Incandescents are being fazed out in Australia as I type. We are going to be stuck with same suck kind of light bulbs.

Check out LED globes - they are starting to make them in standard fillings plus have the life of a whale and cost a mere fraction of a standard bulb.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

The LED light that seems to fit a standard fixture costs $20 each. I'm not sure I'm going to rush to try them out.

And considering that the average home has 45 light bulbs, I didn't think I could afford to switch to them, unless I did it over a couple years.

Trust me I think if you out lay in lots or rooms you will find that the cost of the bulb vs. the saving in power and the long life of the unit (the number of times you would save on bulb replacements) is totally just.


Nut it out.

There is a reason that Laptop screens and the next gen of LCD screens are going to be back lit by LED.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I'm not arguing that its not worth it over time. But I cannot convert at once even if I want to. And I haven't tried LED lights yet, so I don't know that they'd perform better in any case.

Oh I'm not saying "go the Hog now!" just you might want to pick up one and place it in a high volume socket and see how it goes ("burn out factor" and brightness). I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

It was said that Car's lights would never use LED but most new cars are using them now (well the Europe,Japaneses models are).



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Well I'll keep an eye for them. But I haven't seen any in stores yet.

I've actually had pretty good luck with Compact florescent lights, but then I've only been using them in selected light fixtures....


For us, we noticed that we use four lights in our house 90% of the time. (That's because we have a very open floor plan and so lights in one room spills into the next room.) So we were constantly replacing those incandescent bulbs. Just replacing the bulbs in those fixtures has helped out a lot because the bulbs burn out so much less. (Yes this includes some enclosed lights... I have not had a problem with doing that.)
But for anywhere else, I have just been sticking with standard incandescent bulbs for all the reasons you mentioned above.

And yes, you are right, different brands of bulbs react very differently. The first ones I bought had a very noticeable delay before turning on, but the last batch I got (from Target I think) seem to have almost no delay and look a lot more like incandescent light bulbs.

As for disposing of the bulbs, In our area the county runs a yearly hazardous waste disposal collection (paint, motor oil, batteries, items containing mercury) where we drop all our stuff off. You may want to look to see if your county/city ever runs something like that.

Hmmm... LCD bulbs, I'll have to keep my eyes open for them, I also have not seen any in stores yet.

I had a short-lived florescent bulb once, when they first came out several years ago. Since then, I haven't had any burn out, so I can't comment on their life span . My only complaint is that they do take a while (maybe 30 seconds?) to come up to full brightness. (The color's a little off for that period, too, but I'm not much of a color person.) But once they come on, they seem plenty bright. One is too bright, actually: it was replacing a 20W bulb, but lights like a 60W. The room has fixtures for 6 of the suckers, so we're going to have to remodel or something as more of the old bulbs fail. I'll be blinded every time I get out of the shower!

I use CF light bulbs almost everywhere in my house. I've had no issues with them.

I used to buy long life incandesccent bulbs (not easy to find as only commercial suppliers carried them), and I'm well aware of all the math involved in what is described. I've even complained to UL regarding the mode of failure for CF bulbs. (It looks like it could very well catch fire, but its doesn't and it sure stinks.)

As for reliability, the specs are spot on. I put in a good 20 bulbs, and several have failed, but all the remaining bulbs are still going. You have to remember that bulb life time is a statistical measurement. The vast majority do indeed go a long time. By definition for every bulb that goes soon after its plugged in, you should see another go for twice as long as the rated spec.

The colour is not off in any way. They are available in nice warm incandesent shades or in the cold abnoxious, office blueish light. I have to confess I've purchased some that were not the warm colour I wanted. I put those in the basement workshop lights.

First and formost, if you buy crappy no name bulbs... well, you get what you deserve. Seriously, even check for reviews of name brand bulbs if you can.

I have no troubles using CF bulbs in wildly uncontrolled temperatures. Calgary here can vary by up 20C an hour, and these bulbs worked just fine in -40C temperatures.

I don't know who told you they can't be used in fixtures. That person is incompetant, and should be shot. Its a bulb. The biggest issue I had was that some enclosed fixtures do not have appropraite space to fit the size of bulbs I was getting. So I tried different shapes and sizes.

I find it a little annoying that it takes like 30 seconds for a bulb to 'warm up' and birghten a room. But thats the way these work.

In short my house is no different with CFs that it was when I used incandescents. The biggest problem I've had is that they are distributing many the give off a cold standard flourescent light, when what people want in their homes is the same shade of light they used to get from their incandescents.

I haven't looked at using LEDs. I know that the city is switching to LED (Why? Because it takes 5 city workers to change a bulb.) From what I can see, they appear to have the same spacial issues i.e. fitting into fixtures. I'm also not sure how bright they are.

I have replaced nearly every light in my apartment with CFLs. Aside from the delay when turning the fixtures on and a very slight 'blueness' to the light I have experienced no problems at all.

The only place where I use incandescent bulbs is at my miniature painting station. And even there one of the two swing arm lamps is CFL - a nice bright 100W equivalent. The incandescent is slightly richer, and less focussed into narrow bands of color. (Take a prism, shine an incandescent through it and you will have a broad 'rainbow', slightly richer in the red to yellow range. A florescent produces three narrow bands - one each Red, Green, Blue.)

Brightness is similar between the two swing arm lamps.

Is the light slightly greyish? You may have a lower than normal frequency to your AC power, which limits the effectiveness of florescents.

The Auld Grump

As a lighting professional I feel the need to chime in.

There are several factors with replacing the lamps 1 for 1. The light output (brightness) has to be comparable (typically Lumens), as does the color rendering index (CRI). The lumen output is the bigger factor, and should be measured against what you are used to using. Since it is an industry standard the lumens will be labeled on the outside of every box that has a lamp in it. Not all manufacturers list the CRI, but you've probably figured out that incandescents give off that warm fuzzy yellow on everything. By comparison a fluorescent is whiter with less yellow tones as it is more efficient this way (less light wasted to change the color), and to your vision that is accustomed to a yellower light, it will seem colder/bluer. You can buy CFLs that more closely match an incandescent, sunlight, red, etc.

Using CFLs will save you energy in the long run, but don't expect to cut your electric bill in half since your AC, refrigerator, and much more are also running up the KW hours. To save even more electricity, turn off anything that has a clock on it when you can.