest ones I can find, and even with that I've never had one fail. Not ever. My parents have some CFL's in their outdoor lights that were installed in 1998 and have never had the bulbs changed. They light every single night, from dusk to dawn in a wide range of temperatures and have NEVER quit.

People must be doing something wrong is all I can say.....
 
I don't like CFL's. I find the light they emit to be very harsh and blinding. Could just be my eyes, but that doesn't change my impression of them. We had some dimmable ones but they were problematic. Plus, you can't set the dimmer until after the lamp has warmed up completely. I guess this wouldn't be an issue if a non-toggle type of dimmer switch is used, but bottom line is that the CFL's haven't lasted as long as they should. We have them in some outdoor fixtures but that's it. Indoors we have incandescent with dimmers on nearly every fixture or lamp, so we are saving on energy that way.

Ralph
 
Almost all of my

lighting here is regular or compact fluorescent. I have the dropped ceilings (NOT my choice...) The only regular bulbs I use are in the fridge, microwave, and dryer.

Just gotten used to them. When I am in a tungsten lit room, it seems un-naturally yellow to me.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Walgreens

Right now Walgreens has a CF light with a built in ionizer for the air. It's called Ionic Air and costs $9.99. I held a cigg. to it and the smoke disappeared immediately.....Bill in Az....
 
So let's think about this. To save a few watts we are adding plastic, electronics and mercury to the environement instead of glass (sand) and metal (naturally occuring elements).

The junk store by GadgetGary's has light bulb 2 for $0.29. yes twenty-nine cents. At that pice I will never ever ever save any money by buying CFLs.
 
Toggle.....

ah, but how long would those .29 bulbs last? How much more electricity would they use? Electricity here in Ohio is made mostly by nasty dirty high sulfur coal.....how a region's electricity is made is a consideration.

The tungsten lightbulb's day is over.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Put it this way

Think that the 5 milligrams of merury in a CF lamp are only a fraction of what is emitted in the enviroment from burning coal or heavy oil to power an ordinary bulb that requires 4 or 5 times the power of a CFL.

Really they sell 2 bulbs for 0,29 dollars???
Here it is around 1,99€ per pair so the difference between classic lamps and CFL is much narrow. Even if there are some CFL that cost up to 25€
 
As a matter of fact, I think that the days of both incandescent and CF lamps are counted and that both will be succeeded by LEDs. I even think that the tungsten lamp will survive longer than the CF lamp for certain applications, probably in the form of halogen lamps. Here we see already a growing number of halogen lamps disguised as standard light bulbs appearing in the shops.

3-31-2009-03-29-30--mielabor.jpg
 
~ah, but how long would those .29 bulbs last? How much more electricity would they use?

Even at $0.145 they last just as long as the others. Some are by Philips, others are no-name made in Poland.

More electricity?
NAH!!!!!

they use the same as others.
100w, 75w, 60w, 40w, 25w, 15w, 7w, 4w..........

*LOL*

I have no interest in sitting under a lamp that gives off UV light especially that I am prone to skin cancer. Nor do I want to have to replace yellowed plastics constantly.

I conserve where I can, and do it gladly. But I allow myself the "luxury" of good lighting.

CFLs don't do well in enclosed lighitng fixtures. Is it "green" to have to replace all my enclosed lighting fixtures just to use these bulbs?

:-)
 
Hey Steve,

I'm with you. CFLs are OK in places where you just need light, but I don't want them in my living room. I have tried several types of CFLs, but I'm back to incandescent again. I am glad that we now have those halogen bulbs. They produce the same quality light, save energy (although not as much as CFLs do) and can be dimmed to create the cosy atmosphere one needs on long winter nights :-)
 
Don't be too sure that those no-name incandescent bulbs put out as much light as more pricy ones...they aren't the same. That said, I was always amused when I lived in Chicago (Commonwealth Edison) and they had a bulb service...for a fraction of a cent/kwh capped at just under $1/month you could (and still can, I think) get four lightbulbs. You took your bill to a bulb depot (when I lived there it was the NBD (National Bank of Detroit) in Mount Prospect and could walk out with the bulbs. Clearly a relic from the past, but I rarely paid more than $0.39 cents for the month and got the four bulbs.
 
"CFLs don't do well in enclosed lighitng fixtures. Is it "green" to have to replace all my enclosed lighting fixtures just to use these bulbs??"

All of our fixtures except 3 can lights and three lamps are enclosed and were only rated for 40watts originally. The bulbs have been in there for over 4 years with only 1 failure, so I think thats a bit of a misconception.

I find the light to be about the same as a Pearl incandescent when you have the warm white CFL's. After 4 years we have no yellowed plastics.

It seems funny to me, that the fear of change even around a lightbulb can be so strong. It's a bit like the 12 reasons being gay is wrong video that was shown recently :)
 
Well, I have no fear for change. I tried CFLs as soon as they became available some twenty years ago if I remember correctly. By then they were big, heavy and expensive. No electronic ballast and enclosed in thick glass jars. Then came the PL types that were much lighter and smaller, but required special fixtures. Nowadays they are almost similar to standard incandescent bulbs in weight and shape but... the spectrum they produce is still not as good as from incandescent light. I don't like it in a domestic atmosphere. Furthermore, as the light is not coming from a point source, it is difficult to direct and have pleasing light/dark effects. It just doesn't work for me.

I have higher expectations from LED lamps. Their spectrum still isn't comparable with incandescent lamps, but the way they emit light is much better as it comes from a small source.
 
The first CFLs were horrible -- large, expensive, slow and dim.

They didn't really become acceptable in terms of light quality and ramp up to full brightness until the compact units with electronic ballasts became prevalent.

The first one I bought that met that criteria, a Philips Marathon, easily met full life expectancy in terms of hours of usage, if not in years. I'm still using the one that Philips sent as a warranty replacement.

I've also had a good experience with a Philips Halogena incandescent in an area that is subject to numerous short-cycles. It has outlived even the CFL.

LEDs may eventually supplant both, but for the moment, the quality of light is substandard, and despite common belief, they also generate heat and require thermal management. Someday maybe...
 
I DETEST the CFL bulbs! They are twisty, and ugly, and give off harsh light. I might consider trying them again if they start making them in soft pink. But I agree that they contain mercury, and plastics, and etc. etc. I once read an article about a woman who broke her CFL light bulb, and called the number on the package as directed. They sent out a HAZMAT team to clean it up because of the mercury. It cost her around $2,000. We took mercury out of thermometers because it was dangerous, but now we've put it into our light bulbs. Brilliant!!
 

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