Low energy light bulbs

[Fuzzie]

Just feeling like a bit of a whinge so I thought I'd put it here.

I've just had another of those technological masterpieces of carbon reduction fail. We were all sold the story they were long life and a great cost savings, but after a couple of years practical exeprience I cannot see that they last any longer than the old style incandescents, they cost more and must be far worse environmentally to manufacture and dispose of.

Is it just because the ones I buy all seem to be made in China and it's merely usual poor Chinese production standards and quality control? Where is the research from the post incandescent age that proves we are actually saving anything financially or environmentally?

p.s. This doesn't even cover the problem of having to use halogen lights if you need instant on or dimmable! And they don't last longer either! :~

[issatree]

Hi All,
Yes I agree, as we got rid of ours as they seemed to Flicker, & annoyed us when we were reading. They were not bright enough for us as well.
I think the older light globes are coming back into the stores, but I have bought a few at our Sun. Markets.
We did not like them at all.

[Woodwould]

And despite what they claim, ten of the 'green' fluro bulbs still don't equal one decent incandescent bulb.

[Sebastiaan56]

Like Woodwould, I prefer a whale oil lamp :rolleyes:

[damian]

I couldn't believe it when they mandated incandescents be got rid of. So stupid even for politicians.

Light bills are a tiny fraction of power consumption. As you say they are full of mercury and flicker (my partner can't be near them or she gets sick).

The ac led lights flicker also apparently...sigh...

[robbygard]

Just feeling like a bit of a whinge so I thought I'd put it here.

I've just had another of those technological masterpieces of carbon reduction fail. We were all sold the story they were long life and a great cost savings, but after a couple of years practical exeprience I cannot see that they last any longer than the old style incandescents, they cost more and must be far worse environmentally to manufacture and dispose of.

Is it just because the ones I buy all seem to be made in China and it's merely usual poor Chinese production standards and quality control? Where is the research from the post incandescent age that proves we are actually saving anything financially or environmentally?

p.s. This doesn't even cover the problem of having to use halogen lights if you need instant on or dimmable! And they don't last longer either! :~


interesting ... i don't think they are much of a solution to carbon reduction because i don't think (not that i know for sure) that lighting actually represents very much of my power usage .. by the same token i changed mine well before it was mandated to do so and have never yet had one fail

i remember visiting elma, electric light manufacturers of australia (i think) in one of the suburbs of newcastle (hamilton or georgetown i think) about 30 years ago ... they were the only manufacturers of light globes in australia at the time and i was amused to see them put on a new batch of cardboard to "manufacture" phillips rather than osram or coles etc ... in those days there was a lot of talk about how the cheaper coles brand items (generally) had worse quality control but i can vouch, with light globes that the only difference in the whole production line was the cardboard packaging at the end :U ... i think they closed down about ten years later, leaving no light globe manufacturers in australia

regards david

[artme]

I have had a good run with my low energy bulbs. Mind you I shop for good brands and , to get over the lack of sufficient light, I always go up on quoted wattage,

Some of the older bulbs - supplied by the gubment - take a little time to warm up and get to full brightness. I don't have a problem with flickering.

My big concern is that of disposal and recycling.

[Barry_White]

I suppose it's a bit like the unleaded petrol being got rid of and having to go to E10. The trouble is that when all of the unleaded is gone which will be soon we wont be able to compare the price of E10 to unleaded so they will just charge more for the E10.

Anyway I find where I've had to put E10 in my car I get less mileage out of a tank full so what you are supposedly going to save in the cheaper price is more than scrubbed out by the poorer mileage and any way I can't see where the environment is any better off.

[BobL]

You guys are already out of date - isn't it LED lights we should be using?

[HOOKED.UP]

Hate the new bulbs with a passion.

Paul.

