CFL Flourescent replacements for mains incandescents failures

abvidledUK · #1 03-20-2006, 11:04 AM

Having replaced many of my normal mains bulbs, with the "Low Power, Long Life, High Illumination, yet High Cost" CFL flourescent bulbs, I find the supposed running costs savings to be negated somewhat by the apparently high failure rate within the specified runtime for these bulbs.

Anyone else notice this ?

Supposed to save money, and energy in the long run.

Wonder how the actual cost of manufacture equates to a normal light bulb.

As far as I can tell, only one CFL bulb has run it's course, having been on for the best part of 5 years, nightime, as a deterrent.

James S · #2 03-20-2006, 11:20 AM

as in anything, you get what you pay for. If you buy the el-cheapo bulbs you take your chances. I have yet to burn out a single bulb I've bought in the last 5 years that I paid more then 7 or 10 bucks for, but I've burned out many of the cheaper ones, and more expensive ones produced by a company with the words "lights" and "america" in it. I wont be buying any more cheap ones nor any more of them, nor any more with a 2700k color temperature which is horridly green to my eyes. 3000k to about 4100k is good for me, but they go all the way up to 6k and there are people here that LOVE the blue tinted light from them, I dont.

cheap CF bulbs are no bargain at all!

There are a couple of things you can check though. Make sure that the bulb you're using is rated OK for the fixture and position that you are running it in. Many CF bulbs cannot be used in an enclosed fixture and some other cheap ones can't even be run with the base up!

Lastly check your fixtures, a loose or corroded fixture will eat CF bulbs for breakfast. Also check the tab in the back and make sure there is some spring left in it, if it's pressed completely against the back of the fixture it may be making less than perfect contact with the CF bulb and that too will kill them. I put $30 worth of expensive bulbs into a lamp 4 years ago in the course of 2 weeks until I checked the socket to find it with that bent all the way back. After prying that out a bit with a screw driver the last expensive CF bulb is still in there working perfectly 4 years later.

chevrofreak · #3 03-20-2006, 11:31 AM

The $12 8 packs of Feit 13w spirals I got from Costco have been flawless, while the $5ish Lights Of America sunlight spiral I bought died in about 24 hours.

I'm running some $11~ (3 pack) 90w replacement 5500k bulbs so far and havent had problems.

So not all cheap bulbs are bad, and not all more expensive bulbs are good.

LEDninja · #4 03-20-2006, 11:38 AM

I've burnt out quite a few. And they were expensive ($20+) in the early days.

When they 1st came out the advertised lifetime was 10 years.
Dropped to 7 then 5 years. I've seen as low as 3 years.

If you read the fine print carefully, it is 10 years for 1 hour per day. That's 1 year for 10 hours per day. Or 0.4 years for running 24/7.

It is still better than LED bulbs. I have a 48 LED bulb that lasted 1 year with about 2 hours use per night. So much for 100,000 hour (10 year) LEDs.
LED night lights are not much better. About 50% dimmer in 6 months and so dim they are useless in a year.

jtr1962 · #5 03-20-2006, 11:42 AM

Commercial Electric brand (sold in Home Depot) seems to be very decent quality. I also have some 28W, 5000K Panasonic light capsules I picked up on eBay. Great quality, and no noise whatsoever from the ballast.

Avoid Lights of America. I rarely hear anything good about them.

pathalogical · #6 03-20-2006, 03:07 PM

I've bought several CFL's and so far so good. Well, except for one. I bought a 4pk of 100W equivalent CFL's and a couple of months of using one of them, it quit working. No problem, the manufacturer said 7 year guarantee. So I mailed the bulb with receipt to them and a few weeks later I received a new 4pk of bulbs for the one that burnt out. I've mostly used the 60W CFL's throughout the house. I've noticed something about these types of bulbs. Why does it make food look different ? In the kitchen I have regular bulbs and in my bedroom I have a CFL. One night while watching tv in my room, I decided to have a bowl of cereal. I took it into my room and started munching away. I look into the bowl and it looked like I was eating barf !!! I still ate my yummy cereal, but why does it make food look gross ?

chevrofreak · #7 03-21-2006, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtr1962

Commercial Electric brand (sold in Home Depot) seems to be very decent quality.

Thats the brand of 5500k spirals I was talking about, I just couldnt remember it.

James S · #8 03-21-2006, 08:00 AM

the commercial electric brand are pretty limited in color availability. The regular ones are the 2700k that is green and yucky and makes your food look strange

Then they make a "daylight" version which might as well be dipped in blue paint as far as i'm concerned. Plus if you use any powerline networking or remote control stuff, like those home plug and X10 things, these lights have a silent failure mode where the bulb continues to light normally but the ballast produces so much electrical noise that all those things come to a complete halt.

I am sticking to the sylvania/osram 3000k bulbs from Lowes.

pathalogical · #9 03-21-2006, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James S

the commercial electric brand are pretty limited in color availability. The regular ones are the 2700k that is green and yucky and makes your food look strange

Then they make a "daylight" version which might as well be dipped in blue paint as far as i'm concerned. Plus if you use any powerline networking or remote control stuff, like those home plug and X10 things, these lights have a silent failure mode where the bulb continues to light normally but the ballast produces so much electrical noise that all those things come to a complete halt.

