Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?

[grsthegreat]

just learned today from factory rep concerning LED lights. The new data shows that all current LED lights WILL change their color spectrum over time. As they get older, the light will change color. He told me it will change towards the blue spectrum. Also the 25,000 to 50,000 hour ratings are just a guess. No one has actually tested them in real life situations for that long of time.

I was at the supply house stocking up on 60 watt clear incandescent lamps (case of 72 - 130 volt lamps) to keep me till LEDS get reasonable priced.

 

[DarkBlack]

Funny thing about his "internet" subject?.

Title is Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?. But most of the discussion is about disappointment with CFLs, which have been around even long before the word "internet". Think about that one for a moment, Pre-Internet. CFLs are almost dinosaur.
.

Maybe what's actually funny is that you missed the early days of the internet.
I was posting on "internet" bulletin boards through dial up modems way before cfl's were available for average consumers.

 

[SPIKER]

We have occupancy switches at work. If you are sitting still long enough, like working at your computer, they start beeping and then turn the lights off. If you don't want the light to turn off you have to wave an arm or something so it knows someone is in the room. They help save electricity AND burn those unnecessary calories most office-bound workers don't need anyway

Yep some times they are a REAL PAIN in bathroom stall and lights go out have to hope ya have a magazine to toss at it & hope no one walks in at the same time lol. HATE having to wipe by BRAILLE hahaah DOU

I've worked in offices with those. It is funny when you are the only person there. On the other hand, if you walk to the restroom, all the lights along your path turn on even though they are usually set up to leave enough residual bulbs on to see enough for walking.

We had High Bay T5 fixtures set up and felt like god walking down the big warehouse as the lights come on as you get close to being under them... ;D

Mark

 

[dave1949]

Yep some times they are a REAL PAIN in bathroom stall and lights go out have to hope ya have a magazine to toss at it & hope no one walks in at the same time lol. HATE having to wipe by BRAILLE hahaah DOU



We had High Bay T5 fixtures set up and felt like god walking down the big warehouse as the lights come on as you get close to being under them... ;D

Mark

Exactly. Let there be light ... and it was so. :laughing:

 

[dstig1]

One day last week was light bulb changing day...


We have some small tube FL's for task lighting that have been running nearly 24 hours a day since 2005. Only ONE of those bulbs has burned out. :shocked:

Later,

Dan, The one fact you need to remember about fluorescents is that they don't have a life in hours so much as they have a limited number of "starts" in them. Just like incandescnets tend to burn out on the start-up surge, so do flourescents, but it is much more pronounced. If you turn a flourescent on that is rated for 5000 hrs, and leave it on, it will probably outlast that by a few orders of magnitude. Thus my own application of them in lights that tend to be on a lot and stay on. My computer desk light is on every night for a few hours, and only gets turned on once a day, for the most part. I have replaced it once after 5 years or more. It was too long to worry or complain. But the kitchen ceiling cans are absolutely horrible. Those get switched a few times a day, but are on a lot, and they die within 1-2 yrs, at most. Since they are so high up, I wanted bulbs that would burn out less than incandescents. Less...yes, but not by much, and definitely not meeting their claims/warranty. Have been and continue to be very disappointed in those.

 

[cqaigy2]

Yep some times they are a REAL PAIN in bathroom stall and lights go out have to hope ya have a magazine to toss at it & hope no one walks in at the same time lol. HATE having to wipe by BRAILLE hahaah DOU



We had High Bay T5 fixtures set up and felt like god walking down the big warehouse as the lights come on as you get close to being under them... ;D

Mark

Holy Crap! How long are you on the pot? :laughing:

Wait a sec, i really don't need to know.

 

[ultrarunner]

Dan, The one fact you need to remember about fluorescents is that they don't have a life in hours so much as they have a limited number of "starts" in them. Just like incandescnets tend to burn out on the start-up surge, so do flourescents, but it is much more pronounced. If you turn a flourescent on that is rated for 5000 hrs, and leave it on, it will probably outlast that by a few orders of magnitude. Thus my own application of them in lights that tend to be on a lot and stay on. My computer desk light is on every night for a few hours, and only gets turned on once a day, for the most part. I have replaced it once after 5 years or more. It was too long to worry or complain. But the kitchen ceiling cans are absolutely horrible. Those get switched a few times a day, but are on a lot, and they die within 1-2 yrs, at most. Since they are so high up, I wanted bulbs that would burn out less than incandescents. Less...yes, but not by much, and definitely not meeting their claims/warranty. Have been and continue to be very disappointed in those.

