CFL Rant

[vulcancowboy]

:soapbox:
I hate these stinking bulbs so much! Just had another one quit yesterday. I thought they were supposed to last almost forever, but this is at least the 3rd one that has died on me. Why doesn't our government focus on what they are supposed to be doing and keep their noses out of our lives? <end of rant>

 

[CobyRupert]

Yes, they're suppose to last 10,000 hours (416 days), compared to an incandescent that's around 1200 hours. But I bet that's if you run them continuously. I've never seen a study on how many times you can flick them on and off. I think incandescent are better for applications like a closet or a bathroom that gets flicked on for a few minutes many times a day, but where a light is on for hours CFL's or LEDs are the best bang for the buck.

 

[houstonscott]

Just wish we had a free market and each of us could make our own choice, uncontrolled by big government. HS

 

[AaronS]

Based on our title I thought you were upset with the Canadian Football League.

 

[Dutch445]

I have had a couple burn out recently also, i would say they were no longer than
the old incandescent ... but so much more money.

 

[tow653]

Luckily I have a friend who used to work for GE and he has an endless supply of incandescent bulbs,even 100W.

 

[radioman]

I agree with you . just like anything- they claim one thing and then when it burns out- you cant exactly take it back to the store and exchange it under the claim of 10000 hours . If they state something in general then they should keep thier word! I agree with coby too -- no one in their right mind will leave the lights on 24/7 and this is the only thing I can think of too why it fails early. I'm switching to leds with bulbs bought overseas. its too expensive here.

 

[dmccarty]

The bulb brand does seem to matter. I used to buy R30/R40 CFLs from Lowes to replace the bulbs I had bought at HD when we built the house. At first, the Lowes bulbs were lasting but over time the bulbs they were selling just would not last. Many were dead from the package and some would last a week or so. It was so bad I started keeping the receipts and writing the install date on the bulbs. Lowes took back some bulbs.

I bought some GE R30/R40s from Lowes, and they worked just find, but the price has gotten too high to keep buying the R30/R40s. As the R30/R40s burn out we switched over to using regular Sylvannia bulbs which have been working fine so far. :thumbsup: We have some 18" FL tubes used as task lighting and I have to replace one of the bulbs that have burned out. That is only the second one out of four and those bulbs are 10 years old and run 24 hours a day. They only time they get turned off is during a power outage. Unreal how long those bulbs have lasted. :shocked::laughing:

The CFLs from the good brands certainly last along time and I think get the rated hours. Some of the HD bulbs lasted 5+ years inside the house. The exterior lights are all the HD R30/R40 CFLs and I think they all are still working after 10 years. :shocked: The bulbs are not used much but I can't complain about those bulbs.

We have 85 light cans in the house and CFLs have really lowered our power bills, and at some point, LEDs will drop enough in price to replace the CFLs.

Later,
Dan

 

[MoKelly]

I can still find the old bulbs at Wal-Mart.

MoKelly

 

[s219]

When we built our new house, code or some other gov rule mandated a certain percentage of CFL or LED lights (maybe like 50% ??). We put LED in the cans in our great room, since they would be a bear to replace those bulbs way up high. All other bulbs downstairs are incandescent. Upstairs is all CFL except for a couple bathroom vanity fixtures that have smaller incandescents. I hate the CFLs, due to the warmup time. Sometimes I will be in and out of a room before they even warm up enough to let me see. We have only had one CFL out of several dozen fail in 1.5 years. These were an unfamiliar "Satco" brand that the electrical supply house provided, so I was a little worried, but so far so good on reliability.

