Am I the only one that thinks fluorescent bulbs stink?

They are not as bright as they advertise, a 60w rated flour isn't as bright as a 60w incan, sorry!
Some have a warm up time, some don't?
The color rendition, well, leaves much to be desired!!
And half of them don't last as long as incans!!
What gives? This is what we are going to be forced to deal with? I guess I need to stock up on a BUNCH of incans until they can maybe get them worked out?

Try linear tubes. They pretty much don't have all the drawbacks CFLs do. The better tubes have CRIs in the 90s, they last 24,000 to 35,000 hours, they're about 50% more efficient than CFLs, they spread light out with fewer shadows. When they die they cost less to replace than a CFL (decent tubes in quantity are ~$2 to $3 each). I've been happily using linear tubes for the last two decades. A CFL is trying to shoehorn a fluorescent into a fixture designed for an incandescent. It works, but less than optimally.

EDIT: And BTW, you might want to rethink the thread title. It's kind of provocative and insulting to those who have been happily using fluorescent for many years. Suppose I started a thread entitled "Am I the only one who thinks incandescent bulbs stink?" I'm sure you and a few others would be jumping all over me.

Except for outdoors where they don't last all that long I have CFL in all the lights that stay on a lot like here in my "office" and the living room lamps.

In my use they SMOKE any incan!

Agree they aren't the end all be all that the Pols say they are!

sawlight said:

They are not as bright as they advertise, a 60w rated flour isn't as bright as a 60w incan, sorry!
Some have a warm up time, some don't?
The color rendition, well, leaves much to be desired!!
And half of them don't last as long as incans!!
What gives? This is what we are going to be forced to deal with? I guess I need to stock up on a BUNCH of incans until they can maybe get them worked out?

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1. You can't compare brightness with watts. You have to look at Lumens.
2. Yes, and when cold can be dim for a while.
3. In general a longer lasting incan will put out fewer lumens than one that lasts a shorter time.
Brighter means higher resistance, more heat and less life.
Dimmer means lower resistance, less heat and longer life.
4. I have limited experience with the newer screw in type since I've been using X10 devices for well over 10 years. But my ceiling florescents are still going strong after about 15 years and I've been through a lot of incans over that period.

I think the ONLY lights left in my house that have incans in them are inside appliances; ie: fridge, micro, oven.

I do have two 12V Halogen MR16 recessed spotlights independently switched with dimmers over each side of our bed for reading, as there are no reasonably priced fluorescent options for this purpose.

Also I have a few 12V Halogens for landscape lighting. Other than that, EVERYTHING is flourescent. 4100K in the kitchen and garage, and 3000K everywhere else, except for two 6500K 65W floodlights that light up my ENTIRE backyard, literally, like daylight.

I stick mostly with Sylvania (for the 3000K), I've found their quality and longevity to be quite good. They're sold at Lowes and Sams Club (at least in SoCal). Sometimes they're offered at deep discounts, due to utility company incentives. I'd stay away from cheap no-names.

The 4100K are a little harder to find, but they're getting more and more available. I haven't seen them in Sylvania yet, 'cause I haven't been shopping for them lately, but they might be available somewhere.

I'm starting to see LED bulbs and fixtures trickling into the market, but nothing that interests me so far.

If you keep buying incans, they'll keep making them for you, until they're banned completely, which I think s a good thing. But if you stop buying them, demand will go down, and lighting manufacturers will be forced to give us a better product.

Yep.

I have 2 incans outside, 1 in the fridge, 1 in the oven, and 1 in the microwave. No more than that.

My CFL's do have a few drawbacks but they save me $25 a month so I think they are fine. Plus they will get better with time. The first ones I got had a warm-up time that I hated but all the new ones I have tried don't have it.

+1 for Sylvania 3000K and 3500K CFLs, these have better tint and color rendering than any off-the-shelf local-store incan bulb, and Lowe's has all sizes/wattages/variations in stock.

naked2 said:

I think the ONLY lights left in my house that have incans in them are inside appliances; ie: fridge, micro, oven.

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Same here, except we do have two other lights that still have incans in them.

Once I learn to levitate, I'll change those

Makes you wonder why they put lights in places you can't reach without scaffolding doesn't it.

I have some 13 watt CFL's in out door fixtures and they have been going strong for about 6 years!

Some CFL's I've used indoors I haven't cared for, but I've found ones I like the tint of oand they put out a lot more light than the incans they replaced.

Keep in mind a 13-watt maybe rated as 60-watt output (60 incan watt), but you can go with a 23-watt CLF and get 100 watt output. This is what I usually do, I get more light with less watts.

