GE Reveal Bulbs

[Ratso]

Wow! What can I say. These are pretty cool. Well, now they are. At first I tried some 60 watt Reveal bulbs. A little better color but not really noticeable. Yesterday I put in some Reveal 75 watts in my bed room. The extra 15 watts makes it so much whiter and brighter. Now whenever my room lights are on and the hall lights are on everything in the hall looks like ****. On the downside, I'm not sure that the wiring or fixture (I removed the plastic "beam spreader"

)can handle 75 watts (says 60 watts max to reduce risk of fire), so I may change these back to 60.

 

[lemlux]

One of my biggest pet peeves are plastic sockets that (accurately, alas) say 60W max. I could do great bodily damage to the long bankrupt developer who saved pennies by putting many bathroom lights and hall ceiling lights with this restriction in my house.

Ceramic screw sockets are just not that much more expensive when installed the first time!!!

Yes, these 60W plastic sockets do crack, deform, and create significant fire hazards over time when driven with 100W bulbs. They probably will with the 75 watt bulbs also.

 

[Albany Tom]

Amen. How about to the guy working at UL that let them get an approval? Why the (*&(*^(*&^ would you not expect gradma to put a 100W bulb into the thing, when it fits just fine? Besides, it's been my experience that they fall apart with 60w bulbs, too. Plastic SUCKS at high heat. The plastizers leach out, the insulation cracks. Should be ceramic w/ fiberglass insulated wires, if you asked me. (ok, rant done. feel better now.)

I like the pretty blue tint color, too. 75 should be ok in a 60, they can't be cutting things that close, but you also could change out the fixture. (Dorm, maybe? I was the only guy in our dorm (maybe the state?

) that Scotchtinted their dorm window.)

 

[Evan]

And then there's the ones that compact flourescents won't fit into, otherwise there's the solution for when you absolutely, positively gotta have 150 watts of light in a 5x5 room.

 

[Orion]

I used one of those 25 watt florescents (that are equivilent to 75 watts) in my bathroom, and it lights up things much better than the 60 watt bulb I had in there before. Just a thought.

 

[lemlux]

I just recently came across some more compact 100W equivalent twirled fluorescent screw base units. They fit in places where the smallest 100W equivalent fluorescents available just two years ago didn't. The manufacturers are getting smarter.

 

[James S]

There is a tremendous amount of variation in quality of light from compact fluorescence. Don't buy the cheap ones, you won't like them. it's been my experience that if the package doesn't have a color temperature rating, then the light will be green, sometimes worse than the ever present pea grean luxeon!

I bought some Lights of America branded CF's years ago. The first batch of their tall ones (non curled) were terrific. I'm still using several of them 4 years later. The second batch I bought all had the ballasts smoke (quite literally in fact) within weeks. I don't know if they have cleaned up their quality control since then, but I won't be buying from them again.

Lows seems to only carry sylvania branded cf's here. I bought once of the tiny spiral 75 watt ones. This light probably has the best color temperature of all of my CF's. It's a very good white color and it's small enough to fit in almost any fixture. Cost is good too, around $5 if I remember correctly. The only downside is that it takes a heartbeat from when you flip the switch to when it lights up.

Home Depot is selling a lot of lights from, I think it's "community electric" or something like that. I bought 3 of their tiny twist lamps for the kitchen fixture because they were rated for enclosed fixtures (which many of them are not and they will burn out in a hurry if you seal them in!) These are not quite as nice a light as the sylvania. They are instant on, but take a few minutes to reach full power. When starting they are very greenish, but the color improves as they warm up. I also have one of these branded lights that tries to look like a regular bulb, with the CF curled up inside it. As far as I'm concerned this light is useless. It's DIM, very green and takes a long time to warm up to any useful brightness.

Home depot also sells phillips marathon bulbs. I own 2 of the 3 way 75/100/150 bulbs, and they are VERY nice. Also VERY expensive. The light color is very good, but they also take a moment to light up when you turn them on.

