# Are advertised lifetimes of CFLs true ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356 "2013-10-27T05:18:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/21 "2013-10-28T12:23:30Z")
I had one that lasted for about 12 years. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/22 "2013-10-28T12:39:35Z")
I had doubts about CFLs but got tired of frequently replacing the incandescent bulb in the fixture by my front door (which I needed to do every six months or so), so I installed a CFL. It’s been at least a year and a half and it’s still working fine. Whether it lasts as long as advertised remains to be seen, but at least I don’t have the pain of changing bulbs so often. ---
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/23 "2013-10-28T13:16:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I had doubts about CFLs but got tired of frequently replacing the incandescent bulb in the fixture by my front door (which I needed to do every six months or so), so I installed a CFL. If you want to put in an incandescent that doesn’t go _poof_ after a year, and live in the US, _get some that are 130V rated._ The ones you buy in stores are rated for 120V, and will burn out if you so much as look at them funny. ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/24 "2013-10-28T18:31:02Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > I have CFL bulbs all over the house, and I assure you they do NOT last any longer than regular incandescents nor has my electric bill dropped in any way. Big scam, IMHO. This! I know that we are in GQ, so facts are required. My home is only six years old. As the incandescent bulbs in this house burned out I replaced them with CFLs. I put the date on them with a sharpy. For over one year I did this. As the CFLs burned out, I put the removal date on them as well. So far out of ten CFLs that I have replaced, nine lasted less then six months. One lasted for ten months. Not good in the longevity realm. I am now replacing the CFLs with new (when I can find them) and used (when I can not) incandescent bulbs. The original incandescent bulbs that came with the house lasted for over four years. Some of them are still working fine. In another vein, I have a 100W incandescent bulb in my barn that has been in use for over 25 years to my knowledge. It was in the barn when we bought the place 25 years ago. It is in a hard to reach area, so when it does burnout, I will do as Obnoxious Hood Ornament suggested and put one rated for 130 volts in that socket. Thanks for the suggestion. If this were in IMHO, I would use very strong language to express my displeasure at these CFLs. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/25 "2013-10-28T18:34:46Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > CFLs are 2/$1 here - how much are incandescent bulbs (I haven’t bought one in a decade)? > [@JKilez](#): > > I agree–they pay for themselves in the first year just by their energy savings. The extended life is just a bonus. CFLs are still, here, 6 or 7 times the price of a bulb ($3 or $4 versus $0.50) For many years I had a fixture with a bulb and a CFL and the latter lasted a bit longer. My electricity bill is about $20 a month and I’ll be damned if I could find any savings for changing. Maybe I end up saving 5 buck a year in exchange for horrible light, horrible shape. and more pollution. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/26 "2013-10-28T18:42:16Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > CFLs are still, here, 6 or 7 times the price of a bulb ($3 or $4 versus $0.50) > For many years I had a fixture with a bulb and a CFL and the latter lasted a bit longer. My electricity bill is about $20 a month and I’ll be damned if I could find any savings for changing. Maybe I end up saving 5 buck a year in exchange for horrible light, horrible shape. and more pollution. Overall, CFLs contribute less pollution than do incandescents, since they use 1/5 the electricity, and coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury emissions. > [@](#): > > Coal-burning power plants are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for over 50 percent of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions (Source: 2005 National Emissions Inventory). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/27 "2013-10-28T18:59:11Z")
I have mostly CFLs in my house. With more LEDs then Incandescent now. I have been using the CFLs and florescent tubes now for most of my lighting for 12 years. My burn out rate is very low though some bulbs have gone quick, many are originals. My basement shop has 6 tubes that are 13 years old now and 6 more that 6+ years old. None of the CFLs in the basement have burnt out but these are all fairly low use. My kitchen & dining room probably gets the most use and the burn out rate has been higher, maybe 4 years on average. I do find the instant on CFLs have a shorter life but I think that actually shows on the packaging also. One big note on the CFLs, when they do burn out, recycle them. Lowes at least takes them and I believe there are many other places also. I am now slowly moving to LEDs. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/28 "2013-10-28T19:27:16Z")