I am sticking to the sylvania/osram 3000k bulbs from Lowes.

I just checked the packaging on my CFL's and it states 2700K. I didn't know about colour temp before. I have had these bulbs well over a year, well before I joined CPF. If I have to buy anymore I'll keep in mind the 3000k bulbs.

brickbat · #10 03-21-2006, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James S

the commercial electric brand are pretty limited in color availability. The regular ones are the 2700k that is green and yucky ...

I am sticking to the sylvania/osram 3000k bulbs from Lowes.

Interesting. I had noticed something different about the commercial electric 2700K lamps also. To my eyes, though they look yellowish, not green. In fact, they are the closest to incandescent I've seen in a CFL. However I find the Osram/Sylvania 3000K looks a wee bit pinkish. As if my visual system is 'calibrated' a touch different than yours by being more sensitive to red, and less to green.

Bottom line, though, I agree the CE lamps have more green content.

As far as the original concern about reliability goes, all I'd add is that if you burn CFLs in a base-up orientation, especially if it's in an enclosed fixture, you won't see the rated life.

NewBie · #11 03-21-2006, 11:00 PM

My boss and I go to Costco on occasion for lunch. Several times he brought back GE CFL bulbs for replacement, maybe you should get yours at Costco for free replacements...

I've got some Westinghouse Twist 23 (23W) bulbs that I have had for years now (seems like I got them in 2000), still going strong. That said, CFL bulbs do not like to be turned off and on alot, and it greatly shortens their life.

As I recall, this photo was from a fella up in Canada, and it was a big name brand bulb, but maybe I'm getting two recollections mixed up...

Handlobraesing · #12 03-22-2006, 05:06 AM

Matsuishita Electric Co. makes them in 2,800K, 5,000K and 6,700K each having 84 CRI, but they don't sell them in the states. They're rated for 20,000 switch cycles and 6,000 hours. These are supposed to be good quality, but comes at a price. I heard they cost $10-12 each.

It's not that cooler color high quality CFLs aren't available. I don't think there's enough market demand for them, so they don't sell them here.

eluminator · #13 03-22-2006, 04:23 PM

Enclosed fixtures can cause trouble. The Phillips I have sitting in front of me says its for table lamps, floor lamps and open ceiling fixtures. It also says it's not to be used in enclosed or recessed fixtures.

Still I love the CFLs. It's all I use around here because they last a long time for me and I'm real tired of replacing incandescents. I avoid Lights of America.

kbog · #14 03-26-2006, 03:15 PM

Thought I would chime in quickly.

I just spent a small fortune on the Lowes Sylvania/Osram bulbs. I bought some 13 watt coils, some 23 watt coils (which I have little use for so I am returning), some recessed floods and some globe lights. I like them so far. They take a little to warm up to full brightness, but no biggie.

I agree with the poster who said these look pinkish. Also, I do have some of them in enclosed fixtures. On the package it does NOT say to aviod this. It says "totally enclosed recessed luminaires". My fixtures are not recessed. Maybe a question of semantics. If they fail quickly, I will certainly know why...

James S · #15 03-26-2006, 04:55 PM

for me, the single biggest attraction to CFL's is rapidly approaching: SUMMER! Regular bulbs waste 90% of their energy as heat. In my kitchen I replaced 9 recessed cans that had 75 watt incandescent in them with 23 watt CFLs and amazingly my AC can now cool the kitchen even in the worst of the summer. I used to have to cook in the dark or sweat and watch the electric meter do the happy happy hurry bill me dance

TedTheLed · #16 03-29-2006, 01:09 PM

Newbie,
was just googling cfl's and came across this thread. the hole burnt in your light in your picture looks very familiar. the same thing happened to my fluorescent fixture during a 'brownout' -- an extended low voltage condition. I was living in co-op that generated it's own electricity from oil..and they had some problems..as did I..

Chehalis · #17 04-06-2006, 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Handlobraesing

Matsuishita Electric Co. makes them in 2,800K, 5,000K and 6,700K each having 84 CRI, but they don't sell them in the states. They're rated for 20,000 switch cycles and 6,000 hours. These are supposed to be good quality, but comes at a price. I heard they cost $10-12 each.

It's not that cooler color high quality CFLs aren't available. I don't think there's enough market demand for them, so they don't sell them here.

You can get the Panasonic versions (Matsushita is the parent company of Panasonic) at 2800K/84CRI/10000HRS and 5000K/88CRI/10000HRS here or here if you want. They have a lot of energy saving bulbs available.

Chehalis · #18 04-06-2006, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbog

Thought I would chime in quickly.

I just spent a small fortune on the Lowes Sylvania/Osram bulbs. I bought some 13 watt coils, some 23 watt coils (which I have little use for so I am returning), some recessed floods and some globe lights. I like them so far. They take a little to warm up to full brightness, but no biggie.

I can't find the Sylvania reflectors anywhere locally. My Lowes doesn't carry them. What I'd really like to get my hands on is the Sylvania Dura-One reflectors. Of course they are only 2700K but I personally can't stand anything over 3000K. I've tried but everything appears dull and washed out to me. Maybe it's the low CRI and the soft light rather than the color temperature that's too blame.