Terrible CFL's

[jam0o0]

my experience: my dad has been replacing the incandescent sylvania can bulbs with sylvania's CFL's in his house. the CFL's tend to last longer. they ALL turn on slower. meaning you get 70% or something for MINUTES. they are NOT as bright as they say they are. i'd say the 10 year old incandescent s are 10-20% brighter than the brand new CFL's.

CFL's vs. long tube florescent s: they all turn on slow. they all get thrown away.

mercury: it's not the amount in each bulb that's scary. it's the number of bulbs. and the fact that mercury accumulates.

i love CFL's for my drop lights. first it's hot here. i don't need more heat. second it's wonderful not burning myself on a stupid drop light. third i can drop them to my hearts content and they rarely break. unlike normal bulbs that break if you look at them wrong in a drop light.

tangent: i'm with jmh and ohio on the gov and right's stuff.

 

[jkeyser14]

I didn't skim all 9 pages of this thread, but if you hate CFL's, maybe you should look at Vu1's bulbs. They are mercury free, dimmable, energy efficient, great temperature, etc. They are supposed to be shipping the first run the end of the month.

http://www.vu1corporation.com/

 

[cowboyjosh]

I hate CFL's, I only use them where they made sense like in keyless fixtures in the unfinished part of the basement, and in a couple coach lights outside, otherwise I go green with LED bulbs, like the ones linked below. The LED's are closer to incandescent then CFL's but still not a home run match. Even though the LED's and some CFL's can be dimmed they will not work with Maestro dimmers or dimmers with maybe the exception of the Lutron Diva that do not have a neutral connection. The electronics in the dimmer don't see a LOAD so they act all crazy and ****. If your using a older rotary dimmer, dim-able CFL's and LED's might work, its a case by case basis.
http://www.polar-ray.com/Philips-AmbientLED-Dimmable-A19-LED-Bulb--60W-Equivalent-_p_235.html

 

[GrandmaSideways]

I have a green 40w bulb, but its too hot for photobucket.

 

[jkeyser14]

I hate CFL's, I only use them where they made sense like in keyless fixtures in the unfinished part of the basement, and in a couple coach lights outside, otherwise I go green with LED bulbs, like the ones linked below. The LED's are closer to incandescent then CFL's but still not a home run match. Even though the LED's and some CFL's can be dimmed they will not work with Maestro dimmers or dimmers with maybe the exception of the Lutron Diva that do not have a neutral connection. The electronics in the dimmer don't see a LOAD so they act all crazy and ****. If your using a older rotary dimmer, dim-able CFL's and LED's might work, its a case by case basis.
http://www.polar-ray.com/Philips-AmbientLED-Dimmable-A19-LED-Bulb--60W-Equivalent-_p_235.html

I don't know if you've ever looked at the specs on those, but they are only 13 lumens per watt, the same exact efficiency as an incandescent at 20x the cost, but you do get 20x the lifespan.

 

[jvitez]

Do you have any multi colored bulb ****? Midget bulb ****? Where do you hide your bulb ****?

A little multi-colored action sounds interesting, but so far I've stayed with white ones. No midgets, sorry. I've been told by several that they like it bigger, and I've always been able to accommodate that easily, so I'm staying on the big side. I hide them in the basement on a messy shelf. It gets lost in the clutter. Learned that as a teenager.

Close contact with big, turned on, white, round, 500W bulbs makes me hot.

 

[pprince]

I switched to CFL's 10 years ago and since last year I have been switching to LED's.

I bought about a dozen large LED's for the kitchen and front garage and my computer room reading light. They put out a large amount of light. I am using candleabra LED's for the dining room and front hall. All my LED bulbs were purchased from Costco.

CFL's are cooler to the touch than incandenscents and LED's are down right cold in comparison to a CFL.

The problem is electricity is going up faster in cost than my ability to conserve

 

[kbeitz]

Be Careful with these bulbs



Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by “Globe” in China seem to have the lion’s share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China ..

 

[jmh21586]

Problem after problem.

 

[Coach James]

Be Careful with these bulbs



Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by “Globe” in China seem to have the lion’s share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China ..

CFL's should not be used in track or recessed lights? I had not heard this before. That doesn't leave me many places I can use them.

Coach

 

[jmh21586]

Ohhhh but they're soooooooo great!

 

[e-tek]

WTF is right? I wish my electric bill was only $125 a month! Mines like $400 a month, and I've got mostly cfl and 24v low voltage fixtures everywhere.

Ket-tek -your electric bill is $400 a MONTH??????? Holy cow. I have a 1000sq ft shop, Hot Tub (on all year), 2 furnaces and a suite in the basement and it averages MINUS 20C here for 5 months....Still I "only" pay $295 for Electircity AND water!!!

The problem is electricity is going up faster in cost than my ability to conserve

I hear ya there!!! In the past 8 years we retrofitted out windows, furnace and doors, insulated the basement and added more to the ceilings.....I've NEVER seen my cosumption go down!! Though maybe it accounts for some of the difference mentioned above.

 

[EvenTheLoosest]

Were these lamps UL listed? This is definitely not supposed to happen and the base is supposed to be made from fire-resistant plastic.

See http://ul.com/global/eng/pages/corporate/newsroom/storyideas/compactfluorescentlamps/

I totally agree with sticking with name brands.

Be Careful with these bulbs



Below is a picture of a CFL light bulb from my bathroom. I turned it on the other day and then smelled smoke after a few minutes. Four inch flames were spewing out of the side of the ballast like a blow torch! I immediately turned off the lights. But I'm sure it would have caused a fire if I was not right there. Imagine if the kids had left the lights on as usual when they were not in the room.

I took the bulb to the Fire Department to report the incident. The Fireman wasn't at all surprised and said that it was not an uncommon occurrence. Apparently, sometimes when the bulb burns out there is a chance that the ballast can start a fire. He told me that the Fire Marshall had issued reports about the dangers of these bulbs.

Upon doing some Internet research, it seems that bulbs made by “Globe” in China seem to have the lion’s share of problems. Lots of fires have been blamed on misuse of CFL bulbs, like using them in recessed lighting, pot lights, dimmers or in track lighting. Mine was installed in a normal light socket.

I bought these at Wal-Mart. I will be removing all the Globe bulbs from my house. CFL bulbs are a great energy saver but make sure you buy a name brand like Sylvania , Phillips or GE and not the ones from China ..

 

[EvenTheLoosest]

There is a Snopes article about this burned bulb:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/cflbulb.asp

 

[brianh]

Gee what a coincidence kbeitz's picture and wording is exactly the same as the snopes article.

Back when Edison was pushing the light bulb everybody was bitching about whale oil being banned for their lamps

Just looked at the ESL bulb website they look like a good idea

 

[draglink]

Ket-tek -your electric bill is $400 a MONTH??????? Holy cow. I have a 1000sq ft shop, Hot Tub (on all year), 2 furnaces and a suite in the basement and it averages MINUS 20C here for 5 months....Still I "only" pay $295 for Electircity AND water!!!




Last power bill I opened was over $600.......son of a *****

 

[Dmaxman]

Just read the snopes article before coming here. I just had a CFL flicker behind me and then noticed it got a little darker. Turned around and saw a bulb was out...went over to check it out and it was smoking like crazy...kind of scary to think if it could have caught fire. So a bit of searching proves it can happen. I'm not impressed to think how many others are in the house.