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

When CFLs first became popular, they seemed to reach full brightness within 5 seconds or so, but lately I find they take up to 5 minutes.
I have CFLs where-ever lights are used for more than 15 minutes at a time... so pretty much everywhere but closets & bathrooms.
The ones that last the longest... 3 to 4 years, are the outside lights on the house & along the driveway. They are on a timer, come on at dusk & off at midnight.
I usually use a felt-tip marker & write the install date on the white part of the base. Some bulbs barely last 6 months.
For my 9 outdoor lights, I use 11watt CFLs instead of the 60watt incandescent I used years ago. At an average of 4.75 hours per day, 365 days per year, the CFLs cost me about $25 a year to operate, the 60watt incandescent would cost about $140 at the same electricity rate. I used my last electricity bill, divided the total bill amount including taxes by the total kilowatt hours used, came up with just about 15 cents per.
So, CFLs do save some money... assuming they really do only use 11 watts of power. :confused2:

Pete

 

[buickanddeere]

There are some LED's out there now with over 1600 lumen of light . Brighter than a 100W incandescent and draw 20W. Sylvania make a A21 shape 20W with 1625 lumen in warm white and a Par38 20W that makes 1300lumen in cool white. GE makes an outdoor PAR38 20W with 1675 lumen and a daylight colour.

 

[Baby Grand]

We just replaced the CFLs out in the garage where 2 of the tractors and most of the tools sleep. The difference in the amount of light they provide and the time it takes to get full output is distinct, especially as the unheated garage temperature gets down in the 30s. As the LED prices drop with increasing sales, I don't see the CFLs having a snowball's chance in a lake of fire. The invisible hand of the market at work.

 

[nikdfish]

I have bit the bullet & replaced CFL's that were in unheated areas (garage door openers, basement, etc.) and stairways with LED's. Already replaced all outside "architectural" fixtures with LED versions. Cannot stand a light that comes on dim and stays that way forever...

Nick

 

[Bird]

Oddly enough (to me anyway) whoever built this house put a light socket outside under the eaves right in front of the garage door with no switch anywhere. So I leave that CFL on 24/7, been here 9 years and replaced that bulb once. And on the back side of the shop/recreation room is another small CFL that stays on 24/7 and I can't remember ever replacing that one. The patio/breezeway has 3 light fixtures, all on the same switch inside the house. Those CFL lights do come on pretty dim, especially in cold weather. They are turned on and off several times a day and have lasted just fine. I would, of course, like to replace them all with LED, but so far that would just be too expensive.

 

[dmccarty]

Just by dumb luck, I changed some light bulbs today. :laughing:

On one bulb I did not write the date and it was in a fixture that is not often used so I think that CFL was from 2004. :shocked: I replaced it with a cheaper spiral CFL and the new bulb did not work nor did the second one. :confused3: After spending 2-3 hours trouble shooting the circuit it looks like the conductor that hits the tip of the bulb was bent so that it cannot connect to the bulb. Spent quite a bit of time getting the conductor to bend back but still the bulbs do not work even using known working bulbs. I did notice that the older CFL conductor tip was a bit longer than the new spiral bulbs which I think bent the fixture's conductor.

Anywho, I replaced two other R40 bulbs, one was a GE was 2.5 years old and one of the original Lowes, the first Lowes CFL were pretty good, was from 2009 so about 4.5 years old.

I put the bulb I thought was bad into another fixture and it still works. I think that bulb is about 10 years old. I still have 6 of the HD bulbs we bought in 2004. I might try one of those bulbs in the "broken" can fixture.

I have not had a problem with CFLs being dim at all but one does have to pay attention to how many lumens the bulb produces. Some of the bulbs take a while to warm up but that does not bother us and in fact we like it. It is nice in the morning to not have a blinding light blast you awake. This is not so good if you have the CFLs in flood lights for security though some of our CFLs don't seem to have much, if any, light lag.

Later,
Dan

 

[dave1949]

I've had the "fat base" problem with the CFL spirals too. The rim of the bulb base runs into the bulb socket before the center prong makes solid contact.

CFLs have done well for me. I do think LEDs will replace them but CFLs made a good 10 year energy saving bridge to something much better.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Just wish we had a free market and each of us could make our own choice, uncontrolled by big government. HS

The ban of incandescent is still pretty much on hold. Thank goodness.

CFL is an environmental nightmare AND they just generally S U C K.

If/when I move to something newer, it will likely be LED.

 

[bcp]

There was talk of banning 40, 60, 75, and 100 watt bulbs.

So now I see on the shelves bulbs like 37, 56, 70, and 96 watts.

Bruce

PS And in the winter, it is not "waste heat."