[Bushmiller]

I have had a good run with my low energy bulbs. Mind you I shop for good brands and , to get over the lack of sufficient light, I always go up on quoted wattage,

Some of the older bulbs - supplied by the gubment - take a little time to warm up and get to full brightness. I don't have a problem with flickering.

My big concern is that of disposal and recycling.

I am still waiting for the first low energy bulb to fail and we have used them since they were introduced.

I, too, step up the wattage compared to the recommended equivalent as they produce nowhere near the equivalent light. I suspect that like a strip flouro they dim over time before they actually fail, but I have not confirmed this.

Regards
Paul

[artme]

You guys are already out of date - isn't it LED lights we should be using?

That's the idea Bob but the cost is high and you get a patterning of light that isa bit strange. This is because the LED bulbs are actually a cluster of LEDs.

At the moment I think it is a bit of a pipe dream.

[rotten_66]

Being a poultry person, I use/need the incandescent globes for brooding chicks that I hatch in my incubator.
I managed to get a stash of them off a guy that was actually doing the globe swap program enough to last me this coming season and hopefully the next after that.
I can use reptile globes but they are way to expensive to buy and also run.

So for me :no: to the energy saving globes,



Ron

[murray44]

I thought I'd try an 11W CFL (supposedly equivalent to a 50W bulb) to replace a 50W Halogen.

Ha, not even close! What a waste of money. I might see if an 18W CFL gets close to a 50W Halogen.

[HOOKED.UP]

For us the new bulbs have been a dead loss.

From, very expensive to the cheapest, they just pop every time we have one of our frequent power outages in this area.

The power ratings regardless of how high a wattage we buy, do not do as good a job at lighting as the old globes.

I too have a use for the old bulbs in a small heating box in my workshop.
It is used for warming epoxy resin, when boat building. Only a 40 watt bulb in a box, but a very important little tool, especially in winter.
I don't know how to economically replace this simple heating system.

What happened to "Freedom of choice", ??

Paul.

[mike48]

My experience has been good with CFLs, but only after I changed to quality brands, and used appropriate colour temperature lamps for the application. Cool white for work areas, warm white for leisure areas.

It does seem to be true that some older CFls failed early - not so now.

Incandescent lamps in smaller wattages eg up to 25/40 watts will be around for a long time (for decorative and special applications eg heat boxes etc)
Bunnings and others have them.
Talk to a lighting distributor eg Beacon etc.

A lot of campervan/caravan owners (like me) already have LED lights fitted and are amazed at the efficency and lighting effect.
It is expected that LED lights may overtake CFLs later

Have a look at this for some CFL myths (yes, produced in conjunction with Philips)
Philips - 7 myths (http://7myths.planetark.org/video.html)

mike

[Fuzzie]

In my case I have a mix of incandescents,CFLS and low energy halogens in the household. In the last 12 months at least 1 CFL has failed under 12 months old. 2 dimmable Halogen globes have failed and I think I might have had 2 old incandescents of around 5+ years fail. We do switch the lights on and off when entering and leaving rooms and we do regularly change the setting on the dimmable globes.

The truth is once upon a time I could walk into any store and pick the cheapest globe on the shelf and have a pretty high expectation the globe would be as good as the expensive brand. Now these are no longer just light globes they are "very sophisticated electrical appliances" and I have to now research and search out the high quality expensive alternatives to achieve adequate performance. The power used in producing and disposing of these new electrical appliances never seems to be added in to the energy use equation.

Last time I looked the dimmable CFLs weren't available in a wide range of wattages and the available one was only a mid wattage. My reason for having a dimmable is to be able to crank it up high when needed. The only other alternative in the room where they get most use is to do a complicated rewire and add more lighting. That is not an option and anyway would probably result in net a negative energy cost.

BTW there are still some incandescents around the house which are 10+ years old, mostly decorative candles. I also note when looking to replace these that the Halogen replacement equivalents do not seem to have a low wattage equivalent to the current 25watt globes, the lowest power new tech replacement appear to be 28w.