Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Experiences

[n4zov]

About a year ago I replaced most of the incandescent light bulbs in our house with the CFL's that have gotten so much positive publicity in the past few years. To say the least, I have been disappointed! I have replaced at least 25% of these expensive bulbs in spite of claims of 5,000+ hours of service life, and most have not lasted any longer than the incandescent bulbs they replaced. Has anybody else had similar experiences with these bulbs?

[H Richard]

We have gradually began replacing bulbs with CFL's. The first one was the reading lamp in my office, which gets run probably 10-12 hours p/day. I put it in 4-6-07, and it is still the same one. 3 Way, 50/100/150. We have also installed flood bulbs in the kitchen recessed lights and so far not changed any in a year. Now all our lmps have CFL's. The only bulbs we haven't changed are the lights above our bathroom sink and decorative bulbs in dining room light.

My office is on the West side of the house, and the sun beats down on a large 5'X7' window. With a regular 150 watt bulb it would also raise the temperature in the room. The CFL doesn't. Downside, I put a 100 W CFL in my gun vault, and when the temp outside drips below 30 I used to let the light on to keep the temp up in the vault, (walk in all concrete attached to the foundation). The CFL doesn't give off enough heat to warm the vault up. think I'll have to put a regular 100W in there if it gets too cold for too long.

I documented the first one to see exactly how long it will last. 2 1/2 years and still going.

[RonJ]

I've had pretty much the opposite experience. I replaced the dusk/dawn yard light, the porch light, both bathrooms and the kitchen bulbs. I changed them all last December and none have burned out yet. The two outdoor lights usually lasted only a couple of months with tungsten bulbs.
I didn't change the living room bulbs because I use dimmers when watching TV. Didn't change the bedroom bulbs because they aren't used a whole lot.
I'm pretty happy with the CFL's so far.

[Texas Star]

I've got one, and am monitoring it. What bothers me is how long it takes to fully come on, and what to do with it when it dies.

Unlike conventional bulbs, it has to be especially disposed of.

[Class III]

My experience with them is about the same as yours. Over stated life expectancy. The thing that hacks me off about them is when they are cold and you power them up they take FOREVER to get bright! I've gone back to good old GE incandescent bulbs. When one of the CFB's goes out an incandescent goes back in. I saw an article on some news show a few weeks ago about incandescents bulbs being horded in some EU country that is going to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs 01/01/10. It sort of reminded me of people hording ammo here.

Class III

[617fan]

I started putting them in about a year ago. I haven't had any failures to date, but I don't think they give off the same amount of "light" as a similarly rated incandesent bulb. Where I was using a 60 watt, I use a 100w rated CFL. So my actual electricity savings isn't nearly whats claimed.

[Noah Zark]

I've been using CFLs for maybe six or eight years. So far, I've got very good service life. There's a small 13W in a fixture in the garage that is on 24/7 and serves as a "night light" of sorts above the stairwell leading from the garage to our basement. I get about 2 years of 24/7 service, about 15,000-16,000 hrs.

My only complaint about CFLs is when they "burn out." In my experience, they REALLY burn out. Half the time, the lamp will flicker or blink on and off, or go out by itself. Then the fireworks start -- always acrid white smoke and a couple times sparks then it's out for good. The smoke is choking, and we open windows and close the door to the affected room. The other half of the CFLs that have died on us just go black without any smoke or sparking.

That said, any lamp on a timer in the house is still incandescent. I don't want a CFL on in the house unless I'm around. The exception is the 13W in the garage, but its in an enclosed industrial glass fixture and can spark and smoke all it wants when it dies, and nothing can happen.

When I contacted GE and "Lights of America" about the smoke and sparking at the end of CFL service life, I got a "Hmmm. Haven't heard of that; here's ($5 to $25 worth of) coupons for new GFLs for your trouble." It sorta makes me want to find an ambulance chaser and start a class-action to make the CFLs safer.

Noah

[deralte]

I have been using CFLs in several fixtures for over two years and have never had any problems and none of them have ever burned out. One is in a table light in the great room and stays on 24/7 and is still going strong. Won't be long before we follow Europe and incandesants will be banned.

[ohiobuckeye]

Originally Posted by Noah Zark

......My only complaint about CFLs is when they "burn out." In my experience, they REALLY burn out. Half the time, the lamp will flicker or blink on and off, or go out by itself. Then the fireworks start -- always acrid white smoke and a couple times sparks then it's out for good. The smoke is choking, and we open windows and close the door to the affected room. The other half of the CFLs that have died on us just go black without any smoke or sparking...........Noah

Ditto! Similar experience here. When the one in my desk lamp decided to self destruct, after only a couple months of service, it smelled bad, smoked, and sent a shower of hot sparks into the hair on on my right arm. It's only a 10 watt cfl, so it was left on often with nobody in the room. If my arm had not been there, the shower of sparks would have landed on some loose paperwork. Although it probably would not have ignited the paper, I no longer trust them and will replace them with bulbs in all the light fixtures that would not contain the sparks from a cfl failure. It ain't worth the risk.

