CFL's really work?

[EWC88 24]

Was wondering if anyone has really ever switched all the household bulbs to the cfl to see if it was cheaper?

[diamondd817 828]

Yes they work. Your electric bill will go down a couple bucks. But I find they don't last anywhere near as long as advertised. Almost seem to burn out faster than regular bulbs. Especially in recessed lighting that's not vented.

[EWC88 24]

Cool thanks for letting me know. Been debating on switching to cfl or led since I'm moving out real soon and figure to do all swapping of things instantly.

[mipafox 438]

They completely suck and are a huge waste of money in the residential setting.

 

Use incandescent or wait for the next technology.

[71ragtopgoat 23]

I use CFL's if you buy the correct tint they are fine. Mine last a couple of years. But LED lighting is just around the corner .

One bad thing is they are harder to dim so I dont use them with a dimmer switch

[jm1827 284]

And the color rendering index is different due to a different wavelength of light, so some colors may appear a bit different.

[JeffreyDV 4]

CFLs will save you money. Warm white bulbs more closely duplicate the light from an incandescent bulb. LEDs have come down in price but are still at least $10 each. The LEDs give off a very white light and most are dimmable.

[EWC88 24]

Not to worry about dimming really right now. I'll have to check everything out and see.

[1LtCAP 4,264]

mom put a few in my house. i don't like em....and they didn't lower my bill significantly. i've started switching to led's. more expensive.....but better light

[Pizza Bob 1,488]

Life span of CFL's is shortened the more they are turned on and off. Read the package about how you are to dispose of them - it'll scare the heck out of you. If you drop one it is practically a hazmat team incident. Our legislators need to get their craniums out of their rectal cavities - in several years just imagine all these bulbs in landfills with the mercury from them leaching into the soil - what the hell was wrong with incandescents anyway?

 

Rant off

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

[mipafox 438]

<p>

Life span of CFL's is shortened the more they are turned on and off. Read the package about how you are to dispose of them - it'll scare the heck out of you. If you drop one it is practically a hazmat team incident. Our legislators need to get their craniums out of their rectal cavities - in several years just imagine all these bulbs in landfills with the mercury from them leaching into the soil - what the hell was wrong with incandescents anyway?

 

Rant off

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

 

Step 1 - Put in Trash

 

Step 2 - Put trash by curb

 

Step 3 - Trash goes to "Jersey."  No idea where.

 

No, I wouldn't really do that   I also don't throw hollow points and beat 30 round mags with bent feed lips in there.  I send those over by balloon!

[ryan_j 0]

I have mostly CFLs and a few LEDs in the house, and a few incandescents.

 

They use about 1/10th the energy. If you use a lot of light you will save.

 

Some of the cheaper ones aren't so good. I have had a few DOA and a few burn out after a month or so. Most have been fine, some since 2001 or so.

 

The light quality isn't too bad. I've gotten accustomed to it. LEDs are more like incandescents.

 

What I do like is that I can run lights as normal during a power outage with the generator. I don't have to worry about managing loads.

 

What I don't like is that they don't work well in low temperatures. For this reason I put LEDs outside because they go to full brightness immediately.

[ryan_j 0]

Life span of CFL's is shortened the more they are turned on and off. Read the package about how you are to dispose of them - it'll scare the heck out of you. If you drop one it is practically a hazmat team incident. Our legislators need to get their craniums out of their rectal cavities - in several years just imagine all these bulbs in landfills with the mercury from them leaching into the soil - what the hell was wrong with incandescents anyway?

 

Rant off

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

 

Just take them to home depot or your local recycling center. Even Ikea takes them. Our co-op takes them. No big deal...

 

Yes, if you break one mercury vapor escapes into the air. Get out of the room, open the windows and you will be fine. Many houses have thermostats and thermometers with much more mercury in them.

[ryan_j 0]

I use CFL's if you buy the correct tint they are fine. Mine last a couple of years. But LED lighting is just around the corner .