And there’s still this [light bulb in Livermore, Ca.](http://www.centennialbulb.org/) that was installed in 1901 and is still lighting the way there! Was that a CFL? :dubious: Okay, my take: I’ve given up on CFL’s, mostly over shorter lifetimes than I cared for. Granted, I bought the El-Cheapo models mostly. But there was also the problem in getting rid of the dead ones. A few years back, in another city, I tried to dispose properly of a dead CFL, and had a hard time finding a proper place to take it. Not sure if Lowe’s or whoever would take them back then, but if so, I didn’t find out about it. I found a city-run recycling shop. Well, they only took CFL’s from the general public on two weekends a year, and I had just missed the last one. And they said I had to give my name and sign up and make an appointment to bring in by one dead CFL the next time. WTF? So instead, I just put it in the trunk of my car. One day, when I happened to be driving through an area far away from where I lived, I just dropped it in a public trash can in a public park. I never bought another CFL since then. However, I had new ones left. Just a few weeks ago, the last of them died, and just a few days ago, I dumped it similarly, having given up on giving a fuck about recycling them properly. But now I won’t be dumping any more dead CFL’s like that. As we know, incandescent bulbs are getting harder to find, with the new Federal rules. California, being California, had to jump the gun and implement similar statewide rules a year earlier. In the months before that came into effect, retailers like Lowe’s, etc., stocked up on incandescent bulbs as consumers (this one included) mobbed the stores, buying up lifetime supplies of incandescent bulbs while they still could. I hope that my lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs will last me until LED’s get really cheap, well-developed, and reliable. That’s what I am looking forward to. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/29 "2013-10-28T19:48:59Z")
The CFL that runs about 8 hours every night over my porch is still going strong, 9 years after I bought my house. So is the one in the stairwell. Which is a blessing, since both of those are a challenge to replace. On the other hand, I had one incandescent bulb in the bathroom last three years - it outlasted two CFLs in the socket next to it. (But the CFLs in that fixture’s other two sockets are still going strong at about four years old.) So there’s my tiny data sample that says CFLs can last a long time, but it’s a highly variable lifespan. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/30 "2013-10-28T19:55:02Z")
> [@48Willys](#): > > This! I know that we are in GQ, so facts are required. My home is only six years old. Meh. I bought my current house 6 years ago and changed all the bulbs with CFLs. So far, only one has gone out - last week. In the house before that? 8/9 burned out within a year. Your mileage will vary, depending on the quality of the bulbs, electricity, etc. Also, anecdotes =/= data. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/31 "2013-10-28T20:00:01Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > A few years back, in another city, I tried to dispose properly of a dead CFL, and had a hard time finding a proper place to take it. Every Home Depot and Ikea takes CFL bulbs. Most Lowe’s stores do. And some hardware stores (True Value/Ace, etc) take them as well. With the last set I recycled a few years back, I had a box to collect them until I got off my lazy rear and took them in the next time I needed something at Home Depot. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/32 "2013-10-28T20:05:54Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > So there’s my tiny data sample that says CFLs can last a long time, but it’s a highly variable lifespan. My personal data sample also has this property. I’ve bought about a dozen CFLs in the last five years and have not had a single one burn out ever. I know the internet consensus is that these things burn out quickly, but I’ve not experienced that. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/33 "2013-10-28T20:06:21Z")
The package may say “8 years” in big print, but read the fine print: that assumes only a few hours of use per day. Put it in a porch fixture burning 24/7 and you won’t get anywhere near that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/34 "2013-10-28T20:10:26Z")
CFL’s get progressively dimmer with age. I helped my dad switch out some in his den and the room was noticeably brighter afterward. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/35 "2013-10-28T20:15:05Z")
