Burnouts, compact fluorescent bulbs

[oregon]

Good news: After about one year usage, total swapout in the home, I am used to living with these, slow start + subdued illumination.

Bad news: Three have died. Estimate 10%, 3 of 30 total CFBs in house.

Anecdotal survey but a real road test.

Result: green bulbs have a shorter life than incans so I am not recouping my investment & have disposal issue. However, I probably won't go back to incans just yet.

Usually get my bulbs from Costco but perhaps some ringers got into the mix.

PS: I've installed GID bands around the bases of strategic compacts to navigate by when lights are switched off. I figure that incans would have melted these on day one.

oregon

 

[LumenHound]

Do you recall what brand the burnt out bulbs were?

 

[oregon]

I still have the expired bulbs. They, the three, are all the same: Phillips "Marathon" mini decorative twister, 120V 60Hz 190mA, 13W, China.

They were all used inside my home. One in my office in a three bulb fixture. And, two in the living room in separate built-in fixtures in a vaulted ceiling.

oregon

 

[MarNav1]

Yeah I'm thinking about getting some of these, for some reason I hear the word "scam" in my head when I look at them. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I have a ceiling fan over my head that uses 4 bulbs in "Tulip" fixtures. I have one commercial 15W that a buddy gave me and it's PLENTY of light. It stays on several hours a night and has lasted pretty long as well.

I just got a new Hunter fan for my room, and that thing is QUIET! It uses small base bulbs and I couldn't find and CFL with small base at Home Depot.

I guess I'll try Lowes next.

Oh yeah, If it's a light that stays on a long time in this house it is a CFL!

 

[MarNav1]

What size would I use to replace a 40 watt bulb? It'll run 24/7 till it burns out.

 

[GarageBoy]

I have panasonic bulbs that lasted me about 6 years continuous. REALLY yellow looking, though.

 

[jzmtl]

They should not burn out that fast. I have one that's used in living room floor lamp for the last 4 years and it's still going strong. But of course there are low quality ones that burns out after couple of months.

They come in different color temperatures, the 2700K (I think) is virtually identical to incan.

What size would I use to replace a 40 watt bulb? It'll run 24/7 till it burns out.

The official word is 9W (9=40, 13=60, 25=100), but in my experience the official wattage is always a tad low. So if brightness isn't very important go with 9, otherwise go with 13.

 

[Flying Turtle]

I recall hearing somewhere that these bulbs do not last like they should if used for repeated short periods. They do better in places where the light is normally left on for at least a couple hours. This info could be totally bogus.

Geoff

 

[James S]

the old info about not starting these lamps too much is really out of date. I have CF bulbs even in the most used bathroom fixtures now that get turned on and off 20 times a day and so far not a single one has died. I've used GE and Sylvania and phillips in those without difficulty.

I"m surprised you're having trouble with the Phillips bulbs. Those and the sylvania or osram are some of my favorites because they come in usable color temperatures. 3100 or 3500k which is my favorite color for indoor lighting. A little cooler than the 2700k that the cheap GE bulbs come in which looks go green to me but not into the blue. I've had excellent results with these. I have a bank of 7 of the 30+ watt ones in my kitchen and in 3 years of constant use I've burned out 1 of them and had 1 that was dead out of the package. The dead one I returned and got replaced no questions asked to Lowes.

If you have specific fixtures which seem to burn them out you shoudl consider doing a little maintenance on it and clean it up or replace the fixture. I have had a couple of fixtures or lamps over the years that ate the bulbs until I took a good look into the socket. In one case it was corroded and in the other case a previous bulb had been screwed so tightly into it that it had bent back the center connection springy piece of copper so that it only barely made contact with the center contact of the CF bulb each case causing uneven voltage or heating or something that killed them one after another. I turned the power off to that light and used some needle nose pliers to pull the connection back down to where it belonged and the next bulb is still in there 2 years later quite happy.

In CF bulbs you definitely get what you pay for. Cheap is crap and dont buy it. Better to replace your bulbs a little at a time and buy the 6 to 10 buck lights that will last as long as they are supposed to than to buy a case of $2 bulbs that will all die right away. Cheap CF bulbs are nothing but frustration.