In my kitchen I have two ceiling fixtures that would each take two 60-watt incans. I run 2, 23 watt CFL's, in each, for a total off 400 incan watt equiv. It's nice and bright. Much brighter than it was with the incans, which were only 240 watts of true incan light. 60+60+60+60

I use the CFL's anywhere I can except in lamps I want to be able to dim. I can't wait for good LED home lighting that we can DIM. The dimmable CFL's I've seen don't seem to be around anymore. I don't think dimming and CFL go together to well.

I just counted 58 60W to 100W incans (mostly 75W & 100W) in various ceiling, lamp, and high intensity fixtues, 24 bathroom mirror 20 & 60W bulbs, 3 150W overhead bulbs, 10 halogen tubular 500W incans. 6 smaller halogen spotlights. 8 outdoor 150W incan spotlights. 4 nightlight incan bulbs. 6 long fluorescent tubulars in basement that I put up with since pairing mix of cool and pinkish. Two lamps with the CFL bulbs equivalent to 100W.

Happy to report no LED lights except the flashlights and ones built into various electronic devices and switches.

Walmart has started selling dimable CFL's recently. They also make a difference class of CFL's which are rated for outdoor use. They essentially have a clear protective case around the spiral. I am not sure if there are any other components which make it "rough use". There is also a yellowish anti-bug version.

Happily riding the CFL bandwagon here. Have a couple LED reading lights and night lights, incans in the microwave and oven, and a gas-mantle lamp post out at the end of my driveway, but everything else is compact or linear fluorescent. The horrid color of incans gives me a headache, and I don't like throwing money away operating heaters that put out light as a byproduct.

:buddies:

Diesel_Bomber said:

a gas-mantle lamp post out at the end of my driveway

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Now that's classy! I want one!

All I know is that I have two teenagers and one 21 year old in the house plus me and the wife. When I removed all of the incandescent bulbs in my house and replaced them with Floresent screw type a few years ago my electric bill dropped something like 20-30%! I go behind everyone (like most dads) and turn the lights out behind them. I will never use Incand bulbs in my house again. Next is led's.

Bill

I've gone CCFL in all fixtures that stay on for long. I'd use linear tubes too, but the house I live in isn't mine, so I can't just rip out the existing fixtures and replace them with linear ones.

As for whether they last: I have a CFL lamp that I've owned for the past, I dunno, thirteen years or so. It's seen a lot of use, and has taken enough abuse that the lamp itself is broken in two points. The CCFL bulb, however, is still working, and is still the main source of light in my computer room. I think it's immortal.

I read somewhere that CFLs don't last as long when used in a downward facing fixture. The heat from the bulb stresses the electronics. Some of the lights are made with this in mind but the economy ones will probably fail sooner in this type of fixture.

I just found the article.

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6607201.html

LuxLuthor said:

I just counted 58 60W to 100W incans (mostly 75W & 100W) in various ceiling, lamp, and high intensity fixtues, 24 bathroom mirror 20 & 60W bulbs, 3 150W overhead bulbs, 10 halogen tubular 500W incans. 6 smaller halogen spotlights. 8 outdoor 150W incan spotlights. 4 nightlight incan bulbs. 6 long fluorescent tubulars in basement that I put up with since pairing mix of cool and pinkish. Two lamps with the CFL bulbs equivalent to 100W.

Happy to report no LED lights except the flashlights and ones built into various electronic devices and switches.

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Lux, putting aside the choice of lighting technology, how bright is your house!
14 incans in overhead fixtures, varying from 25 to 300W
8 other incans
7 CCFLs in overhead fixtures, none less than 20W
2 other CCFLs
LEDs - nil.

Compare that to your house - do you wear polarized sunglasses indoors?

Marduke said:

Walmart has started selling dimable CFL's recently. They also make a difference class of CFL's which are rated for outdoor use. They essentially have a clear protective case around the spiral. I am not sure if there are any other components which make it "rough use". There is also a yellowish anti-bug version.

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They do seem to be dimable but do not play well with X-10 wall switches. They will turn on but not off. Line noise is the problem, or so they say.
They do work with the "rocket socket" and lamps plugged into a dimmer.

When dimming them with the X-10 they do well down to a point then may start flickering.
That is the same bulb may or may not flicker.

I think even thou the price of CFL has come down, the quality suffered accordingly. I have an GE CFL that's 5 years old and used many hours daily, still going strong. On the other hand the CFL I bought from costco has 50% burn out rate within 6 months. Incan bulbs from dollar store last longer than that FFS.