CFL bulbs

For a very long time we've had CFL light bulbs in the house here. We got our first lot around 1991, they were Osram bulbs. Amazingly, one of them was still working up to last night when it was smashed by one of my brother's mates when he was drunk, lol. Just makes me wonder how much longer it would have lasted.

We've had other ones since (from other brands) which haven't lasted anywhere near as long as the 14 years we got out of that one. Just wondering, how long have you people gotten out of CFL bulbs? Anywhere near 14 years?

Stephen

The one in my room has been here for about 6 years now. Philips i think.

The_Conductor

Shipload of them around the house here- for 6 years now (about 16-18 of them in total). None of them have ever gone. Mine are all Phillips. Its a pity they don't do CFL spot lights

Lump

I dislike them, they don't burn as bright and give off a nasty coloured light.

John

The_Conductor

Lump wrote:

I dislike them, they don't burn as bright and give off a nasty coloured light.

John

The light colour changes after about 10 minutes, they use sweet shag all electricity- and they don't blow every so often, which is about all most of us are looking for. Would love one of those natural light contraptions- but they cost an arm and a leg, and thats before you plug them in......

Lump

I suppose.... But they are more expensive to buy.... Do people actually notice a difference to their bill over short periods? I am interested to know tbh, I may invest.

John

Explosive_Cornflake

There is one in the hall here still, and i wouldn't be surprised if it was here 14 years at least. Takes about 15 minutes to get to the right brightness though, and it's very dark when it's cold, but it was always like that.

byte

There's 4 here. 2 of which are used almost constant in hall and landing and are there about 7 years (Philips and Osram). The other 2 are just recent additions less than a year old but are cheapo jobs, so they'll probably not last as long. Apart from being long lasting, they also don't seem to destroy the bulb fittings as bad as with ordinary bulbs (made the plastics all brittle from the heat).

lomb

the newer dearer ones need only 10 seconds to achieve almost full output. i prefer the General Electric ones, or Philips are pretty good also.

billy the squid

the light off them isnt right. and they are way dearer than ordinary lightbulbs.

Guy:Incognito

billy the squid wrote:

and they are way dearer than ordinary lightbulbs.

yeah but they last about 20 times as long

lomb

billy the squid wrote:

the light off them isnt right. and they are way dearer than ordinary lightbulbs.

only if u buy the cheap ones, the light is fine out of the 5euro plus ones.

Lump

Stekelly wrote:

yeah but they last about 20 times as long

The Decent ones cost about £6.00 each.... I can get a regular bulb for 18 pence. If the CFL's last 20 times longer.... that's about £3.60 on regular bulbs, to buy 20. I don't think they last 20 times longer to be honest. The last house I was in, the bulbs in my bedroom lasted for the entire 3 Years I was at Uni. So to prove the point CFL's would have to last about 60 Years to impress me.

Therefore it's false ecomony, how much do you save on electrical bills?

John

Victor

I bought a bicycle lamp in 1989 and it still works .... with the same batteries (I don't use it very often).

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Explosive_Cornflake

Victor wrote:

I bought a bicycle lamp in 1989 and it still works .... with the same batteries (I don't use it very often).

That's insane!
Not doubting you though. Is it a dynmo by any chance
Batteries last me about 2 months (good ones at that duracell m3 power)

nlgbbbblth

Karsini wrote:

For a very long time we've had CFL light bulbs in the house here. We got our first lot around 1991, they were Osram bulbs. Amazingly, one of them was still working up to last night when it was smashed by one of my brother's mates when he was drunk, lol. Just makes me wonder how much longer it would have lasted.

We've had other ones since (from other brands) which haven't lasted anywhere near as long as the 14 years we got out of that one. Just wondering, how long have you people gotten out of CFL bulbs? Anywhere near 14 years?

my cousin mentioned this a few weeks ago, he bought a place in Rathmines around 1994 and two of the bulbs are still the same ones. Presume they're CFL.

That mate of your brother's sounds like a right pr*ck. No laughing matter.

lomb

A normal 100 watt bulb costs 1.2 cent an hour to run so 12 hours is 14 cent a day or 51 euro a year
a cfl bulb that outputs 100watts equiv is really using 20 watt of power so is costing 2.8 cent for the 12 hours or 10 euro a year.

so save 40 euro a year a bulb if its running 12 hours 365 days a year

Doper Than U

Originally Posted by billy the squid
the light off them isnt right. and they are way dearer than ordinary lightbulbs.

only if u buy the cheap ones, the light is fine out of the 5euro plus ones.

I dunno, we got one of the 12.99 Euro ones and the light was still murky and dull after an hour. I would love to go for these, but the light is so damn depressing. Are there any of them that give a similar quality light to a 100Watt bulb? I know there are 100 Watt long life bulbs, but still the light quality is different. Why is the light quality different anyway?

Lump

€40 a year.... ok... I use my Lights about 2 hours a day Max... I get enough light from my monitors and I like sitting in the dark.... Plus it's bright till about 20.00 now. Seems like a pain in the ass, crappy lighting and not a great saving. Do they do CFL Monitors?

John

kasintahan

Lump wrote:

€40 a year.... ok... I use my Lights about 2 hours a day Max... I get enough light from my monitors and I like sitting in the dark.... Plus it's bright till about 20.00 now. Seems like a pain in the ass, crappy lighting and not a great saving. Do they do CFL Monitors?

John

I'm not a fan of them myself but they are certainly cheaper in terms of overall Total Cost of Ownership.