One more note, I have one of those geeky Kill-A-Watt meters. I run about 400 lights on my Xmas tree and then ran 6 night light style incandescent bulbs for a village under the tree. I replaced all of this mess with LED strings and when I calculated the watts, my LEDs were going to be made for in 2 Xmas seasons. (This varies by how many months you run the lights and how many hours per day. My period is about 7-8 weeks for roughly 8 hours per night and a few longer runs. I went out and bought some icicle LED lights after Christmas that year and as these were 50% off, they paid for themselves in less than 2 seasons. The LED Xmas lights are a great deal and the LED bulbs are getting close to pay off for heavily used lights. I recently added a $25 100w equivalent LED to a room with terrible lighting and it makes a huge difference and according to the Kill-A-Watt meter it is really running at 14watts. The bonus is the lamp was not rated for 100w so I am getting far more light out of it then I ever have. My wife likes a lot of light in the kitchen and a mix of 2 CFLs and a LED has more than doubled the lighting vs. the original incandescent bulbs at 3x40w. I think I am at around 260w equivalence in fact. Most fan sockets are only rated for 40w so this is another big advantage to LED & CFL. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/36 "2013-10-28T20:23:57Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > Oh, and one other thing occurs to me: of course it’s true that CFLs only emit about 23 watts or so of energy as light. So does a 100-W incandescent bulb. The purported advantage of a 23-W CFL is that it doesn’t emit 77 watts of heat like an incandescent bulb does. OK, this is somewhat inaccurate; CFLs are not 100% efficient; in fact, they still put out mostly heat. I tried to find a chart that gave absolute percent efficiency of different bulb types, but everything I found just gave relative efficiency. However, [this article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Energy_efficiency) says that CFLs are 7-10% efficient, vs 1.5-2.5% for incandescents. In other words, a 100 watt incandescent will put out 97.5-98.5 watts of heat along with 1.5-2.5 watts of light, while an equivalent 23 watt CFL puts out about 20.5-21.5 watts of heat with the same amount of light output. LEDs are slightly more efficient, but they still output mostly heat. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/37 "2013-10-28T20:24:58Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I recently added a $25 100w equivalent LED to a room with terrible lighting and it makes a huge difference and according to the Kill-A-Watt meter it is really running at 14watts. If you don’t mind my asking, where did you get a 100w equivalent LED for $25? Was this a subsidized price? What was the brand? The 40 and 60 watt equivalent LEDs are coming down to sort of reasonable prices, but I’ve never seen a 100 watt equivalent for that kind of price. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/38 "2013-10-28T20:30:33Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > The package may say “8 years” in big print, but read the fine print: that assumes only a few hours of use per day. Put it in a porch fixture burning 24/7 and you won’t get anywhere near that. The ratings I’ve seen have been mostly in hours, and I’d expect a bulb that’s never switched off to last significantly longer (in total number of hours) than one that’s turned on and off, even if only once a day. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/39 "2013-10-28T20:36:50Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > And there’s still this [light bulb in Livermore, Ca.](http://www.centennialbulb.org/) that was installed in 1901 and is still lighting the way there! Was that a CFL? :dubious Since incandescent lamp lifespan is inversely proportional to the 16th power(!) of the applied voltage, it’s pretty trivial to make a lamp that lasts an incredibly long time, as long as you don’t mind dim, red light. > [@](#): > > The relationships above are valid for only a few percent change of voltage around rated conditions, but they do indicate that a lamp operated at much lower than rated voltage could last for hundreds of times longer than at rated conditions, albeit with greatly reduced light output. The “Centennial Light” is a light bulb that is accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records as having been burning almost continuously at a fire station in Livermore, California, since 1901. However, the bulb uses only four watts. A similar story can be told of a 40-watt bulb in Texas that has been illuminated since 21 September 1908. It once resided in an opera house where notable celebrities stopped to take in its glow, and was moved to an area museum in 1977.[90] ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356/40 "2013-10-28T20:37:19Z")
One other thing to consider: Even if your CFL lasts no longer than a regular incandescent, you’re still probably better off with the CFL. Let’s take the example of a 60 watt bulb with a 1000 hour life span. To run it for 1000 hours, that’s 60 kwh. At $.12/kwh, it’s going to cost you $7.20 to run that bulb. The equivalent 13 watt CFL will only cost $1.56 to run. Unless you’re paying $5.64 more for the CFL than you would for an equivalent incandescent, you’re ahead. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-advertised-lifetimes-of-cfls-true/672356.md?page=3)