Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?

[dave1949]

I don't hate the new bulbs. I'm highly disgusted with our icemaker, though.

I hardly ever use ice in drinks and when I wanted some from the old frig, the auger would go round and round but nothing came out. The cubes get frozen together if they sit long enough I guess. I didn't want an icemaker/dispenser after that experience, so we don't have one now.

People with large dogs say their dogs have learned how to get "self-serve" ice cubes from refrigerators with dispensers.

 

[Furu]

Some info about the mercury in CFL bulbs from: Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Mercury: Reality Check - Popular Mechanics


How much mercury is contained in a CFL?
Each bulb contains an average of 5 milligrams of mercury, which is just enough to cover a ballpoint pen tip, says Leslie, associate director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer. "Though it’s nothing to laugh at, unless you wipe up mercury [without gloves] and then lick your hand, you’re probably going to be okay."

I have read this propaganda many times before. It may all come from the same source so might just be others repeating the same falsehoods. It may also be different brands/manufacturers have different quantities that they use (I doubt this however)

I state this as someone that accidentally broke a CFL that had burned out while removing it from the ceiling fixture. Fortunately it was on a hardwood floor and not carpet. The quantity was well in excess of that to cover a ballpoint pen tip. I did not weigh it so can not comment on the 5 mg reference. I had 5-6 globules of mercury rolling around that were 2 mm plus down to 0.5 mm in diameter. A ball point pen tip is less than 0.5 mm in diameter. Not fun to try to capture as they "run away" as you try to pick them up. Of course what do you use; certainly not your hands and what the heck do you do once you capture the mercury. You certainly do not want to just throw the paper towels in the trash. By the way paper towels do not soak up the mercury they merely contain it and if you don't watch it the globules will roll out of the paper towel and the chase starts anew.

I got a circular fluorescent light bulb for a lamp 30 plus years ago and it still works. Not compact at all, only will fit in some lamps as it is bulky. It is still running and works great.
I jumped on the CFL bandwagon slowly and late to the party about 8 years ago. My experience has been awful. The bulbs burned out very quickly, some within the first month. The slow startup is true but can be gotten used to. What I can not get used to is the frequency of replacement. I have incandescent bulbs in my kitchen can-lights that are over 20 years old. I have replaced every CFL within less than a year of installation. (I also started writing the installation date so as to confirm my suspicion that they were way worse than the old bulbs on duration. I was told by an electrician acquaintance that all CFL's should be turned on the first time and left on for 12-18 hours before they are turned off. With my experience of quick burnouts I thought why not give it a try. They do seem to last longer (according to my data gathering) after this burn-in period but they still burnout more quickly that they say and at least on par with the incandescent bulbs. It takes a lot of energy usage savings to compensate for the time and expense that the CFL's cause.

Now the new LED bulbs. I, so far, have found no problems with them but put my first one in about 13 months ago. Still going strong (never had a CFL last longer than 6 months) Expense is the big problem. I can only hope that prices will come down.

 

[dave1949]

Furu, that is interesting. I went looking for more data trying to avoid a common source and found this:

Mercury vapor released from broken compact fluorescent light bulbs can exceed safe exposure levels for humans, study finds

The link below comes from the article linked above.


Abstract
This article presents an original study on the releases of mercury (Hg) from broken compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) under various environmental conditions. Leaching of Hg in liquids was examined using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's standard procedures Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) and Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure. Emission of Hg in vapor phase from broken CFLs was detected using an emission monitoring system. CFLs of eight different brands and four different wattages were tested. Results show that Hg contents in CFLs varied significantly with brand. Total amount of Hg contained in each CFL ranged from 0.1 to 3.6 mg, and only <4% of the Hg was TCLP-leachable. Hg concentrations in TCLP extracts of all the new CFLs tested were lower than the regulatory level of 0.2 mg/L and thus the discarded CFLs do not fall into the hazardous waste category. Hg concentrations in Synthetic Precipitation Leaching Procedure extracts were lower than those in the TCLP extracts. Hg vapor emission test revealed that the CFLs continuously release Hg vapor once broken and the release can last over 10 weeks. Total amount of Hg vapor released from a broken CFL can exceeds 1.0 mg, which can cause Hg level in a regular room to exceed the safe human exposure limit under poor ventilation conditions. Results provide useful implications in guiding the handling and treatment of CFLs during and after use.

