CFL originally uploaded by Paul Keller
Last week’s poll asked how often you saw movies in the theater. While The Wife goes with her mommy group more frequently than we ever did before, we rarely go together mostly due to the high cost of tickets and the need for a babysitter. Not surprisingly a lot of others noted that with technological advances in their own home and the homes of friends, in many cases, home theater viewing is just as good as in-theater viewing. However, most respondents did note that they see 1-4 movies a year in the theater and at least one said there is just no way to get that experience at home.
This week’s poll comes as I stare at yet another CFL in my house which has burned out. This one, replaced recently (last two months), burned out in a way only CFLs can do: half-exploding and showering the air with harmful gasses likely loaded with heavy metals. We have had another CFL do this before with me airing out the house for the next hour. I’m guessing if we called the EPA in every single time this happened, as the bulbs are mandated for use (although that’s been limited as of yesterday), perhaps they’d think twice about the “savings”.
Personally I buy the CFLs but much prefer the light emitted, cost, lack of dangerous substances in the old-style incandescent but based on how often they burn out, how much they cost in the first place when compared to the incandescent bulbs, and the fact that they require special disposal and may “explore” at will endangering my family with god knows what.
How about you? Do you prefer the CFLs to incandescent bulbs? Do you think it’s right for the government to mandate the use of one over the other? Have you noticed that they burn out more quickly than the marketers claim they should? Have you ever experienced one pop (‘explode’) when they burn out? Whatever you have to say about this one vote on the sidebar and then comment on below. After you do both of those things feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
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December 18th, 2011 at 8:23 am
We have some of each. I prefer the incandescent. CFL lamps just don’t seem to be bright enough for me.
December 18th, 2011 at 8:54 am
I don’t like being told which bulb to use! For the most part, I like incandescent. I only use a few CFLs in the house and only to save me money on electric bills.
That theory seems to be back-firing on us though. The less power we use, the more the power companies have to charge us!
Let the free market and free will decide which bulbs we want to use.
December 18th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Like many products today, the claims made on life, energy savings and brightness are highly exaggerated. I switched over many lights in our home about ten years ago when they were first hitting the store shelves. They do show some savings on the electric bill, but the cost when I bought them back then was high, 10-15 dollars per bulb. They are much cheaper today, but considering initial cost versus slight saving and less useable light, plus the horror stories of $1000+ cleanup if the government gets involved, I am replacing them with incandescant bulbs as the CFL’s fail or at my wife’s request for more light, Please! Also, the LED lights have come a long way since they were first indroduced to the homeowner market and that is the real future in lighting. I have a slick little flashlight that has a 3 step switch: one click gets 16 super bright white LEDs like a norml flashlight, 2 clicks gets about 5 ultraviolet LEDs, handy for many things, 3 clicks fires up a center red laser beam. Cost? About $5 on eBay, batteries and shipping included! The people need to tell their representatives in congress to stick to defending the country and our borders and get out of our day to day lives. I mean, banning one of the world’s greatest inventions to ‘Presumably’ save a little renewable energy while causing far worse pollution is not why we send them to Washington.
December 18th, 2011 at 9:32 am
I agree with the part about trying to encourage people to use non-incandescent light sources since incandescents are so inefficient, but as others have said, the alternatives are less than ideal. Plus, the limits on CFL’s (can’t dim most, sizes/shapes suck) make them harder to put in place. I’m waiting for the LEDs to come down in price & get better, that’s when I’ll switch.
I saw a really cool product recently, it was a strip with LED’s on it, for mounting under a cabinet or similar locations. Wicked cool, super flexible, etc. That’s going to be a great alternative.
December 18th, 2011 at 10:37 am
When they create a CFL that doesn’t dim out towards the middle and end of it’s serviceable life (often up to 50% of light output) I’ll consider them worthy for places other than my basement.
I’ll wait until the LED’s make inroads and get cheaper.
BTW they are not banning incandescents in 2012, just requiring that they meet energy efficiency standards, so most of them will still be on the shelves come 2012.
I’ve never had one explode on me though!
December 18th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
The CFLs are crap. They are expensive and the light they give off is lousy. Then there are the other problems like Bill mentioned. When not using incandescent, I use LED.
I had to laugh when I strung up my LED Christmas lights – around 4 watts per string! I strung a bunch of them together and lit the whole outside of the house with less wattage than one 100w bulb. And they are brighter than incandescents too! (Buy them all on clearance the day after Christmas for 50% off)
December 18th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
A few things:
CFL’s need to “warm up” before they produce the amount of light they say they will.
CFL’s live longer when left on rather than switching back and forth.
There are major differences between brand name CFL’s and generic.
I don’t find many problems with them using them as I have stated above, but then again there’s only one light in this shed.
December 18th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
The future is LED lighting. I watch the market to see where those things are, so far their efficiency is high, but the control systems and reliability still need work and costs need to be driven down. Too much manual work goes into making them today.
I use CFL’s in lights that will be on extended periods, mostly to gain energy savings, thus lower electric bills. Two huge problems with CFL’s is that the technology for mass production has never fully matured. The bulbs available today do not last as long as they should and they loose a huge percentage of light output over time. Way more than they should. And they contain heavy metals so must be disposed of properly. What a mess. But today, for my budget, they work well. I stick with name brand bulbs… but even then, both GE and Phillips have had some issues.
