Outdoor compact flourescent lights

[RonM]

I use compact flourescents for my porch lights. They sure put out a lot of light with for very few watts (18W I think). Problem is that after a year or so, the plastic housing darkens substantially. It develops a sort of heat damaged or burnt look. What's the deal with that? The energy savings translates into money savings with these lights only if you can get the stated longevity from them. I find myself replacing these too often due to this problem.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Have you had many black or brown outs? I found this used to kill my (older) compact fluorscents, melting little holes in the plastic sometimes..Try the Philips line of 'Earthlights' -- they seem to take lower voltages in stride..there are outdoor models with a globe, color balanced for a 'daylight' look, which I find bluish - I prefer the globed indoor lights, they are warmer and yellowish..I'm not sure if there is a 'warm' outdoor globed light, yet..

 

[Brock]

I am confused? What part of the light is plastic and how would that effect the light output? Or do you just mean the way it looks bothers you so you have to replace it? I guess either way it might be due to heat buildup. Some light are meant to be run base down, or base up or some even base horizontal. If you run them in other positions they can't get rid of the heat from the balast as well and can cause the housing to fade or burn. I use 13w ones all around my outside and the only real problem I have is cleaning them every other month to get all the dead bugs and spider webs off of them. They do take a bit to warm up at 0 F though. I started swapping to the globe style for winter 18w, they tend to do better in the cold, actually get brighter since they can get warmer.

 

[The_LED_Museum]

If your CFLs have a plastic diffuser or globe that's yellowing, I'd just saw that ***** off and put the lamp back in your porch light fixture. This assumes of course, that the porch fixture itself protects the lamp, and just isn't a bare socket sticking out of the home's siding.

Alternately, buy CFLs with glass globe diffusers or no diffuser at all; these should never yellow regardless of the weather, temperature, or bulb operating hours.

 

[RonM]

It is the plastic globe that yellows and browns. I think a lot of the indoor models don't have the globe. They are being used base up, but I don't remember seeing any warning about this on the packaging. At first I blamed it on my using the cheapie Lights of America brand (NOT made in America), but my current Earthlights are suffering from the same problem. And yes, we do get blackouts with some frequency.

 

[Brock]

That does sound odd. I have been using the earthlights outside without a problem. Mine are under the sofet outside my front door, quite protected from rain but exposed to the heat/cold and humidity. Hey you don't have them on a dimmer or X-10 switches do you? I had to add a third 25w lamp on my x-10 circuit to stop them from flickering.

 

[RonM]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> Hey you don't have them on a dimmer or X-10 switches do you? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I do use X-10 in my house but not where CF is in use. I always wished they could be used together. That way all my outdoor lights would be automated with X-10 and I'd save energy thanks to CF. X-10's a big help, especially around Christmas time. Wife: "Honey did you remember to turn on the Christmas lights?" Me: "Of course dear." hehehe

 

[PeLu]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brock:
They do take a bit to warm up at 0 F though. I started swapping to the globe style for winter 18w, they tend to do better in the cold, actually get brighter since they can get warmer.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There are special ones for lower temperatures. Actually I only know about a 20W one. Standard ones may even fail to start at lower temperatures (below -20°C).

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

no no, the plastic globes have nothing to do with the color temp of any given light. (I don't think--?) I have had no case of the plastic globe 'yellowing' or 'bluing' for that matter.. I meant that in all cases the globe made for better,(read 'diffused') , light distributuion, and appearance; better than the bare-naked folded fluorescent tube beaming right in your eyes (easier to clean, too)...I think what I was trying to say
was that I thought maybe you couldn't get the globe in the warmer indoor version of the earth light -- but maybe this situation has changed in the past couple years since i bought my fluorescents, I don't know - next time I'm at Sears, I'll check. By the way, I do have a globed 'daylight' earthlight indoors, and I guess I've grown accustomed to the colder bluish light - because I forgot about it's color temp. - but I'd rather have the globed light balanced for a warmer (yellowish) color temperature for indoor use...hope this is more clear...?