One bad thing is they are harder to dim so I dont use them with a dimmer switch

 

If you want to dim, don't use CFLs. Every one I've tried never seemed to work right. So I just kept incandescents on the dimmers.

[Dan 177]

CFL's suck, unless you are going to leave them on for extended periods. Turning them on and off a lot will cut their life by 1/10 of the advertised time from my experience.

 

LED's are here and ready for prime-time. Turn them on and off all you want, and if you get the proper type, they can dim just fine in any regular incandescent dimmer. I have replaced most of the heavily used and higher drain incandescent lights with LEDs. They work well so far. I replaced 7 , 75W PAR 30 spotlights in my kitchen with equivalent LED versions. They work great, and I now use 60watts versus 525watts when they are all on full power. I have also replaced my front porch and post light to LEDs. I can leave them on all night long and not feel guilty in burning 100W (15W instead combined).

 

I only get the "warm white" , aka under 3,000 kelvin color temp models. I can't stand blue-white light.

[Handyman 5,682]

Go LED. Costco has little selection, but the ones they have are on sale/discounted a lot.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

If you want to dim, don't use CFLs. Every one I've tried never seemed to work right. So I just kept incandescents on the dimmers.

It says right on the box if they can be put on a dim switch.Most can't, and if you do put them on one your going to have issues with the electronics on that circuit. Normally not a huge deal, but a TV's power supply might start buzzing or something similar. I put CFL's in my room and my turtle tank over 3 years ago and they are just starting to burn out now, they are in recessed ceiling sockets, but they are vented.

[almiz111 26]

If a CFL breaks take a big deep breath for some great HG dust. That will be a good follow up to your flu shot. LOL boys.

[EX Carnival man 223]

My house is 100% CFL's. I went from a 60 watt incandescent's to a 13 watt CFL's I have over 100 of them in my house. It made a huge differance when I had to run my Generator after Sandy, with each one drawing only 13 watts. You can find some great deals on them. The best I saw was at my local hardware store for a week had them on sale for $1.00 a bulb. LED's are still to expensive.

[DJ_ 0]

If you drop one it is practically a hazmat team incident. - in several years just imagine all these bulbs in landfills with the mercury from them leaching into the soil - what the hell was wrong with incandescents anyway?

 

Pizza Bob

LOL SPOT ON

[NJKen 23]

LED is the way to fly. You cant use the ones from home depot though...none of them are really rite for the applications that people use them for. I have done several full LED conversions at a couple of restaurants. It is hard to tell that they are not incandescent and they last a long time. As far as manufacturers go, Cree is one of the best for specific lamp types for specific applications. Last time I was in Home Depot someone told me they where going to start carrying them. I guess Ill just wait and see.

Ken

[Bob2222 317]

I have them in the laundry room to annoy my environmentally-sensitive, Birkenstock-wearing, veggie daughter with that awful tint of light that's probably seen naturally only in some distant universe. She's out on her own now, so it only annoys her when she comes to visit and do her laundry.

 

Mostly they only annoy me. One just burned out and I need to replace it.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

LED is the way to fly. You cant use the ones from home depot though...none of them are really rite for the applications that people use them for. I have done several full LED conversions at a couple of restaurants. It is hard to tell that they are not incandescent and they last a long time. As far as manufacturers go, Cree is one of the best for specific lamp types for specific applications. Last time I was in Home Depot someone told me they where going to start carrying them. I guess Ill just wait and see.

Ken

 

If we converted all our light sockets to 12vDC, led bulbs would ruin the market for practically anything else.

[ryan_j 0]

It says right on the box if they can be put on a dim switch.

 

I was referring to dimmable CFLs. They do not dim like incandescents. They can dim down to about 60% brightness, that's it. Beyond that they flicker or go out completely. You also have to let them warm up before you can dim properly and you have to dim slowly. Go too fast and the bulbs flicker/go out. You also have to start them out at full brightness then dim down. Can't fade in.

