But I think I screwed up when I said 14w draw, they are rating it at 18w draw.
So I am probably misremembering that part. I know I checked it and saw it matched spec.
It is working great in a dimmable old pole lamp.
Yeah, I realized this a few minutes after I posted, but I was hoping that nobody would call me on it. Point gladly conceded.
I find if I install the bulbs upside down they only last 1 year or even less. Those installed sideways or right-side up may last 5 years or more.
Personally, because they seem to burn out so quickly I hate them with a passion. I have 40 and 60 W incandescent lights that have lasted well over a decade but I go through 2-3 CFL bulbs in each of my kitchen sockets every year. I am now in the process of switching over to LEDs.
Death to CFLs.
CFLs are not designed for frequent on/ off usage; doing so wears out the ballasts which are the weakest link. Fluorescent bulbs require a surge of electricity to start and the cheap ballasts can’t handle it. Leaving it on all the time however isn’t a problem.
Thanks! Too bad that is an R30. I was really hoping the price of an A19 typed of bulb had come down.
Not only have none of mine survived the advertised life span I’ve had a couple of them attack me. OK, they didn’t come out of the socket but they departed this earth with a ffffsssssttt POP followed by smoke. Scared the crap out of me as well as causing a current draw that dimmed the other lights. That doesn’t inspire me to have lights on when I’m not home.
Also each time you turn them on, a little bit of the electrode inside the tube wears away. If the ballast doesn’t go out the electrode will. It’s usually the ballast, though.
If you install CFLs, you have to retrain yourself and everyone in the house to leave the things on unless you’re not going to use that part of the house for at least a couple hours. I usually leave my fluorescents on except when I’m sleeping or at work. They last a long time.
bulbs have a lifetime measured in hours. burning a bulb needlessly uses up some of those hours.
with CFL along with the number of hours is the number of times they turn on, each turn on wears it down. don’t turn the bulb on if you don’t plan on using it for maybe 30 minutes.
put CFL where their usage will be longer duration, like reading or task or full room light. don’t use them in hallways, closets or stairs where the on time is short.
i use LED or incandescent bulbs in hallway or stairs. i put CFL in lamps around the rooms. i use LED or incandescent for wall switched room navigation lights. i use clear christmas tree light strings in some closets (put around the inside door frame), very inexpensive and the light is distributed well.
That is a terrible idea. You should still turn off lights you are not using. It might shave a year off the life of the CFL but the wattage consumed leaving on unneeded lights will cost far more.
Compromise: only use CFLs in areas requiring continuous lighting. For example exterior nighttime lighting (lots of homes have lights around the garage doors that are left on).
The place I live in has a small alcove with a kitchenette. It has a fluorescent tube light. When I first moved in, I did as you suggest above, turned the light off when I wasn’t in the alcove. Eight months later, the tube burned out. Eight or ten months after that, its replacement burned out. I went through about 5 tubes plus 2 ballasts in 4 years or so. Somewhere in that time period, I replaced the light near my desk with a CFL. It burnt out in less than a year.
Then someone told me about how turning on and off fluorescent lights drastically shortens their life. So I retrained myself not to turn off these lights every time I left those areas. That was eight years ago. In that time, I’ve replaced the tube and CFL once each. They each lasted about 5 years.
So you want me to go back to replacing tubes every 8 months?
I don’t have these issues with my CFLs and tubes but it sounds like you may need to break down and go to LED in these areas. If you leave the light on for 4 times longer to preserve the life of the bulb, you just lost the energy and money savings.
(A 60W equivalent CFL is usually in the 13w usage range).
Now if the extra time is still under 4 times longer, than I guess what you are doing makes some sense but still probably a good place to go LED or possibly look into fixing the wiring if that is something you can do. The CFLs and Tubes should not burn out that much faster unless something else like crappy wiring is in play.
Our Kitchen light is constantly on and off and over 13 years of CFL use I have replaced 4 bulbs. Though I now have 1 LED in as one of the three bulbs in the fan lights. 1 of my Instant on CFLs went fast (maybe 2 years) and I replaced it with an LED I had as I bought the mentioned 100W LED for my Living room.
My dining room uses 6 CFLs and over a 6 year period 2 have died so far. This is also a light turned on and off frequently every day.
I have several CFLs that have been in place though for 13 years with a fair amount of power cycling, but these tend to be 40w equivalent and not instant on.
I used to think CFLs were the best thing when I first started seeing them in the late 90’s. Since then I’ve learned to hate them. As mentioned earlier florescents in general don’t like being shut on and off as this significantly reduces their life expectancy. At least with regular florescent lamps you can replace the tubes or the ballast, whichever one goes bad first. Can’t do that with CFL’s where the electronic ballast is built in. However the one thing I hate most about florescents is that they take time to warm up, and especially long when at temps below room temp. In my garage I have a 200W equivalent CFL and it’s dimm as hell for the first couple minutes. Really sucks when I gotta go grab a tool or pair of shoes from the garage during winter.
IMO CFLs really only work good in certain applications, but should not be considered a direct replacement for all incandescents. Obviously there’s the big bulky size which makes them impossible to fit in many applications.
I’ve been speaking with a reputable manufacture of all types of lighting in Florida. One thing he told me is that this industry is unregulated, meaning companies can lie and put whatever specifications on the lights that they want. He said its important to look for the LM79 and/or LM80 which signifies they have been tested by a 3rd party.
Here we are in 2013 and LED’s are the new wave. Hopefully this technology holds true to its promise.
in many locations i have two illumination types.
where i have florescent light, either long tube or CFL, i also have incandescent or LED; to navigate through the room or short time i use the incandescent or LED, if i’m using the florescent light for a long term task then i will turn off the incandescent.
I have that in a backyard motion detector.
It has 2 bulbs, a 150 watt incandescent flood and a 33 watt CFL floodlight. The incandescent one comes on immediately, even in Minnesota winters. The is dim at first, but becomes brighter as it warms up (partly from the heat of the incandescent). It works fine, and the electricity use is reduced by a third.
Please check that the motion detector is rated for the CFL - otherwise it can catch fire - and you may have an ugly situation.
It’s been that way since 2006 and that hasn’t happened. So I guess it is rated for that.
Just where did you get this idea?
Motion detectors that are not designed for use with CFLs will make them flicker / not start / not turn off, but catch fire? I don’t think so…
That sounded pretty insulting and patronizing to me. Nevertheless, here’s a link. The inrush current on a CFL is high - you will often notice that the switch starts arcing once you replace incandescents with CFLs. A motion detector will turn on an off several times during the night (experience based) thereby causing several sparks/arcing.
Yeah…and?
The ones that don’t work with CFLs generally use solid-state switches (triacs), so there’s nothing to arc. The ones that do work with CFLs often use relays (where one might be concerned about arcing).
And FYI, the inrush current of an incandescent lamp is much, much higher that that of a CFL (incandescent filament cold resistance is around 1/10 that of it’s hot resistance).