I don't doubt your experience, I also don't doubt that the research found what it said it found. :confused3:

Do you have ideas on why you are getting exceptional life from incandescents and not much from the CFL's, while other people have the opposite experience? That is what mystifies me. If I took my bulbs to your house, or vice versa, we could narrow it down.

 

[DarkBlack]

I have read this propaganda many times before. It may all come from the same source so might just be others repeating the same falsehoods. It may also be different brands/manufacturers have different quantities that they use (I doubt this however)

I state this as someone that accidentally broke a CFL that had burned out while removing it from the ceiling fixture. Fortunately it was on a hardwood floor and not carpet. The quantity was well in excess of that to cover a ballpoint pen tip. I did not weigh it so can not comment on the 5 mg reference. I had 5-6 globules of mercury rolling around that were 2 mm plus down to 0.5 mm in diameter. A ball point pen tip is less than 0.5 mm in diameter. Not fun to try to capture as they "run away" as you try to pick them up. Of course what do you use; certainly not your hands and what the heck do you do once you capture the mercury. You certainly do not want to just throw the paper towels in the trash. By the way paper towels do not soak up the mercury they merely contain it and if you don't watch it the globules will roll out of the paper towel and the chase starts anew.

I got a circular fluorescent light bulb for a lamp 30 plus years ago and it still works. Not compact at all, only will fit in some lamps as it is bulky. It is still running and works great.
I jumped on the CFL bandwagon slowly and late to the party about 8 years ago. My experience has been awful. The bulbs burned out very quickly, some within the first month. The slow startup is true but can be gotten used to. What I can not get used to is the frequency of replacement. I have incandescent bulbs in my kitchen can-lights that are over 20 years old. I have replaced every CFL within less than a year of installation. (I also started writing the installation date so as to confirm my suspicion that they were way worse than the old bulbs on duration. I was told by an electrician acquaintance that all CFL's should be turned on the first time and left on for 12-18 hours before they are turned off. With my experience of quick burnouts I thought why not give it a try. They do seem to last longer (according to my data gathering) after this burn-in period but they still burnout more quickly that they say and at least on par with the incandescent bulbs. It takes a lot of energy usage savings to compensate for the time and expense that the CFL's cause.

Now the new LED bulbs. I, so far, have found no problems with them but put my first one in about 13 months ago. Still going strong (never had a CFL last longer than 6 months) Expense is the big problem. I can only hope that prices will come down.

Exactly.
After years of promotion, and HEAVY subsidizing( my state forced utilites to just about give them away), along with propaganda minimizing the dangers, this abomination of a product with roots of successful stemming from long tube types, has still needed mandates to keep it's sales up despite all it's shortcomings, as the population can not be given a choice to buy incandescent when wanted/needed or not. Pretty sad. Just like 10% ethanol, with no choice to buy pure gas. If the CFL was any good, the market wouldn't need a mandate to stop making normal bulbs.

 

[RalphVa]

I've 3 old style (probably 20-30 years) CFLs out in the garage. They're still chugging away.

Ones we get now are mostly junk made in China. The small base ones, in particular, are horribly short-lived. I've decided to replace these with LEDs. Replaced a couple of them with LEDs that go in the hallway upstairs that we turn on a lot.

Ralph

 

[dmccarty]

Philips curly CFL's are generally garbage IMHO. Ive had no luck with them. For as good as their LED's are, this is a bit of a surprise.

That said, I have their Par CFL's in my kitchen pot lights. Over a year now, and no burn outs. Sort of slow to light however.

For those having longevity issues with CFL's in Pots, are they standard curly cfl's or proper PAR CFLs.?

We have used R30 and R40 CFLs since we built the house. The first set of bulbs we used from HD were great but unfortunately I do not remember the brand we bought. Some of these bulbs are still in use.

Replacement R30/R40 bulbs from Lowes have been a problem and I will now only buy GE R30/R40 lamps. However, the price for R30/R40 CFLs are such that we are replacing them with regular CFLs. When we built the house, a supplier we used for some electrical equipment had take apart R30/R40 bulbs that allowed you to replace the lamp. I did not buy them and I know wish I had. The R30/R40's look like they are just a piece of glass wrapped around a spiral CFLs.

I have a bunch of regular CFLs I will be putting in our can lights in a day or so.

