Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?

[sixdogs]

Maybe I missed a thread on this but the new light bulbs are terrible. I sort-of gave in and figured what the heck, I could use a bulb that lasts "forever". Well, forever turned out to be not very long and it went out. Plus, the power was so low I could hardly see.

Maybe it was a fluke so I tried more of the bulbs and have not have gone the distance with any or many of them. They don't seem to last much longer--if any at all--and the low light produced means you need two or three of them to get the light you used to. Surely that must equal the energy used of one of the earlier bulbs.

Now, I really do like the old fashioned florescent bulbs for their cool operating temps and longevity but something seems to have been lost in the translation to a light bulb. Maybe there is some newer technology I am missing? What about LED's and I don't even know what they are.

Anyone else feel this way about the new light bulbs or have any advice? Well, make that advice suitable for print.

 

[Buppies]

Sometimes new is not always better. Do not notice them lasting any longer than the old type

 

[MikeInEburg]

The new compact fluorescent bulbs are particularly bad in a location like my woodshed. They don't start well in the cold temps, I only run them for a few minutes a day, and some of them don't fit in my exterior-grade lamp socket. I'd go with LED, but would never recoup the up-front cost. And, if I nailed one with a stray piece of wood, it would be costly.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I went with LED in flush mount canister for all the light fixtures in my house (except ceiling fans that I cant seem to find a LED base to fit them. They give off a bright white light, come on almost instantly (there is a 1-2 second delay) and give the light of a 60W bulb from 12-15W of electricity. I designed the lighting arrangement based on mfg. overlay recommendations for my 9 foot ceilings and when the contractor got them all installed, my wifes comment to be was "Ray Charles could see in this house. I have 19 LED flood lights throughout the house. I also bought some LED outside porch lights. They are not terribly bright but give off enough light to habitat the porch but you wouldn't want to try to read by them, they are the wall mount globe type. I put in some dual CFL flood lights on each corner of the house and they really light up the area if you have 5 minutes for them to get to full brightness. Big disappointment there but since I don't use them much, I will let them be till they go out. I have seen that they now make outdoor duty LED flood lamps which will replace the CFL's. I also have some of them in the master bath, they come on immediately, run cool but in 3 years I have replaced 3 of them, so they will be phased out and replaced with LED's. They are coming out with some better LED (high lumen output) now that weren't on the local market 4 years ago when I built my house so I will phase them in when and if the current ones go out but that may be a while with their supposedly 50K hour life span. So far not a one of them has failed.

 

[3v0]

CFL's can take a few minutes to come up to full brightness. A poor choice for a place where you only need light for a few minutes.

When we started out with CFLs we bought the cheapest ones we could find. We got less then we paid for. Dim and did not last all that long.

 

[avillahdw]

Like Gary Fowler, I use primarily LED's in my house now. As the CFL's that I have go out, they are replaced. If you are looking for a light that falls between the old incandescent and the LED in price but gives comparable light to the incandescent, check out a halogen light. They aren't as expensive as LED's, don't cost quite as much to run as an incandescent (but more than CFLs or LEDs) and are pretty readily available. If you can swing the price, I would recommend LEDs.

 

[dave1949]

Almost all of our bulbs are CFL. Still have a few 40 watt incandescent in bedside table lamps.

In six-plus years of use, I haven't replaced very many. They do have a warm-up period and I like the color of the light better in those that tend toward yellow, not blue-white.

Our house is small, there aren't many ways to arrange the furniture except the way it is. I put in ceiling cans that light specific places, like task lighting.

 

[sixdogs]

You guys are talking about using the equivalent of 60W light bulbs. How can a guy see anything with those? I'd need two or three of those to see.

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

I replaced 18 incandescent 100 watt bulbs in by barn with 23 watt CFL "daylight" (5500 K color temp) saving about 1400 watts. My only complaint with the CFLs was that they had to be washed off every 4 months as they just screwed into lamp holders and therefore got really dirty when used in an exposed dusty barn environment. I have now since replaced all of the CFLs in the barn with these, which are waterproof and can even be pressure washed.
The CFLs in the house are daylight as well and produce a really nice natural looking light. In the garage I had 2 200W incand. that got replaced with 2 42W daylight CFLs. Amazing amount of light however they do take maybe 20 seconds to warm up to full brightness when it is cold.

LEDs don't save any power over a comparable lumen CFL so I won't re retro-fitting again with LEDs anytime soon. I have a number of pot lights with 50W halogen bulbs in them, so I bought one 6.4W LED cool white spot bulb to try out in one of these fixtures to see if I liked it or not. The light produced was very similar to the halogen, but it flickered! So, back it went to the store and I got my 15 bucks(!!) back.

 

[dave1949]

You guys are talking about using the equivalent of 60W light bulbs. How can a guy see anything with those? I'd need two or three of those to see.

Is it the bulbs or your vision that is the problem? :laughing: I think it's natural to lose some visual abilities with age, and seeing well in dim light is one of them.

The old 3-way table lamp bulbs (75W-100W-150W) normally got cranked up to max.

Light placement, ceiling and wall color, texture and finish are important to consider.