Bit like Bio-Fuel - don't advertise the devastation, here it's don't mention the mercury and putting the heating up a notch. The old 'Jump on the Green Bandwagon then think'.
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The New type of Light Bulbs, Like / Dislike
- Thread starter benlangdon
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Too true. I've begun phasing out my CFL bulbs for LEDs, but it's slow going. At $20-$30 a bulb, it'll likely be a year or two before the switch over is completed. I still use incandescent for the motion detector bulbs outdoors and dimmer switches.
the solution to that used to be getting the industrial 130 volt bulbs they held up far better.that is called age, my friend
i like the new ones, especially the fact that they don't suffer surges and irregular current that much. in my apt the half-life of classic bulbs was very short especially in some periods. the new one just keep going.
i like brightly lit rooms, so i tend to use the brighter ones (but my favourites remain halogens)
we had a brownout a few months back that killed all the florescent bulbs.
You are buying the wrong brand. Some are not as good as others.
CFLs are a good way to make a quick change but the better way to go is to buy and install lighting fixtures that use fluorescent tubes (the long kind) But most of use can't re-wire the house so these are a great retrofit solution. But if you no need to start over in a room you can do better than CFLs
Those are called CFL and I'm surprised anyone really likes them except that that save power.
Some of the even newer LEDs are very good, better than anything before. I'm not going to buy another CFL.
We could have the same discussion on LED's. I don't like those, either. Bought two LED night lights for my son's bathroom; I got a combined three weeks of use out of the two before they burned out. Never cared for the quality of light they put out, either. They're an unfortunate byproduct of a misguided energy code revision, and sadly, they're likely here to stay.
There are of course exceptions pretty much everywhere to pretty much everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the whole technology or a whole group of something is therefore not viable or bad.
I understand that. But if I buy two of something and they both fail miserably, why shouldn't I feel the way I do about them?
Regular incandescent night light bulbs cost about a dollar for a 4-pack, last for a few years each, and cost about a nickel a month to run. I'll stick with those.
I understand your take on it. I was just saying that it seems like it was an extreme occurrence rather than the norm.
I absolutely loathe them. Not bright enough and I hate the delay turning them on. I also despise it that they are being crammed down our throats by our government (US).
When I bought my house in the early 2000s, I had the entire building's wiring redone to be future proof or whatever the term is. I installed CFL here and there, but used incandescent for the most part, except reassessed lighting, which use halogens. We switched over our table lamps and whatnot that we used a lot during the evenings to CFLs and saw about an $50-80 drop in our electricity bill per month. This was in 2008 and the huge change was really awesome.
I don't know a whole lot about LED lighting or electrical wiring, but I'd change the halogens into LEDs as well as everything else in a variety of light temperatures if it was possible. Though at the same time, I wouldn't call LED affordable. If you're buying 1-2 bulbs, sure. I can buy 100 watt equivalent General Electric CFL bulbs for less than $5 each and they'll last six or seven years. Last I checked, LED bulbs still go on the fritz. Phillips and EcoSmart barely lasted more than 8 months when I got them then. Maybe things have changed in the last nearly 8 years.
I don't know a whole lot about LED lighting or electrical wiring, but I'd change the halogens into LEDs as well as everything else in a variety of light temperatures if it was possible. Though at the same time, I wouldn't call LED affordable. If you're buying 1-2 bulbs, sure. I can buy 100 watt equivalent General Electric CFL bulbs for less than $5 each and they'll last six or seven years. Last I checked, LED bulbs still go on the fritz. Phillips and EcoSmart barely lasted more than 8 months when I got them then. Maybe things have changed in the last nearly 8 years.
I'm okay with LEDs and have several in use. Lowes had 60W equivalents on sale for about $5 a few months back and I bought several. Some have been sporadically, and some have been on continuously. I haven't had any failures in ~6 months or so. I use to get ~2 months out of CFLs in my bathroom fixture, which I'm told is about as far from ideal for CFLs as possible.
In any case, this particular bathroom fixture has three inverted lamps. Even when I was putting CFLs in it, I always kept at least one incandescent as I got tired of waiting for the CFLs to come up to full brightness(this is one of the coldest rooms in the house in the winter, and it would take 5 minutes to fully brighten).
The LEDs I bought are a good match color temperature wise for incandescent lamps, but I have found them to be a bit too "directional" for my taste. It's no issue under a shade, but can be in a more-or-less open fixture(again referring to my bathroom). Thus, I've taken to-again-mixing in a 60W incandescent for some fill light in these situations.