We don't use lamps. I cant stand them being in the way and collecting dust so we have can lights in and outside the house. 85 or so plus flood lights. We have R30/40 CFLs in all of those fixtures and a good number of them are outside on the porches, under the eaves and in bathrooms. The cans in wet areas have glass over the can opening. These are on the porches and bathroom cans that are in, or over, a bath or shower. Very few of these CFL's have been replaced because they are the HD CFLs. I don't think I have replaced ANY of the outside CFLs and they are getting close to 10 years old. I have only had to replace a few of the CFLs in the bathrooms.

I think the key in CFLs is buying a good brand name. We have had quite a few failures with the R40 CFLs from Lowes as well has non brand name spiral CFLs. I am trying out Sylvania right now and so far so good. I have had some early failures with some spiral CFLs but I don't think they were Sylvania brand.

When I was out Lowes, I noticed a LED bulb that was interesting. It was about $25 and lasted 30,000 hours but it was only around 800-900 lumens. Figured the price will drop and the lumens should go up over time. Even the current price, if the LED lasts as specified, it is cheaper than the CFL bulbs that were rated for less time. We will wait until the price drops some more since we are not going to use regular CFLs.

Later,
Dan

 

[k0ua]

I just wonder if a lot of the CFL's are just junk to begin with..I haven't had a lot of luck with longevity with them either. The only place the slow warm up bothered me was my main closet. So I replaced it with a Incandescent.:shocked: Problem solved. I have only broken one of them and it broke over carpet. I don't know if any liquid mercury came out of it or not. I suppose the vacuum cleaner got it and spread it around the air... Hm....no wonder I am so crazy... mad as a Hatter!

On general principals I just hate government telling me what to buy, I think that is just wrong.

James K0UA

 

[SPIKER]

So anyway wha I just did a bit ago was took out the two (2 ea) 60 watt Incandescent bulbs and replaced them with the CFLs we got from First Energy in the care package this past week. The bulbs were only up since sweetest day (I replaced both kitchen fixtures on sweetest day.) The fixtures are these from Menards
Search Results for "3514200 or 3514201 or 3514202 or 3514203" at Menards

I got them a couple months ago for 9.99 now on sale for 6 bucks dual bulb 60 watt max and easy enough to install... I replaced the clear 60wawtt with the 60watt equivalent CFLs made by GE (rated at 13watts usage.) Package states made in China and Made in Cleveland so not sure what part was made where. I know GE has a big plant just west of me making bulbs in Bucyrus Oh. They are expanding to make LEDs or CFLs not sure what all they make NOW. (BTW maybe getting interview there for engineering opening.)

So far right away since I have 2 Fixtures in the same room I can flip on/off and see quite a bit of difference in the two fixture light output! the Globe maybe makes our Yellow Kitchen (paint color) appear MORE yellow but the CFLs still are about 15+% dimmer by eyeball guess (could be the warm up time between instant on incandescent vs CFLs?) SO it SHOULD be saving me about 3 bucks a month if I used the 3 hours a day... in the kitchen I guess maybe that in winter but hardly used in summer. We will see... Woman is pulling in how will report back to see if SHE notices it...

Mark

 

[MotorSeven]

Good grief, we used to buy mercury at the corner drug store. A blob of it in your hands is fascinating, we took it to school for show & tell, rubbed copper penny's with it until the penny turned silver, passed it around in class. So for those worried about the amount of mercury contained in a cfl bulb, I say it ain't gonna hurt you even if you ingested it. It's funny, we freak at a miniscule amount of mercury, but eat GMO grains every day....kinda lopsided reasoning if you ask me......soap box [off]

 

[SPIKER]

Good grief, we used to buy mercury at the corner drug store. A blob of it in your hands is fascinating, we took it to school for show & tell, rubbed copper penny's with it until the penny turned silver, passed it around in class. So for those worried about the amount of mercury contained in a cfl bulb, I say it ain't gonna hurt you even if you ingested it. It's funny, we freak at a miniscule amount of mercury, but eat GMO grains every day....kinda lopsided reasoning if you ask me......soap box [off]

I agree though by the 70's it was only in science class that we could freely play with HG. Then the stuff was still in everything for weather temp and controls... Even as recently as a few years ago during demolition of some old 50's or prior industrial kilns (brick ovens) the controls were all full of mercury we (industrial electrician was my job title) had to treat it like it was Nuclear Bomb primed and ready :/ I think the costs were astronomical to have a Haz Mat company come take it away... We also had to use 55 gal lined drums for all the 4' bulbs.

Back when we were kids the dumpster full of 4 or 8' bulbs could not be un-smashed lol. wonder if that is what was/is with us lol

Mark