Once the bulbs get too dim for in the house, I use them outside. They provide enough light outside to allow you to move around or spot someone, but not so much as to increase sky pollution.
Regarding Christmas lights. I’m still using incandescent for that. C5 bulbs, red this year. 3 strings draw just over 4 watts and are the max that can be tied together (5amp fuse). Put up only 6 strings this year lighting up only the front roof line. At this time I find the LED Christmas lights too harsh. They seem bright, but that is due to the limited field of view. LED will keep getting better.
I use 150watt incandescent bulbs in the garage due to only having 3 in there, and wanting quick start during the cold of winter.
December 18th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
I use the CFLs, mostly because I’ve been brainwashed. Actually, I’ve only had 3 or 4 ever die on me since I started using them over 4 years ago. The dimness when they’re first turned on is annoying but I find that the lighting is just fine. Still, I think LED is where it’s at long-term.
As for the government mandate, I’m a little torn. The libertarian side of me hates to see a mandate like that. But I also know that the government is responsible for our utilities (whether they’re technically privatized or not, they’re heavily-regulated) and in many parts of the country the power grid is in crisis. If something like this provides a significant impact on that, it helps everyone. So in that sense, I understand it. But I still don’t like it.
December 18th, 2011 at 10:46 pm
As much as I like the price, light output, and ability to dim incandescent bulbs, I am 100% behind this bill. There are much bigger problems in our country than my light bulbs, and the very issue this bill is aimed at, energy independence, is sitting at the top of that list. Meanwhile the power grid is failing miserably and last I looked we could use a few new jobs. No, this won’t fix all of that, or probably even live up to the hype. But when the boys and girls in DC get their act together enough to chip away at several major issues using innovation instead of throwing tax dollars around, it actually renews a little faith for me. Yes, I’m sure there are some incentives, payoffs, blah blah blah, but this is basically being paid for by a simple guarantee manufacturers have that their investments in alternative light sources will pay off in a few years.
We have about 50% CFLs in our house – basically all but the garage and where I have dimmers. We buy as many as possible when Menards and Ace have big promotions, so the investment doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me. I have been watching the few companies that are making direct replacement LEDs and they’re already cost-effective in the long term, but the initial investment is still pretty high while they figure out how to keep them cool.
This bill only affects standard 100-watt bulbs next month and then phased down to 40-watt bulbs over the next 2 years. Any vaguely special purpose bulbs are exempt. Have we really become such pansies that we can’t just accept a little compromise here?
December 18th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
We have a pretty even mix of regular incandescent and halogen light bulbs (the owners before us had a serious thing for recessed lighting), but have a few CFLs here and there. I can’t recall how or when they arrived, as I don’t think we’ve been making an effort to switch over. Maybe I was sucked in one day at Target by the ‘lasts 8,000 hours’ packaging. So far, so good. None have burned out yet.
December 18th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
I’m just assuming it was Mrs Marcos who voted for “darkness”, but maybe there are others out there who think that the dark hours are meant exclusively for sleeping? :P
December 18th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Mr. M, I also picked darkness, but didn’t explain that in my comment. I often find myself either fine with just the natural light coming in through the windows or too lazy to get up and turn on the light switch. :-)
December 19th, 2011 at 6:26 am
I’ve been switching over to CFLs gradually, for all the light fixtures I have where I can use them. No problems so far. The first one I got just burned out a little while ago (it’s in a light that’s on quite a bit).
My HOA also switched to them for our outdoor lights several years back, and it’s worked very well and has led to a bit of cost savings.
That said, LEDs will be the way to go once they get cheaper.
December 19th, 2011 at 7:31 am
No CFL. Really the savings, a couple bucks a year per light.. for the privilage of living in a house where when you turn on the lights nothing happens. No thanks.
December 19th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Okay, so at least I’m not the only one thinking “Didn’t I install this ‘OMFG-lasts-for-years-w00t!’ bulb just two months ago? What the fuck!”
December 19th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
I use CFLs, but I just installed a trial 80w-equivalent LED bulb from Phillips in my house and those are the sturdiest-looking bulbs I have ever seen. They’re heavy and built like a tank.
Prices are dropping very fast, but LEDs still don’t offer much cost savings unless you run a bulb constantly for years.
December 19th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
For reference, I saw the Phillips LED bulbs drop from $40 to $25 per bulb normal price at Home Depot in only a few months. I bet they’ll be under $10 within two years. They claim mean time to failure of 23 years, but I doubt that’s been tested in the real world.
December 19th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
I have a couple CFL bulbs – the back-yard patio which is on 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Seems to me I change it out about once a year. That’s about as advertised, I think.
I also have one in the closet under the stairs. That one is also on virtually 24×7 because it serves as a nightlight for one of the kids’ bedrooms. Same deal…just changed it for the first time I can remember. 1+ year for sure.
I still prefer the incandescent – I don’t like looking like I have liver disease or anemia like the CFLs make your skin look.
December 19th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Watch the lumens on the LED bulbs from Home Depot. If I remember right many of them are not very bright.
I ended up going with these: http://www.ecolightled.com/product/7w_mr16_gu10ww/led_light_bulbs
over my kitchen sink. The bulbs cost three times more than the fixtures I put them in, but they look really nice and I’m hoping they’ll be the last ones I ever buy for that location.
I also used these under my cabinets:
http://www.ecolightled.com/product/led_module_super-nova-2-warm-white/led_backlight_modules_warm_white