why I hate CFLs

[LCHIEN]

[quote=pacwind3;401147]I had an electrician friend tell me having them hang upside down can cause a short life span on them.

...[quote]

if you read the fine print on some of the packages, it also causes a 5% reduction in light output. Bases up causes shorter life and reduced light output. Great. Except for one or two table lamps, all my bulbs are bases-up. especially all the can lamps in the ceilings that would be ridiculously expensive to replace.

[MilDoc]

IMHO, CFLs haven't "come of age" yet. I bought a yellow GE "bug bulb" CFL, mounted horizontally, NOT enclosed. Lasted 1 month.

[Chris_B]

Try the Sylvania ones

I have converted almost our entire house to CFL's. Since most of our lighting is ceiling cans with reflective housings, we use a *lot* of bulbs. The only thing my wife really dislikes is the not-quite-instant-on. So in the kitchen I have mixed incandescents with 50% CFLs.

In my experience:
1) The cheapo CFLs (Costco, no-name at big-box, etc.) truly suck. Badly. Several have literally smoked. Stay away.
2) To echo Hank's comments, some early Panasonic capsule lights are still going strong ~6 years later. However, I can't find them locally any more, and only installed 2 because they were so expensive at the time.
3) Lowe's carries a variety of Sylvania CFLs that seem to work great. I'm only 2 years into this experiment, but so far 100% of them are still going strong. They also are fairly cheap, especially in the bulk packs.
4) CFLs don't handle frequent on/off cycles very well.
5) Do *not* put them in enclosed fixtures. Even the ones that say this is OK. The life is dramatically reduced.

For frequent on/off applications (halls, closets, etc.), I have just ordered some new LED lamps http://www.earthled.com/cl3.html. The reviews are excellent with supposedly great color, but this has been the big problem with LEDs. These are pricey ($27 each, delivered) but with a specified life of 50,000 hours, they may outlast me.

At only 3W each for a 30W equivalent bulb, here in the 'People's Republic of California'(tm) - with our *completely* outrageous electricity cost of 0.375/kWh - these pay-back in about 2,700 hours vs. incandescents (just over a year of very heavy use). For more normal (continuous) use, CFLs remain more cost-effective, but the gap is closing fast. If the color looks good, I will probably switch the remaining incandescents in the kitchen to the higher-wattage LED lamps.

[jackellis]

with our *completely* outrageous electricity cost of 0.375/kWh

I'm just guessin' of course but you have a pool, an air conditioner, and are on a time-of-use rate, so what you're quoting is the top tier price.

In case you're interested, solar panels produce electricity for about 25 cents per kWh.

[Mr__Bill]

IMHO, CFLs haven't "come of age" yet. I bought a yellow GE "bug bulb" CFL, mounted horizontally, NOT enclosed. Lasted 1 month.

Are you sure your Wisconsin Skeeters didn't learn how to unscrew that bug bulb?

I just put two into some cans that are on for 4 or 5 hours at a time most days. It will be interesting to see how long they last. We have a lamp on a timer that is on every night for 5 hours even when we are away and thus far the CFL has lasted for 2 years.


Bill, on the Sunny Oregon Coast

[Chris_B]

I'm just guessin' of course but you have a pool, an air conditioner, and are on a time-of-use rate, so what you're quoting is the top tier price.

In case you're interested, solar panels produce electricity for about 25 cents per kWh.

Well: no (pool), no (A/C), no (time-of-use), & not quite (top tier). Most of our electricity is for 2 refrigerators, lots of electronics, & lighting.

I'm tracking solar costs (& our seasonal consumption), as we will be replacing the roof in the next year or so and are currently planning to add solar then. The trick will be adding enough to bring us out of the rate stratosphere, but not get too low.

FYI, rate (kWh) tiers here are:
$0.115 - "baseline" (~400kWh/mo)
$0.131 - 101-130% baseline
$0.260 - 131-200% baseline
$0.379 - 201-300% baseline <- We are here for marginal cost, at ~875 kWh/mo
$0.441 - >300% baseline (i.e., >1,200 kWh/mo)

Sorry, I just think the rates are ridiculous, but then there are a lot of things like that here...

[dlminehart]

I'm in that $.379/kWh marginal rate zone here in San Jose. No AC, one EnergyStar refrigerator, gas hot water heater, gas stove in kitchen, have fluorescents everywhere that I don't have dimmers. Only major uses seem to be a large aquarium with 8x32W=256W fluorescent bulbs going about 15 hours/day, a couple of computers with LCD displays, washer and electric dryer, plus a couple TVs. Hardly seems enough to put me into that 200-300% of baseline usage. If I could find a free or inexpensive gas dryer, I'd swap that in for the electric one, but can't think of much else I can do to drop the bill.

[Chris_B]

For frequent on/off applications (halls, closets, etc.), I have just ordered some new LED lamps http://www.earthled.com/cl3.html. The reviews are excellent with supposedly great color, but this has been the big problem with LEDs. These are pricey ($27 each, delivered) but with a specified life of 50,000 hours, they may outlast me.

Unfortunately, the new LED lamps were an Epic Fail in our house. Without any notice that I had swapped bulbs, LOML noticed the change *immediately* and absolutely hated the color.

Back they go...