 

They also don't work well with electronic dimmers such as the Lutron Maestro.

 

I have tried four different types of dimmable CFLs. I returned all except one, which is the PureSpectrum brand of CFLs. They still don't dim as well as incandescents but they work.

 

Most can't, and if you do put them on one your going to have issues with the electronics on that circuit.

 

"Issues" is an understatement. non-dimmable CFLs on dimmers have been responsible for house fires. Modern triac based dimmers weren't designed for inductive loads and the rapid on/off switching can cause the ballast to overheat and possibly catch fire.

[ryan_j 0]

Go LED. Costco has little selection, but the ones they have are on sale/discounted a lot.

 

The state subsidizes them as part of the clean energy program. I bought the outdoor PAR38 lights for outside of the garage from Costco. Much better than the CFLs I had up there. During the winter I can turn on the lights and get full brightness instantly.

 

Home Depot has A19 Philips LED bulbs for $15 and $10, 60w and 40w equivalent respectively.

[buell508 6]

they suck.

[Malice4you 627]

I've run CFLs for a while, probably since the early 2000s. I have never had issues with them burning out prematurely. I do not frequently turn them on or off, I don't try to dim them, and I don't use them in fixtures without some ventilation. I dislike the warmup that CFLs tend to have. That would be my biggest complaint about them. I typically run lights for extended periods of time, and like a brighter light...a CFL doesn't get nearly as hot and wastes significantly less power. Incandescent bulbs are only like 10% efficient, meaning the rest is just heat.... A 30W CFL is just as bright as a 100W incandescent...

 

I have started switching to LEDs, though cost has prohibited me from buying them to replace all my bulbs. I will go with LEDs as bulbs burn out.

 

If you want something closer to incandescent lights in terms of color, look at 3200K light, aka warm white. I personally dislike warm white, but I'm not a huge fan of 5500k either, aka cool white. I prefer around 4000-4800k, which can be harder to find.

 

I have one LED bulb that claims it should cost 90 cents a year to run, and last 30,000+ hours based on normal use. Cost me $15. After the initial cost of the bulb, it costs almost nothing...unlike an incandescent, where the bulb is cheap, but you waste lots of money running it. Even if you 'only' go to CFLs, you should save some money.

[JeffreyDV 4]

I love how everyone compares CFLs to incandescents. Incandescents were the best technology when they were invented decades ago. They are horribly inefficient and their color rendering is just as bad when compared to sunlight. In my opinion, light bulbs should give off light resembling sunlight not incandescent light. Modern CFLs and LEDs more closely duplicate sunlight which is more blue than incandescents. We are slaves to what is "normal", reddish light from a teardrop shaped bulb. Everything else is bad. Embrace change for the better.

 

Rant over.

[Howard 538]

CFLs definitely save a lot of energy over regular bulbs, but as others have pointed out they don't last as long as claimed and you have to be careful of the color temperature. The cheapest ones have color temperatures down in the 3200 K range. You want warmer ones in the 5000 to 6000 range. LEDs are a great concept but at current pricing make no economic sense.

[JrzyGuy30 0]

My house is 100% CFL's. I went from a 60 watt incandescent's to a 13 watt CFL's I have over 100 of them in my house. It made a huge differance when I had to run my Generator after Sandy, with each one drawing only 13 watts. You can find some great deals on them. The best I saw was at my local hardware store for a week had them on sale for $1.00 a bulb. LED's are still to expensive.

 

This. I changed all our homes lights to the warm CFLs. Having a newer house with lots of lights, definitely put a dent in our monthly electric usage. Also, with the generator, it draws only 9-13 watts (instead of 60-100 watts) which means more lights can be on and use less generator fuel. I also kind of take a liking to how the cfl turns on a little dimmer and then warms up to its full lumen output.

I recommend it. When LED bulbs become CFL bulb prices, probably will change them all to that.