Most of the T8 at the loading dock at work have been locked on since December 1995... sylvania brand.

Boss had me install light switches in the bathrooms serving the back offices... about 3 months and the T8's are shot.

Picked up 3 60 watt LED at Home Depot today... all this talk got me curious.

 

[dmccarty]

I have to say, WHY are you having lights left on so often? If you are concerned about energy usage the easiest and best way is to TURN THE DANG THINGS OFF!

You NEED to buy and install the Occupancy switches ( at HD Search Results for*Occupancy switches*at The Home Depot ) that turn lights OFF when no one is in the room. This is why the US EPA is saying we have to install LED and CFL bulbs because people put in 50 cans and leave them run all day. :shocked:


FYI Looks like I'll be starting at GE on the 7th of Jan, AFTER their shutdown, (no working for me but miss the holiday pay) I'm OK waiting a few days spend days trading stocks and working on farm...

Mark

Because we like light. And there are not has many lights on as you would think nor do they cost that much to run.

We don't like dark rooms and the wifey has eye problems so light is a requirement. Someone is in the living room and kitchen almost all day so the lights are on all day. The light switches would not work in our house since the kitchen and living room are right next to each other. The switches would either turn off the lights when we don't want them off or they would stay on just as we want. The switches would be a PITA and a waste of money for the kitchen and living room. The lights in the kitchen and living room cost us no more than 60 cents a day to run which is hardly causing Climate Change, an Energy Crisis, or the sky to fall. :laughing: We have 15 cans that would be running all day, and assuming a light is not burned out, those 15 CFLs are not even using 400 watts to light up two rather large rooms. Our dark dreary city house had some track lighting that barely lit the room but consumed at least as much power to sorta light one smaller room.

Now, the switches might make sense in the laundry room, since the wifey seems to be incapable of turning of the lights in that room for some reason...

We don't have 50 lights on in the house at one time.

I would bet that we have more window square footage in our house than the vast majority of people but the windows still do not let in as much light as we like. Our living room has French doors that are glass that are 66x96 plus/minus, one window that is 96x60 and a second that is 144x72. We cannot stand a dark house but even with about 1 sf of windows per 2 sf of floor space, we don't have enough light. Since we use CFLs our lighting bill is not that much money. We spend far more on hot water and AC during the summer. AC is a huge expense and what we spend in one month would likely power our lights for a year. If we had to use the heat pump to heat the house, THAT would consume even more power.

We do keep some lights on 24 hours as night lights since someone, usually me, is up in the middle of the night checking on things, letting the the dog out or putting wood in the stove. But those lights draw very little power. Over night, the house uses 6-10 KWH. Some of that is lighting but I think most is the fridge and freezer, well house heat, and sometimes, one PC and a heater for the chickens.

Glad you found a job. That is an accomplishment these days.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Dan, The one fact you need to remember about fluorescents is that they don't have a life in hours so much as they have a limited number of "starts" in them. Just like incandescnets tend to burn out on the start-up surge, so do flourescents, but it is much more pronounced. If you turn a flourescent on that is rated for 5000 hrs, and leave it on, it will probably outlast that by a few orders of magnitude. Thus my own application of them in lights that tend to be on a lot and stay on. My computer desk light is on every night for a few hours, and only gets turned on once a day, for the most part. I have replaced it once after 5 years or more. It was too long to worry or complain. But the kitchen ceiling cans are absolutely horrible. Those get switched a few times a day, but are on a lot, and they die within 1-2 yrs, at most. Since they are so high up, I wanted bulbs that would burn out less than incandescents. Less...yes, but not by much, and definitely not meeting their claims/warranty. Have been and continue to be very disappointed in those.

Turning the lights on an off does seem to shorten the life space of the bulbs. The kids like to leave a closet light on for a night light as well as a light in the bathroom. Those lights seem to last a very long time, far longer than the bulb rating.

On the other hand, the bulbs in the living room and kitchen have been problematic. They get used all day for the most part and maybe turned on/off twice at the most. Because of the obvious earlier failures of some of the bulbs I started writing the installation date on the bulb. There are certainly some very bad brands of CFLs out there though.

Later,
Dan

 

[SPIKER]

Holy Crap! How long are you on the pot? :laughing:

Wait a sec, i really don't need to know.

LOL well ya did see the comment about READING MATERIAL right?

