Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?
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Travelover
Elite Member
This surprised me. I've replaced the incandescent bulbs in my RV with LEDs and it made a whopping difference in battery life. But the home use LEDs are about the same power consumption per lumen as a CFL. So, if a CFL works in an application it is hard to get excited about paying the extra cost for an LED.
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Larry Caldwell
Super Member
The newer CFLs get bright much faster. I still have some 20 year old CFLs in the bedroom ceiling fixture that start pretty dim. It keeps the light from blinding you when somebody turns on the light in the middle of the night. After 2 or 3 minutes they finally come up to brightness, which gives our eyes time to adjust.
DarkBlack
Elite Member
I'm not impressed that much with cfl's. Just had one fail today. Granted its hanging upside down in the basement. I don't get more than 6 month out of these, and I find it takes a 90w labeled to equal the human visible light compared to a 60w oldie. Then you factor in the toxic interior of these and disposal issues...
SPIKER
Elite Member
For the CFLs the ones with Edison bases, do not hold onto the bulb (glass tubes) and screw them in, real easy way to end their life quickly. Hold onto the base only on these, so using them in CAN lights is near impossible to correctly install them.
The daughter-n-law are all over these things and their house is terrible for light... The toxic waste of them also are going to eventually be of concern some where down the line the EPA will want to condemn any home where one broke inside more than likely :/
There are some CLFs that are OK for Dimming but I would not recommend it myself, they are known fire starters. There are also a large recall on some made in china CFLs can't remember the brand but they are fire starters even on standard switches.
On LEDs they are OK but their light is mostly a Directional light (spot light type lights) not all that great for area lighting. Most of them are good for low ceilings and inside a room if you can get over the up front costs.
Me I think the entire EPA/Department of Energy BS is dumb, most times we use Lights is in Winter and at NIGHT both means the added heat is just more warmth into the dark cold rooms in winter. Summer time lights are only last 2 hours of the night anyhow so usage is way down. When you think of having lights on for 6 or so hours in winter that is say 400 watts of heat/light into the room that you need ANYHOW... Simply idiotic Government regulations made by people who only think about 1 little part of what they think is right... Cost to make the CFLs the costs to the environment, cost to buy them all vs the energy savings is ridiculous. Over the life of the bulbs you make out on maybe 1 in 10 the others are done ahead of time from on/off cycles. The ones you leave on 24/7 or are on all night on timers are only ones you make out on. the rest of them are pretty much losers when it comes to cost per lumen used out of them over their life WHEN they are disposed of correctly. Those people that just wrap them in plastic bag & toss in the trash is not really helping to dispose of them correctly...
Mark
The daughter-n-law are all over these things and their house is terrible for light... The toxic waste of them also are going to eventually be of concern some where down the line the EPA will want to condemn any home where one broke inside more than likely :/
There are some CLFs that are OK for Dimming but I would not recommend it myself, they are known fire starters. There are also a large recall on some made in china CFLs can't remember the brand but they are fire starters even on standard switches.
On LEDs they are OK but their light is mostly a Directional light (spot light type lights) not all that great for area lighting. Most of them are good for low ceilings and inside a room if you can get over the up front costs.
Me I think the entire EPA/Department of Energy BS is dumb, most times we use Lights is in Winter and at NIGHT both means the added heat is just more warmth into the dark cold rooms in winter. Summer time lights are only last 2 hours of the night anyhow so usage is way down. When you think of having lights on for 6 or so hours in winter that is say 400 watts of heat/light into the room that you need ANYHOW... Simply idiotic Government regulations made by people who only think about 1 little part of what they think is right... Cost to make the CFLs the costs to the environment, cost to buy them all vs the energy savings is ridiculous. Over the life of the bulbs you make out on maybe 1 in 10 the others are done ahead of time from on/off cycles. The ones you leave on 24/7 or are on all night on timers are only ones you make out on. the rest of them are pretty much losers when it comes to cost per lumen used out of them over their life WHEN they are disposed of correctly. Those people that just wrap them in plastic bag & toss in the trash is not really helping to dispose of them correctly...
Mark
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sixdogs
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I put these 100W equivalent bulbs in the garage and I need a flashlight to see.
if any business had invented this product with mercury in it the Feds would have sued them back to the stone age.
Scooby074
Super Member
Mercury and florescent lighting have always gone together. The CFL is just an incarnation of technology dating to the very early 1900's.
The EPA isn't going to kick anybody's door in for a broken CFL. Do you know how many florescents of all different varieties get broken in the run of a year? Probably 10's to 100's of thousands, probably millions if you include during disposal.
Is there a tiny, tiny bit of mercury in a modern florescent? Yes. Is it a risk and we need to get the guys out in yellow hazmat suits to clean it up? Hardly.
How much of the recent outrage is due to their perceived design flaws or an individual persons political viewpoint?