For a lot of purposes, I still prefer a good old incandescent-whether traditional tungsten or tungsten-halogen. In particular, for reading(paper) I find the continuous spectrum from either of these lamps to be a lot less tiring than alternatives(neither LEDs or CFLs have a continuous spectrum).
One interesting note-Apple has apparently tried to keep with the times with regard to the lightbulb icon in the "Energy Saver" pane under System Preferences. OS X Tiger(10.4) and before used an incandescent. 10.5.0 used an incandescent, but somewhere between 10.5.0 and 10.5.8 switched to a CFL. OS X Mavericks(10.9) uses a CFL still even in the most up to date version(10.9.5) but Yosemite used an LED basically from day one(going back to the public betas, at least).
In any case, this particular bathroom fixture has three inverted lamps. Even when I was putting CFLs in it, I always kept at least one incandescent as I got tired of waiting for the CFLs to come up to full brightness(this is one of the coldest rooms in the house in the winter, and it would take 5 minutes to fully brighten).
The LEDs I bought are a good match color temperature wise for incandescent lamps, but I have found them to be a bit too "directional" for my taste. It's no issue under a shade, but can be in a more-or-less open fixture(again referring to my bathroom). Thus, I've taken to-again-mixing in a 60W incandescent for some fill light in these situations.
For a lot of purposes, I still prefer a good old incandescent-whether traditional tungsten or tungsten-halogen. In particular, for reading(paper) I find the continuous spectrum from either of these lamps to be a lot less tiring than alternatives(neither LEDs or CFLs have a continuous spectrum).
One interesting note-Apple has apparently tried to keep with the times with regard to the lightbulb icon in the "Energy Saver" pane under System Preferences. OS X Tiger(10.4) and before used an incandescent. 10.5.0 used an incandescent, but somewhere between 10.5.0 and 10.5.8 switched to a CFL. OS X Mavericks(10.9) uses a CFL still even in the most up to date version(10.9.5) but Yosemite used an LED basically from day one(going back to the public betas, at least).
I hate CFL lights. A lot of them have inappropriate color. I feel I am very sensitive to lighting. My girlfriends old apartment had these horrid dim-orangey-yellow CFL bulbs that created the most depressing atmosphere. I never use the fluorescent lights in my office, rather I brought in some lamps. It creates a much more comfortable atmosphere compared to the flickering and buzzing fluorescent bulbs.
Up until about 4 months ago my kitchen and hallways had garbage CFL bulbs in the recessed lighting. I got so tired of coming home and turning on the lights and waiting 20 minutes for them to warm up. When I moved in originally, there was an entire box (~20) of these cheap CFL floodlight bulbs, which incidentally seem to last the same or less than regular incandescent bulbs.
I finally just went out and just bought incandescent bulbs and replaced all of them. In the aforementioned rooms, my apartment those electronic Lutron dimming light switches (with the little green LEDs) that allow dimming from multiple switches... which I would likely have to replace if I went with LED. When the price of LED floodlights decreases or I decide to stay here long enough, I will switch out the regular dimmers and put in LED compatible dimmers.
My parent's house on the other hand has a couple rooms with recessed lighting in either vaulted or 18ft ceilings. The LED's have been a godsend as moving the furniture out of the room and getting ladder in was a huge hassle. In the past, if a bulb was burnt out my father would end up just replacing all the bulbs at one time.
Up until about 4 months ago my kitchen and hallways had garbage CFL bulbs in the recessed lighting. I got so tired of coming home and turning on the lights and waiting 20 minutes for them to warm up. When I moved in originally, there was an entire box (~20) of these cheap CFL floodlight bulbs, which incidentally seem to last the same or less than regular incandescent bulbs.
I finally just went out and just bought incandescent bulbs and replaced all of them. In the aforementioned rooms, my apartment those electronic Lutron dimming light switches (with the little green LEDs) that allow dimming from multiple switches... which I would likely have to replace if I went with LED. When the price of LED floodlights decreases or I decide to stay here long enough, I will switch out the regular dimmers and put in LED compatible dimmers.
My parent's house on the other hand has a couple rooms with recessed lighting in either vaulted or 18ft ceilings. The LED's have been a godsend as moving the furniture out of the room and getting ladder in was a huge hassle. In the past, if a bulb was burnt out my father would end up just replacing all the bulbs at one time.
Good CFLs with good color cost money. You get what you pay for. Though I'd be interested in seeing some before/after pics of rooms with CFL/Incandescent and LED lighting. My home office still uses old incandescent lighting because I like the yellow warmth is provides.
I paid $8 per CFL. I got two CFLs for $16 and they look great. And they glow like the old style light bulbs without the time to wait for the bulb to get to full brightness.