Fluorescent light bulbs are not what they advertise

They are very energy efficient, I think that is their main selling point. Cleanup of broken bulbs is risky, though, since they contain mercury. As for longevity, the only time I've had them break is when I drop them.

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I'm an environmentalist, left wing, Ron Paul loving Prius driver with a farm. If you have a problem with that, kindly go take a leap.

Salmon . .and others. . . . .If you register enough complaints with your local utility they will come out and measure the voltage coming into your 'place'.
Utility companys have/do kick up the voltage coming out of the transformer feeding 'places' that are out at/near the end of a long trans 'line'.
So power line 'surges' can then be higher . .and cause damage.

The utility installed "whole house" surge protector units are a good deal for lots of folks......................

Thanks Harry and Jim-mi. I have surge protectors on all the appliances and stuff but I think we are going to have to go the line conditioner or whole house surge protection route. We are starting to replace our incandescants room by room so it will be interesting to see if there is any real difference in the electric bill (I am only expecting $5-10.00 a month if that).

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The 23 watt CFL spotlight bulbs are slow to throw out light,maybe 2 minutes to max brightness in 30 degree weather,but man alive those puppies throw out some light.The reflector really makes a difference.I light up a street corner from second story with 46 watts,doing what was 300 watts of spots did when I first moved in here.....amazing!!!

Got em at Costco for 2 bucks each

Regular CFL's can be had out here for 75 cents each. At that price I like em,at 8 dollars a throw I'd be flaming mad if I had to use them.I get about 2 years on average out of them I'd say.

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Been using CFL's since we moved into the new house 4 years ago, no problems, never had to change one yet. Great light,no flickers and not yellow.

I can use them in rooms that I do not stay in for long periods of time. However, in my office, I have to use the old bulbs because the new ones seem to have a slight flicker and not bright enough (my office seems to be a nook & everything seems yellow in it). I get headaches frm the cfl's, and i'm not sure why. yes, i work on a computer all day too, right under one. but, yet, i can handle them almost anywhere else in the house. are there any really good, non-flicker, non-yellow cfl's, or should I buy led's for where i work?

I wonder about being able to use incandescents for heat in a chicken house or well house. CFL's sure don't cut it for that.

I doubt that led's are any better, in fact most Christmas tree lights are now LED's and are a whole lot cooler to use the any conventional bulb, and that safer because of it.

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I don't mind regular, i.e. long tube, fluorescent lights but I from my experience the compact ones are a major waste of money.

We change all the bulbs in our church sanctuary to them. In less than a week one blew. In less than 6 months 4 more have died and there's 1 I don't think will last out the week. With the old bulbs we might lose 1 in 6 months.

Before that I had bought 6 for the house and they were all dead in less than a year.

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Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Regarding heating coops, or other things with incandescent bulbs..and losing the larger watt bulbs to this law: Only the general lighting incandescents are subject to the new regulations for energy consumption. Many of the industrial type bulbs are not covered. Appliance bulbs (which are generally 15 to 25watts), special color bulbs, heat lamps, etc. will all still be available. Regular lighting incandescents would be available, too, if someone came up with a way to make them more efficient. ... which would probably get rid of the heating capability so that's no help for heating the coop.

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Exactly, I tried all brands incandescents locally available, high price, low price, inbetween price. Even those that that claimed "long life". None of them lasted more than a month at most. I tried some specialty halogen bulb that screws into standard socket. They lasted 2 years and died. As I say my reading lamp that gets used everyday, turned on and off multiple times, the curly Phillips cfl has lasted well over 3 years. Be 4 years next May. I wrote date I installed it on side with a sharpie. Cost around $2, got it at Aldis cause they were only place with reasonable price on a single cfl at the time.

Somebody mentioned some specialty extreme long life incandescent bulbs. Well didnt mention price and for sure no local store I shop at has them. Maybe if you special order them through a licensed and bonded electrician and have him professionally install them..... Somehow though I doubt thats very economical even if the bulbs themselves are a miracle and actually last 20 years.

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One possibility that I did contemplate was getting 150 watt incandescents and then running them half voltage through a dimmer. That will greatly extend their life and still give good light output. Then I find out 150 watt incandescents are rare as hens teeth anymore.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

The article has links to a couple of the long life bulbs. Apparently they have a thicker filament.