Mark

 

[chopped]

Well im so glad for the information from TBN members.I really get an education.
For weeks, after I converted to the antenna again.(Didn't feel cable was worth the money for us).
Anyways with digital signal it either locks on or doesnt. So for a few months now everyday about 4 or 5 PM the local channel we got would go blank.I thought it had to do with the sun setting.
So tonight we were watching and I went to the kitchen to get a drink , and noticed the tv went blank.So as I exited the kitchen I shut the light off and the tv channel came back on/HMMM
So all this time the three LED lights were sending interference to the TV..
I never would have suspected this if I were not schooled at University of TBN lol
interestingly in the tv room there is one identical bulb and puts out no interference.
So in summary,I can't watch tv and have the kitchen light on LOL sort of reminds me of my sisters house where you have to shut all the lights off to run the microwave, or have someone standing near the ciruit breakers to reset themlol

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Funny thing about his "internet" subject?.

Title is Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?. But most of the discussion is about disappointment with CFLs, which have been around even long before the word "internet". Think about that one for a moment, Pre-Internet. CFLs are almost dinosaur.

It's a little late to discuss CFLs, they're already 'on their way OUT' and thankfully so. And the CFLs have degenerated to NOT even last as long as an incandescent bulb, which probably required extensive engineering to burn out early yet still last about 1,000 hours as stated on the box. Down from the 2,000 hours they stated previously.

What does this say about tractorbynet members?? (in the Rural living forum) Are they a little "behind the curve"? Suckers for planned obsolescense? Short memory? :laughing: I know my memory isn't what it used to be.

I like old-school, but climbing a ladder 25 times as often, to stick with incandescents doesn't pencil out. Incandescent bulbs are a waste of time, energy, and for MOST people on ladders, dangerous. This 25 times assumption is based on an LED lasting 25,000 hours and an incandescent lasting 1,000 hours. Well, we do know incandescents don't last 1,000 hours. Unless you buy 130v, which cost a lot more for no reason other than they intend to sell less long-lasting bulbs thus drive most sales towards the ones that burn out.

PS: FYI. NEWSFLASH! The new lightbulbs are LED. And the "blue" LEDs are old school, the "color" of the new LEDs are indistinguishable from incandescents, except they use 1/5 the power.

The way I read the Op's first statement, he was referencing CFL's. Later on he makes a comment about newer technology and LED's.

Personnally I like LED's, except for the price.

 

[Sodo]

Maybe what's actually funny is that you missed the early days of the internet.
I was posting on "internet" bulletin boards through dial up modems way before cfl's were available for average consumers.

I do remember that (with some effort). No pictures, no colors, just text and a blinking cursor. When men were men and nerds were nerds! :rotfl: You think of that as the internet,,,, well it had less functionality than a txt msg on the phone, but you're right it was called the "internet". That was early 90s? and I think CFLS came out a few years later, in the mid-90s. But realistically there was very little internet when CFLs came out in force. Tractorbynet had 20 members in 1998; wonder if TBN was a unix screen message board in 1998?

It seems like mfrs are already dumping CFLs, hoping ** someone ** will buy them before they go straight to haz-mat yet here they are discussing the ins and outs.

Agreed about the LED price but at least LEDS will pay for themselves someday, and at an accelerating rate when the cost of energy rises. They don't actually pay for themselves except when you otherwise would have wasted money with an incandescent. (…..except when inside the insulated envelope of a heated a home). It gets complicated…..better to just turn the **** thing off.

 

[DarkBlack]

I was playing on the early bulletin boards in '88. I remember downloading some game files at 1200 baud. The 'games' were about 4k bytes and took forever to get.:laughing:

 

[California]

1200??? My first modem was a $90 (used) 300 baud unit. With no dialing ability, you used your phone on another extension for that.

But I had a HP110 laptop with 300 baud modem (from work) before that. MS-DOS based. Can you imagine 280k total available for programs and data storage?

 

[DarkBlack]

I was actually given a 300, but before I actually used it I bought a 'new' lighting fast 1200.

 

[DarkBlack]

There's more code to display the mouse pointer today, than those computers used for entire programs!

 

[Sodo]

….bought a 'new' lighting fast 1200.

……back on topic, discussing new lighting thats actually dinosaur….

 

[Travelover]

I was actually given a 300, but before I actually used it I bought a 'new' lighting fast 1200.

Now you are making me feel old - like when I took my grandson to the museum and they had stuff on display that I had used as a kid. :laughing: Lots of old light bulbs there, too - not that much different than a modern incandescent.

 

[California]

You know you are getting old: when you go into a thrift store and there's stuff there, other peoples used stuff, that is in better condition than the same items you paid a lot of money for new and you are still using it.