 

[labrat]

I have a few in my home, in the living room and in the halls.
Some are switched off when I leave home, most are left on continiously as low-lighting just for navigation.
I use Philips CF-bulbs, and they have lasted in average approx. 6-7 years before they need to be replaced or go out.
And of course when they are replaced, you do notice they have dimmed!

 

[BillG]

i work in a personal care home. all 80 rooms have these lights. we are experiencing about 10-15% defects.

just save your receipts and return them for an exchange.

 

[dano]

Personal note: it's another crap-arse environmentalist scam that's being forced down everyone's throats.

On topic: I had four of them in the four bulb fixture in the bathroom. 2 out of 4 died w/in a year (from Costco).

50% failure rate?

The incans they replaced were several years old...

-dan

 

[LumenHound]

Personal note: it's another crap-arse environmentalist scam that's being forced down everyone's throats.

On topic: I had four of them in the four bulb fixture in the bathroom. 2 out of 4 died w/in a year (from Costco).

50% failure rate?

The incans they replaced were several years old...

-dan

Any chance of your 2 CF bulb failures being heat build up related? Were your bathroom lights the kind with the twintube that plugs into the ballast or were they the one piece big frosted globe for vanity mirrors style?
Were they Costco generic brand "Techna Bright" or "Luminus" CF's?

 

[Vikas Sontakke]

The quickest ones to die on me were GE-branded 75W equivalent twisties. Both died in about 15 minutes! I have had more than dozen of Feit-branded 100W equivalent twisties die on me after few days of usage. But I only purchase subsidized CFL twisties priced between $0.79 through $1.19

Oh, one of the Philips-branded 60W globe also died within few months.

I also take exception to the notion that expensive CFL are better made than cheap CFLs. They look like they are all made at the same place somewhere in China. As a matter of fact, the shop I frequently visit has identical packages with GE-branding, some priced at $12.99 and some at $0.99. Some of the two packs with identical bulbs list at $9.99 whereas the same bulb in the single packaging is at $0.99. I have always understood that the cheap CFL's are subsidized by the local utility company. This fact is made clear when you shop at HomeDepot.

- Vikas

 

[Black Rose]

Personal note: it's another crap-arse environmentalist scam that's being forced down everyone's throats.

My main reason for using them was to cut down on my electrical bill.

Swapping out incandescents for CFLs knocked about 70 to 75 kWh a month off our electrical bill.

So far haven't had one burn out.

 

[jayflash]

As mentioned, CFLs need good air flow and will die sooner if enclosed. Yes, about 10- 15% of even the expensive brands die real soon, but the rest will last a long time. Save those sales slips! The electronics are the weak part and follow our experience with good lights. Those that don't die too soon, usually last a long time.

 

[Aluminous]

I recommend N:Vision brand CFLs, available at Home Depot. They have great light quality, and a 9-year or 7-year warranty depending on the type. http://www.nvisioncfl.com/warranty-information.aspx

(Interestingly, the usual 'open' spiral type get an extra two years on their warranty compared to the enclosed 'decorative' type that look like normal incandescent bulbs, because of the airflow issue.)

 

[zipplet]

Just wanted to add my $0.02.

We use CCFLs in my home. At first we used a lot more but my father started switching back to incans because the CCFLs kept burning out.

Why?

He was buying "3 for £5" bargain bin CCFLs. They are terrible and if you are lucky might last 6 months. Also, the special ones that come in globes to pretend to look like normal incan lamps seem to fail more quickly too especially in hot fixtures.

However, 5-6 years ago I bought 2x OSRAM 20W CCFLs at a premium for my bedroom. I'm still on the first one and it's going strong. You really do get what you pay for. Don't buy bargain basement lamps!

 

[tiktok 22]

I have approx. 20 in my house and have had about 4 to 5 premature failures. I still like them though. I've found that by tapping on them(sometimes pretty hard), most will start working again. There must be a switch that sticks in them although I've never had one apart.