Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?

[dave1949]

My wife loves to turn them on and leave them on for hours on end with no purpose. ...........I heard years ago that it takes as much power to start a CFL as it uses in 8 hours so it's cheaper to let it burn for 8 hours than it is to turn it off and on ....that was several years ago ....things may have changed in that regard.

I wondered how a CFL could create as much heat in its base as it does and not use a lot of electricity. I tried a few in a lamp plugged into my Kill-A-Watt tool. I didn't see any prolonged usage when a cold bulb was turned on. Hardly detectable. The wattage read by the Kill-A-Watt agrees with the rating of the bulb too.

 

[k0ua]

Here is my un-scientific take on CFL's. We like everyone else have a lot of them in our home. My findings are that the ones that have the bulb turned up and the base down, or turned sideways last pretty well. The ones with the base above the bulb, not so much. The heat apparently cooks the power supply, and it fails. None of the CFL's we have seem to withstand power surges very well. Pooft! they are gone. I am sure the high voltage power supply fails in them. Yes they are a bit slow to come to full brightness, but that usually isn't a problem except in a closet where you are only going to be in there a few seconds, and then it is kinda annoying. They don't work well in the cold, so I went back to incandescent for outside lighting for now. I don't have any LED lamps yet, (the cost has kept me from trying them), and I fear that they will not be any more tolerant of power surges than the CFL's, since they have a low voltage power supply in their base. At some point of course we are all going to be using LED bulbs if we live long enough. To me though it is awfully hard to justify paying $15 for a bulb that probably will fail just as quickly as a 50 cent bulb the next time a limb hits a power line or there is a nearby lightning strike. But our government has spoken and us poor serfs just have to bear the burden.

James K0UA

 

[Gary Fowler]

You either had a bad bulb OR you hooked a non-dimmable (not all can be used with a dimmer)bulb to a dimmer circuit. I have never had one of mine flicker like the fluorescents bulbs do when ballast goes bad.
Never seen a 6.4 watt, most I see are 10-14 watts. But the CFL bulbs use 40 watts to produce a yellow light equivalent to 60 watt incandescent. An LED at 14 watts produces a brighter white light with more lumens than the CFL for 1/3 the electrical power. I like this because my old eyes don't see well anymore in low light

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

...the CFL bulbs use 40 watts to produce a yellow light equivalent to 60 watt incandescent. An LED at 14 watts produces a brighter white light with more lumens than the CFL for 1/3 the electrical power.

Yeah, I'm sure I got a bad one. There was no dimmer on that circuit. Looking at this comparison chart the CFL puts out the most lumens per watt. The power consumption difference between CFL and LED is almost identical and therefore does not warrant paying the ridiculous cost of LED bulbs to replace CFL (yet)

 

[s219]

Code (or law) in our area required at least half of the lights in our new home built in 2012-2013 be energy savers. We opted for LEDs in the can lights on our cathedral ceiling, and they are awesome. Brighter than incandescents, and hopefully I never have to climb up there to replace them in my lifetime. Other cans use CFLs, and they suck. Take to long to warm up, which is useless in bathrooms when I'm in and out quickly. Rest of the bulbs are incandescents and work fine. I plan to try a higher quality CFL bulb when I need to replace anything. Long term, I sure hope the price of LEDs comes down.

 

[k0ua]

Code (or law) in our area required at least half of the lights in our new home built in 2012-2013 be energy savers. We opted for LEDs in the can lights on our cathedral ceiling, and they are awesome. Brighter than incandescents, and hopefully I never have to climb up there to replace them in my lifetime. Other cans use CFLs, and they suck. Take to long to warm up, which is useless in bathrooms when I'm in and out quickly. Rest of the bulbs are incandescents and work fine. I plan to try a higher quality CFL bulb when I need to replace anything. Long term, I sure hope the price of LEDs comes down.

Have you lost any of the LED's due to voltage fluctuations. (power surges)?.. I have lost several CFL's from that. I sure hope the LED's do better.

 

[s219]

Have you lost any of the LED's due to voltage fluctuations. (power surges)?.. I have lost several CFL's from that. I sure hope the LED's do better.

No, but we've only been in the house since May. Lost one CFL and one incandescent so far.

 

[Scooby074]

Have you lost any of the LED's due to voltage fluctuations. (power surges)?.. I have lost several CFL's from that. I sure hope the LED's do better.

I live in the country and have pretty crappy power (its getting better) and I havent lost a single LED to power fluctuation over the several years Ive been using them; matter of fact, I havent lost an LED to ANYTHING at all! A good name brand like Philips LED is pretty durable and it would take a decent spike to kill it. Now the cheapass ones from Walmart or Costco.. Id be surprised if they last the afternoon

 

[k0ua]

I live in the country and have pretty crappy power (its getting better) and I havent lost a single LED to power fluctuation over the several years Ive been using them; matter of fact, I havent lost an LED to ANYTHING at all! A good name brand like Philips LED is pretty durable and it would take a decent spike to kill it. Now the cheapass ones from Walmart or Costco.. Id be surprised if they last the afternoon

That's good to know.

 

[Egbert]

CFLs are the result of politics - not consumer interest. They are slow. Light is poor. Breakage is to be handled as a hazmat situation - including vacating your home.

I bought cases of the old incandescent bulbs when all this leftwing nonsense starting gaining traction. They are still available but time is short.

LEDs will most likely be the wave of the future, as they are long-lasting, bright and non-hazardous. Cost will come down over time.