The EPA isn't going to kick anybody's door in for a broken CFL. Do you know how many florescents of all different varieties get broken in the run of a year? Probably 10's to 100's of thousands, probably millions if you include during disposal.
Is there a tiny, tiny bit of mercury in a modern florescent? Yes. Is it a risk and we need to get the guys out in yellow hazmat suits to clean it up? Hardly.
How much of the recent outrage is due to their perceived design flaws or an individual persons political viewpoint?
dave1949
Super Star Member
All of it.
How did any of us survive 12 years in a public school lighted entirely by florescent bulbs? Lots of people cover their garage ceilings with florescent lights too. Same difference.
The waste heat given off by any light bulb in Ohio is likely powered by a coal-burning power plant that spews mercury into the atmosphere. There is no free energy lunch.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
We went with CFLs in the house for two reasons, to save on energy costs and to not have to replace light bulbs all of the time.
In our city house we had some track lighting that went through light bulbs like a scat through a goose. I was constantly changing light bulbs. We had some hanging lights in the kitchen that I had used to replace the plastic 70's style hanging light fixtures after I bought the house. We liked the new fixtures but they used a halogen bulb that would burn out after a month or two and the bulbs were expensive. I think the kitchen fixtures and the track lighting were heating up and killing the bulbs.
Our house has 85ish can lights inside and outside the house and everyone has a CFL. Since it is a can light all of the bulbs are pointing down. I really don't think or bulb failures were from use in can fixtures since the bulbs are not heating up that much and we have some CFLS that are almost 10 years old. The bulbs that failed were just scat in the first place. Some of them failed right out of the packaging and some within days of use. The bulbs were just garbage. Most of our bulbs are R30 or R40 which means there is a glass bulb/reflector wrapped around the CFL spiral. If heat was going to kill these bulbs I don't know if the cans would have much of an effect since the bulbs are already sealed into container.
I have started to replace the R30/R40 bulbs with regular CFLs due to cost and I have found that the cheaper non brand named CFLs fail just like the R30/R30 bulbs. The bulbs we used when we built the house were all from HD while the high failure CFLs are from Lowes. I don't know if that really makes a difference though. In any case, we only buy named brand bulbs at this point.
With no AC usage the power bill is around $110 a month. A good part of the bill is clothes drying. The clothes washer uses some unbelievably low amount of power, something like $10 a year, but the dryer is a different story. It sucks up power and heated air which then get blown out of the house. With two kids, the washer and dryer run for hours each day. I have been tracking our power usage, and at night, we use around 8 KWH which is from the fridge, freezer, some lights, and phantom power usage. During the day, I can tell when the wifey has been home and when she has been doing laundry because the power usage is drastically higher than at night or when she is out of the house.
If I could get away with it, I would "buy" her a solar power clothes dryer, but I think this would cause me great pain. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
Later,
Dan
In our city house we had some track lighting that went through light bulbs like a scat through a goose. I was constantly changing light bulbs. We had some hanging lights in the kitchen that I had used to replace the plastic 70's style hanging light fixtures after I bought the house. We liked the new fixtures but they used a halogen bulb that would burn out after a month or two and the bulbs were expensive. I think the kitchen fixtures and the track lighting were heating up and killing the bulbs.
Our house has 85ish can lights inside and outside the house and everyone has a CFL. Since it is a can light all of the bulbs are pointing down. I really don't think or bulb failures were from use in can fixtures since the bulbs are not heating up that much and we have some CFLS that are almost 10 years old. The bulbs that failed were just scat in the first place. Some of them failed right out of the packaging and some within days of use. The bulbs were just garbage. Most of our bulbs are R30 or R40 which means there is a glass bulb/reflector wrapped around the CFL spiral. If heat was going to kill these bulbs I don't know if the cans would have much of an effect since the bulbs are already sealed into container.
I have started to replace the R30/R40 bulbs with regular CFLs due to cost and I have found that the cheaper non brand named CFLs fail just like the R30/R30 bulbs. The bulbs we used when we built the house were all from HD while the high failure CFLs are from Lowes. I don't know if that really makes a difference though. In any case, we only buy named brand bulbs at this point.
With no AC usage the power bill is around $110 a month. A good part of the bill is clothes drying. The clothes washer uses some unbelievably low amount of power, something like $10 a year, but the dryer is a different story. It sucks up power and heated air which then get blown out of the house. With two kids, the washer and dryer run for hours each day. I have been tracking our power usage, and at night, we use around 8 KWH which is from the fridge, freezer, some lights, and phantom power usage. During the day, I can tell when the wifey has been home and when she has been doing laundry because the power usage is drastically higher than at night or when she is out of the house.
If I could get away with it, I would "buy" her a solar power clothes dryer, but I think this would cause me great pain. :laughing::laughing::laughing:
Later,
Dan
jrwalkerpa1
New member
I did the same thing a few years back. I was unprepared when the laws came down for those ridiculous new gas can spouts and was determined not to let the same thing happen with
light bulbs. I have enough "old school" bulbs of all sizes in my basement to last 3 lifetimes!
ultrarunner
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Quality of bulbs vary greatly...