[s&wchad]

We switched to compact fluorescents (inside and out) a few years ago and I love them. Our master bathroom takes eleven. The 60 watt incandescent bulbs have been replaced with mostly 13 watt CFR’s and my average bill has gone from $150 down to about $80.
They don’t last 5 years, but they’re about $10 for (8) at Home Depot.

[J274895]

Originally Posted by Class III

My experience with them is about the same as yours. Over stated life expectancy. The thing that hacks me off about them is when they are cold and you power them up they take FOREVER to get bright! I've gone back to good old GE incandescent bulbs. When one of the CFB's goes out an incandescent goes back in. I saw an article on some news show a few weeks ago about incandescents bulbs being horded in some EU country that is going to ban the sale of incandescent bulbs 01/01/10. It sort of reminded me of people hording ammo here.

Class III

That's why you need to get the ones that have the "instant on" technology. We have CFL's with the instant on thing whereever we can in and around the house. I'm still waiting to replace one as they haven't gone dead yet, and it's been approx. three years since we moved into this house.

[m1gunner]

I have had very good experiences with all my CFLs. One note, if you short cycle them, they will quickly fail. Do not use as a closet or bathroom light where you turn it off shortly after turning it on.

Also, most CFLs will fail and may start a fire if put on a dimmer circuit.

My outdoor lights are all CFLs, and they go an average of 5 years each, on dusk to dawn every day. Similar life out of my house fixtures that provide all my night time illumination.

With the dimmers causing them problems, I would suspect a voltage drop problem if experiencing shortened life and sparking on failure.

[elcruisr]

Since I live on a boat we bypassed CFL's and went straight to high tech LED's. I've been very impressed with output, lifespan and ridiculously small current draw!

[Mickey D]

I work for an electric utility that has been giving them away. I want nothing to do with them.
1. Made in China
2. known failures from base burnouts and to cause sparks. Potential fire hazards.
3. Require special disposal procedures due to hazardous waste contents.

[DOEBOY1]

If mulitiple lights are going out very oftain then you may want to consider having an electrician check the neutrals in your panel and outside meter base. Other wise the bulbs you bought may be cheap. I personally don't like them too white I prefer the a more yellow light there are a lot of different things you could do to save power and money. Besides the internal gases of the bulb are hazardous you should read the legislation requirement to dispose of them. no thank you sometime a " change " is not good. doeboy

[mountaingun629]

I put a CFL in a porch light several years ago shortly after they first came out. Works fine, except for slow start up when cold. Really isn't much of an annoyance, though. Also have a couple of them in other locations, and so far, haven't had one smoke when burned out. They seem to last on average about a year.
I might be wrong, but I heard that incandescent bulbs are being outlawed in the US as well as the EU, but I don't know what date the law goes into effect.
How about bulbs for special applications in machinery, etc. where CFLs won't fit the fixture? Will incandescents still be available for special applications?

Myron

[Steave]

Just think how nice it will be when we can no longer buy traditional incandescent bulbs....... I think incandescent light are banned in the US within a few years.

More nanny state BS.

[Nightowl]

I tried some a few years ago. They were slow to turn on and gave off less light. I ditched them pretty fast. As to outlawing incandescents, if the new CFL's were so damn good, we would flock to them and they would not need to be the only legal option! The market place will work to the advantage of the better product. Last summer we went shopping for a yellow bug light. Could only find the CFL lights, from China, to boot!!

[84CJ]

I have had pretty good luck with them. The first four I bought are a little slow to start. I put them in my kids rooms first since they can't seem to find the light switch. I bought enough to do my whole house at ACE Hardware on sale and have only had one failure to date, Bathroom (see post by m1gunner). Im not sure how long I have been using them.

I have a friend that is changing to LED's. I have not seen those since I have not been bulb shopping in a long time.

[gunlovingirl]

I have them and so far haven't had to replace any.

[SilentPartner]

New energy standards for light-bulbs in the US will be phased in starting in 2012 - these standards will effectively remove most of the common incandescent sizes within a few years - thanks to a 2007 law:

Bye Bye, Light Bulb - WSJ.com

[Spotteddog]

All that Mickey said, and more!
We were mandated to switch to them in 4 commercial buildings in order to get "greenie" (brownie) points. The first batch were OK, the current chinese stuff SUCKS! Even the newer 48" T-8's sometimes require a ballast change in order to operate in a T-12 fixture. All the juice these things may(?) be saving, is far and away outweighed by tenants shutting off lighting when leaving an area. But that isn't as sexy as "saving the planet and keeping the ocean's from rising".
Trouble is just as with R-12, incandescent's at some point will be made illegal because of the CFL's imagined desirability. And then you'll start getting taxed for disposal of the mercury ladened burned out product. Rent a storage building and buy incandescent bulbs in their most common popular formats if you want to secure a stay at home business, work free future.

[GARMASTERS]

AND they have mercury in them! Let's flood our landfills with mercury so we can use less electricity. Great tradeoff.