CFL montiors? Nope, but TFT's use a lot less 'tricity than CRT's.
[edit] It appears from a quick google that the back light in TFT monitors are in fact Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CFL's), cool [/edit]
They're MUCH nicer to work with too (usual cavets - pro repro work etc).

The_Conductor

kasintahan wrote:

CFL montiors? Nope, but TFT's use a lot less 'tricity than CRT's.
They're MUCH nicer to work with too (usual cavets - pro repro work etc).

Plus as the glare is much less, they are so much easier on your eye sight.......
Most of the energy lost by conventional light bulbs is in the form of heat- this is where the CFL bulbs achieve the bulk of their savings.
Tbh- a 25 Watt CFL bulb lights a room in a much kinder manner than does 2 100 Watt bulbs- of course thats a subjective opinion though.....

lomb

im very impressed with the GE and phillips cfls.
and tfts use cfl as a striplight tube behind the liquid crystal matrix to provisde the light. so a tft lcd screen is the same quality and colour light as a cfl bulb. hence the lcd panels use less power and make less heat than the CRT heaters in monitors

lomb

Doper Than U wrote:

I dunno, we got one of the 12.99 Euro ones and the light was still murky and dull after an hour.

have a look at the brand, it will be stamped on the stem and get back. i bet ya its not phillips or GE, GE particularly ramps up to full wack in 10 seconds, phillips bulbs take a little longer. the light is very pleasant and glare free. much more natural.

Lump

Dark is teh way forward tbh.

John

byte

Only 1 of the CFL's actually glare here, the rest are similar to a standard filament bulb. I reckon they're only really recommended for areas that have lights on for long periods, eg kitchen, hallway, etc. Otherwise a filament bulb would be better.

Capt'n Midnight

Victor wrote:

I bought a bicycle lamp in 1989 and it still works .... with the same batteries (I don't use it very often).

Oddly enough the really cheap Zinc Carbon batteries if used spairingly enough have a depolarising effect that means in some uses they can last longer than thier shelf life.

It's a pity they only make lower wattage bulbs , I've taken to using a splitter so two CFL's can put on one socket - solves the brightness problem. Colour is a problem I've noticed most with white oil based paint, in daylight everything matches but not under those bulbs , course it depends on the bulb because some are optimised for maximum output and others for daylight matching.

Would be nice for a little device that meant you could have an incandescent turned on at the same time as the fluorescents and then it gets turned off after 5-10 minutes.

Sparky

smccarrick wrote:

Its a pity they don't do CFL spot lights

Do do now, along with the now led spotlights but as far as i know there only done in GU10 format (GU10 new spot bulbs that need no transformer in the ceiling)

On the other posts since im an electrical contractor i had one of the first CFL's back in 1990 it was an Osram that had a clear glass cover over it to protect the tubes inside, and just went on me 2 months ago, on average it was used 5 hours a day so that bulb has lasted around 15 years.

Also other energy efficent fittings are 2D golf fittings which are 16watts and 2D club fittings which are 28watts in power.

It is true that the new CFL's are faster to light up and even though you may pay an average €9 for one, you will notice the savings on your bill. BTW if you only put 1 in your house you wont notice the savings as easily as if you put 3 of 4. Make sure you put them somewhere you have them on alot like a sitting room or kitchen.

One complaint i always get is people hating the bars that they have on the CFL's but Phillips sorted this out with there bulbs.

Lump

I think he was taking some form or TEH PÍSS TBH!

John

Sparky_S

Sparky_S wrote:

On the other posts since im an electrical contractor i had one of the first CFL's back in 1990 it was an Osram that had a clear glass cover over it to protect the tubes inside, and just went on me 2 months ago, on average it was used 5 hours a day so that bulb has lasted around 15 years.

The one that went bust on us had unprotected tubes. Possibly explains why it broke so easily.

Sparky

http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm
A website with a bit of info

Sparky

Karsini wrote:

The one that went bust on us had unprotected tubes. Possibly explains why it broke so easily.

Was it a screw in one (ES) and was the base of the tubes grey?

kasintahan

It appears from a quick google that the back light in TFT monitors are in fact Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CFL's).

I've added an addendum to my post above to reflect this

lomb

kasintahan wrote:

It appears from a quick google that the back light in TFT monitors are in fact Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CFL's).

I've added an addendum to my post above to reflect this

doesnt anyone read any posts, i just mentioned this 5 posts up. bottom line, if u like tfts, ul like cfl bulbs.

lilulila

I decided to change all the bulbs in the house last month. Wanted to get energy efficient so bought them. I am yet to see my esb bill to see the difference. 50 euros though to do the whole house lol. I hope they are worth it

vector

One problem with the warmup period, I tend to leave the bulb on, instead of turning them it when leaving the room, because I don't want the dim warmup when I get back

lomb

vector wrote:

One problem with the warmup period, I tend to leave the bulb on, instead of turning them it when leaving the room, because I don't want the dim warmup when I get back

again u have old bulbs. the newer branded ones ramp up almost immediately.

Sparky

lomb wrote:

again u have old bulbs. the newer branded ones ramp up almost immediately.

Lomb knows his stuff

Sparky

I know there expensive at the moment but in 5-10 years nearly all houses will have at least 2, they work brill for background lighting around pictures and on stairways, all different colours. and they use next to nothing and will reduce the possibility of fire hasards in houses.
And another thing you can leave them on all day, if you want to,
Jesus you could nearly turn your sitting room into a disco.