I have lots more info on reflector type lamps and other use with X10 modules and whatever if anyone is interested;)

-James

 

[geepondy]

Seeing as how we are now talking about compact fluorescents, I bought the "Techna Bright" ones that sorta look like a regular light bulb from Costco and put them in the bathroom over the sink light fixture. Never again! The damn things take a solid 30 seconds or more to reach full power. I'm used to a second or two delay from compact flourorescents but this is ten times worse then I have ever experienced.

I'm looking into full spectrum compact fluorescents myself. Verilux sells them but they're not cheap by no stretch of the imagination.

 

[sunspot]

I have been running Reveal 4X40w in my master bath w/dimmer for better than 6 months. I like them.

 

[Ratso]

I got some "Kitchen & Bath ULTRA" GE flourescent tubes for my kitchen a few days ago. It claims: food looks more appetizing, skin tones more appealing, a warmer and brighter light".

I can't say the food looks more appealing etc. but there is a noticeable difference. The light is warmer and less bluish but definitely not incandescant. Its hard to describe, kind of a pinkish orange. They are a couple dollars more expensive but now that I am used to them I think I won't go back.

 

[sunspot]

I have a small workshop (15 X 15) that I light with six 2x48 flourescents.I put in many different bulbs. The color range is dazzling. They go from Blue, Green, Pink and White. It's when you have them all in a small space that you can really see the color range. The best White one I have is a Duro-test. Very expensive and I won't be buying more. The 5000-5500k is real good.

 

[Ratso]

I agree, most of my GE ones are fairly consistent whiteish blue, but sometimes you get an occasional miscolored tube. The Kitchen Bath ULTRA could be all the defective pink ones.

Maybe there is a Garden Ultra where the green ones go and claims grass looks healthier etc.

 

[MarcV]

We use 59 of these PCF20s in our home downstairs. The 5000 degree color is great, much closer to natural daylight than anything we found. They are expensive, but put out more light (in our situation) than 50watt halogens at less than half the energy cost.

We've used them for about 3 years now and they aren't perfect. We replace burned out bulbs about once a month. But we'll never go back to incandescents.

Incidentally, we use the cheap Home Depot compact fluorescents in decorative table lamps here. They are so (relatively) yellow that you'd think they were incandescent. Again, less heat load and less energy cost.

 

[James S]

It's good that you mention the heat. That was the main reason that I put CF's in most of my fixtures downstairs here. It is very difficult in this climate for the AC to keep up during the day with the lights on. The CF's make a really big difference in the AC bill. Much more so than in the electric bill;) Course, the opposite is true in the winter time.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

I've watched this thread for a while and have this to offer.

In almost every light in the house that stays on a long time (or gets left on all day when we're gone) now has a CF bulb. Most are "Durabeam" or "Qualilte" brand from Big Lots. They all have a blueish white color, and all are almost instantly bright when turned on.

In the kitchen there are 2 100 equivalent GE Soft Whites. They take around 30-45 seconds to become full bright, and are a nice goldish color when full power.

In enclosed fixtures (cieling fans mostly) I have 75w GE Reveal Incandescents. When I changed the one in the Bedroom from a GE LL 60w to the Reveal 75w it was like night and day!

I even have a CF in my desk lamp!

I swear CPF has done more to make me light conscious than ANYTHING could have.

I am always looking for a better way to light up my life!

 

[Saaby]

I use a CF in my desk lamp with a circular piece of paper stuck in the lamp that acts as a defuser. The whole rig is hooked up to a motion detector and X10 module that turns the lamp off when I haven't been at my desk for 8 minutes.

The CF is nice because after it initally warms up it puts out very white, smooth (Because of the paper) light that makes my laptops old LCD *much* easier to live with

Also, if I used a regular bulb I'd be afraid to put a piece of paper in there

might not burn up but it would yellow at least...