In 1979 I put two flood lights on a motion detector... had to borrow a tall ladder to get them up high enough to make them effective.
Nearly 35 years later... those 2 ACE Hardware Premium Long Life Floods are still working and they go on and off every night whenever something walks past.
In Olympia I was having trouble with can lights that I bought at a box store... later I found these bulbs had lots of complaints...
Bought a case of GE from Grainger and all was good.
Lots of variables when it comes to lighting...
On the job... I have some T8 Sylvania 4' in the mechanical room that have been locked on since December of 1995 and still going.
Same Hospital building and I can't get the T8's that have occupancy sensors to last more than 6 months...
Sometimes what is saved in power is offset with the higher and more frequent replacement costs plus the labor to change them out...
In 1979 I put two flood lights on a motion detector... had to borrow a tall ladder to get them up high enough to make them effective.
Nearly 35 years later... those 2 ACE Hardware Premium Long Life Floods are still working and they go on and off every night whenever something walks past.
In Olympia I was having trouble with can lights that I bought at a box store... later I found these bulbs had lots of complaints...
Bought a case of GE from Grainger and all was good.
Lots of variables when it comes to lighting...
On the job... I have some T8 Sylvania 4' in the mechanical room that have been locked on since December of 1995 and still going.
Same Hospital building and I can't get the T8's that have occupancy sensors to last more than 6 months...
Sometimes what is saved in power is offset with the higher and more frequent replacement costs plus the labor to change them out...
SPIKER
Elite Member
Pretty good timing as today in the mail arrived a box from our Electric utility company, it is filled with probably 10 + CFLs, LED Night Lights, Furnace Filter Whistle, and a few other things too. Part of First Energy (FE) energy conservation package. They were going to charge people some ridiculous price for them, bought a ton of the bulbs and no one wanted to pay the price they wanted (top quality USA Made stuff.) Well after a year of having the program and attempting to make EVERYONE pay the fees they dropped it and gave them away pretty much but have added on a buck a month to the bill or something like that. I have 2 Living Room lights in the Chandler and know where 2 of them are going lol... I JUST replaced both Kitchen Fixtures & used 4 (2 per fixture) 60watt bulbs. They are kind of yellow light & 1 gets left on whole time while cooking & eating & cleaning so may try and replace those with the CFLs just to see if they are OK. The old fixtures were 1 100watt bulb and a 12" FL round fluorescent light that just basically slowed to a near 10% of lighting on 1st try... Flicking it on/off got tiresome and was really old (guess it was original to the 1943 built date house.)
Mark
Mark
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Our dryers is on a 30 amp circuit, so worst case the dryer uses 30*120=3,600 watts per hour.
Assuming that the dryer is used on average 3 hours a day, 3*3,600=10,800 watts. Power now costs us 11 or 12 cents a KWH so lets just say 12 cents for worst case. .12* 10,800= $1.30 a day. Assuming the dryer is run 30 days a week, $1.30*30 is $39 a month.
I think $39 is a bit on the high side but I bet is in the ball park, maybe $30 a month. I think the hot water heater is costing $20-30 a month. If our average power bill is $120 then the dryer is cost 25% of our bill with the hot water heater being another 16-25%.
Later,
Dan
westcliffe01
Veteran Member
I see my Bosch dryer is 2.8kW But your dryer is a 230V appliance, not a 110/115v one. It uses both phases that run into the house. Does the 0.12 include all the "add on" fees ? I only have NG and electricity and my washer and dryer are definitely the primary electrical loads. The washer has an element of its own to heat the water on the "sanitary" cycle which is 2 hours long, but it is great for getting white stuff squeaky clean.
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sixdogs
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Dan--thank you in a big way. I have been trying for some way to guestimate quantity usage but have zero ideas when it comes to electricity. I got "lifted" once and never got over it. Great comments.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Oh, yeah, you are right so that would double my costs! :shocked: The wifey might be getting a solar powered dryer for XMAS! :laughing::laughing::laughing:
12 cents includes taxes and fees. We have been running at 10 cents a KWH but it has gone up this year when the regulators allowed Duke Power to buy out Progress and raise the power rate. All sorts of lies were told about the purchase of Progress.
We had to buy a new clothes washer a few months back that has a sanitary and steam cycles but I don't think the wifey uses those. I have not seen a power usage increase with the new washer.
Later,
Dan
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Welcome. Hopefully my numbers are in the ball park. Seems like Westcliffe01 caught a power boo boo on my part. :laughing:
Later,
Dan
dave1949
Super Star Member
7200 watts per hour = 7.2 kWh times 0.12 per kWh. That's 86.4 cents per hour of max operation. The element probably cycles on and off in reality.
DarkBlack
Elite Member
I'm not sure to whom those 2 thoughts are aimed at. Can you elaborate?
