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.

 

[westcliffe01]

When we bought our home in 2006, I added up the power of the combined fixtures in the kitchen and "great room" and arrived at nearly 2kW just for lighting !!!! Then when you add in the hallway, each bedroom (typically 500w+ not including the MES bathroom) we could easily be drawing 5-6kW of power just for lighting and that is without running a single appliance ! My wife, raised in Chicago, never has the slightest concern with simply turning on every fixture wherever she goes and never turning it off. When I would get home from work, every light in the house was typically illuminated including all the outside spotlights.

I fixed that pretty fast. Initially, everything went to daylight CFL. I too had the good and bad experiences with low quality substitute products that don't last and now also only buy brand names. We also changed several fixtures to reduce glare issues (to have upward pointing bulbs to a white ceiling and white diffusers for indirect light). Later, we replaced some of the bulbs in fixtures where we want a more "instant response" with LED, even though they are more expensive. Some of the LED lamps have been bad quality too, so we keep track of which ones fail to know what not to buy next time.

My winter time utility bill is about $70 with wood providing the primary heat source. We have a 15yr old NG water heater that is probably due for replacement anytime now. The NG furnace is set back to 68F and will kick in if for some reason the stove is not fed on time (like someone is away for a few days). We used to have pretty frequent power outages and now very comfortably run the entire house with a 5kW robin powered generator, including the well pump. The last few years we have not had power out for more than a day at a time, so consider ourselves lucky. Most of the CFLs are now going for 6+ years. The spotlamp substitutes that point down and go in the cans were the worst, but they too have now lasted for years after finally settling on a good brand/power level.

I personally would not want to go back to incandescent. Absolute rubbish. Those who want them can have them.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I have been adding more CFL's around our house and barn for awhile now. I have several 13 watt bulbs for outside use on sensors that turn on when it gets dark. I have some set to stay on for only two hours and others to stay on all night. Just enough light to navigate in the darkness.

Our horse barn has maybe 30 fixtures that we were using 60 watt incandesent bulbs in. I started putting in CFL's after getting tired or replacing bulbs all the time. It's a little dim at first but soon brightens up expecially if I keep the glass "jelly jars" clean.

Lastly, with the lower heat output, I can put a brighter bulb in my bathroom fan/light fixtures without melting the plastic bezel.

 

[dave1949]

Same as westcliffe01 here on CFL's. We built in 2006 and started out with CFL's by choice. That means for seven years, we have used ~33% of the kilowatts required for incandescent bulbs. Keeping our usage low also helps with our solar electric system, it can be smaller, cost less to buy, and we still get the same results.

I don't keep count, but I doubt if I have replaced six or seven CFL bulbs so far. One came unglued at its base but was still functioning--hanging on some little wires. :laughing:

 

[cqaigy2]

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 heard that same thing for standard florescent tube type lights but not for CFLs. I don't think it is true in either case, in that living in places where power is really expensive, nobody leave the florescent or any lights on for any longer then was needed.

 

[94BULLITT]

I write the date on my CFL's. I had one go in a bathroom and it had not been in there a year. The light was used very little. The box says they will last 9 years at 3 hours a day.

 

[two_bit_score]

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.

I understand that those light bulbs are only guaranteed if you drive to the store and transport them home in a Prius.

.

 

[ultrarunner]

At the Hospital we have a lot of plug in CFL bulbs and they do real well... most are only turned on and then off once everyday...

Have not had good luck with the edison replacement style that the utility was pushing.

Bought a few LED for to try for outdoor apartment lighting... wish I could report... they all disappeared.

 

[k0ua]

At the Hospital we have a lot of plug in CFL bulbs and they do real well... most are only turned on and then off once everyday...

Have not had good luck with the edison replacement style that the utility was pushing.

Bought a few LED for to try for outdoor apartment lighting... wish I could report... they all disappeared.

Well there is that....no one is going to steal a .50 cent bulb but 15 -20 bucks? Yep

 

[k0ua]

I understand that those light bulbs are only guaranteed if you drive to the store and transport them home in a Prius.

.

Aha! So that is my problem!

 

[Scooby074]

Well there is that....no one is going to steal a .50 cent bulb but 15 -20 bucks? Yep

Youre underestimating tenants.... They'll steal just about anything, including a $.50 lightbulb.