I still think the law to ban supposedly inefficient light bulbs is silly.

I think that if the mission is to save energy across the country, they should promote the use of clotheslines and indoor drying racks. Maybe they could make a tv commercial about how your big screen tv performs better if you turn off some lights. After all, if people are saving big bucks by switching to CFL, they must have a LOT of lights left on day and night.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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Absolutely!

I am supposed to lay out big bucks cause the incandescent bulb you give link to is advertised as long life. DO YOU have personal experience with them and are YOU personally vouching for these bulbs, or are you just parroting what the bulb manufacturer's claims are? By way if you order pkg of 4 with shipping off Amazon link you give, since they are under $25 (that would qualify them for free shipping), that would require another $5.14 postage and for me that would make them $2.74 EACH, not $1.80 you state in your article. My CFL cost $2 (and I didnt have to buy a pkg of 4 or even a package of 2, these were sold one bulb at a time) and it has lasted over 3 1/2 years (I wrote the install date on side of the base of it). I still havent heard anybody here mention the exact brand of incandescent THEY HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN AND KEPT RECORD THAT IT HAS LASTED THAT LONG in recent years. And we are talking a bulb that gets multiple on/off daily use, not one you installed in the attic 5 years ago and turned on twice for 15 minutes in that time span.

The long life bulb you give link to in your article also has ONLY ONE review on Amazon that states the purchaser HOPES they last as long as they claim. Not exactly overwhelming positive feedback there. I have a box in cupboard right this minute of incandescents that "say" they last 1000 hours. That sir is a bald faced LIE! But they know there is nothing you are going to do when the bulb burns out in 2 weeks of use. Are you going to sue them, complain to attourney general of your state??? Nope you are just going to say a naughty word and shake your head knowingly and toss it. Well somebody claiming 10 years for their bulb has no more credibility that that pkg in my cupboard until there is multiple real feedback that says, you betcha those bulbs lasted a decade in my bedside reading lamp or my porch light that I use daily or simular

Yea the law is silly cause manufacturers of incandescents are doing fine job of destroying their own market with flood of shoddy merchandise. They actually did used to last years, not weeks.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Kind of an aside to the CFL vs. incandescent arguments, but if you have incandescents regularly burning out in a matter of weeks, there's a good chance you don't have a good connection in your light sockets. This can happen when you screw a bulb in too tightly, pushing down that little brass tab in the center of the socket. Easy fix: turn power off and bend that tab out a little so it makes good contact with the solder on the base of the bulb. Then, don't screw the bulbs in too tight.

As far as CFLs go, I do have several that have lasted a few years so far, but they are mainly lights left on for long periods. They seem to have lost a lot of brightness. And I suspect there may be an imperceptible flicker that gives me headaches when I read by their light. I am looking into other options, possibly going back to incandescents or switching to halogen for some uses and LEDs for others.

my sister is stationed in germany with her husband, and they no longer have incandescent. all you can buy are cfl or led types of bulbs, last year they had people buying them buy the boatloads when it was announced that there would be no more for sale there.

They are banning them nationally. The ban works, I believe, through regulations about efficiency. What they fail to take into account is that here in Vermont with our cold northern climate that heat out put is valuable. Not just in our homes but in our spring house, chicken coop, etc. Furthermore, florescent lights don't start well or light brightly in the cold. This is a case where the government should have let market forces do the job. If the bulbs are less efficient then it will cost more to use them and gradually people would switch over.

The other problem is the florescent bulbs are often toxic requiring special disposal. This cost is not calculated into the studies but rather is hidden from the consumer.

I have special florescent lights for my aquariums that don't flicker and are better quality light as well as being even more efficient. They're great. Still, there is the disposal issue. Fortunately they last longer.

LEDs are something that should be great. I bought a lot for our tiny cottage. Disappointing. Unfortunately the failure rate is VERY high. It is mostly not the LEDs that are failing but the support electronics that turn the AC power to DC for the LEDs. Unfortunately when that fails the light becomes totally dead. We're running about 40% failures within the first year! Ouch.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

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I read someone came up with a work around for the incandescent light ban. He does not sell them as light bulbs but heating devices.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

I buy GE Reveal bulbs. Yes I've had some duds that burn out pretty quick but most last a year or more with being turned on and off several times a day.