In this environmentally obsessed world we find ourselves in, our Master Planners have determined that it is in all of our best interests to limit the burning of fossil fuels to reduce carbon emissions. Incandescent lamps are becoming less available and the push has been on for residential consumers to buy and install compact florescent lamps instead of incandescent lamps. They are promoted as using substantially less energy thus saving utility costs by the consumer despite their much higher initial cost.

I can't argue about the merits of this but I would like the opinion/s of someone schooled in this area, our very own electrical engineer, Mr. ghrocketman.

GH, what is your opinion of this relatively new technology and would or have you installed them in your house? How do they compared with other technologies such as LED lighting? Are there particular brands that are superior to others? And what about the release of mercury vapors should one break during installation or removal? I have many questions and would like your professional take on this topic.

I am not GH nor do I play him on the interwebs.

My personal feeling is that CFL's were a solution in search of a problem. I've long since replaced all the CFL's in my household with LED light bulbs. My home is now much brighter, has much better color balance, and I'm no longer concerned about spilling mercury in my home due to the inevitable broken CFL bulb.

Good riddance to CFL's.

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Kit (aka Cranky Kong)

I'm just a roadie for the banned...

I'm not quite as enthusiastic as old dude but I foresee what he describes - LED's replacing CF lights. Mark Sims has converted much of his household lighting to LED's and speaks highly of them.

That said, I use CFL's for rough service - they're great in my trouble light - they're much more durable than incandescents, even the rough service bulbs.

I also put one in my front porch light. Used to, that light needed replacing way too often. I suppose the wind had an effect on the fixture which, while tethered, is still hanging on a chain that moves around in the weather. And I needed a ladder to change it. Even then, it was a precarious perch - I did NOT like climbing up there. Since I put that CFL in, I haven't had any more problems. I bet it's been in there 4+ years, knock wood!!

Doug

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YORF member #11

We go through FL's and CFL's like candy at our schools and city buildings. They have special disposal rules which are a pain for private citizens in small towns, so people just hide them in the regular trash where they bust. I'm sure it happens all the time in large cities too because nobody wants to drive to a disposal site for a single bulb. Yes, CFL's are more efficient than incandescent and old style FL's. However, we are trading one type of pollution for another.

I personally wish they would have left the regs alone so that private dwellings could keep cheap incandescents until LED technology/production drove down costs enough to make them an obvious replacement. We thankfully hoarded a bunch of incandescents for our house so we've been able to bridge the gap. Other than a couple of heavily used lights in the house, the added electricity used has been negligable. In those areas such as the kitchen, we had old style FL's installed when we built the house almost 20 years ago. I hate reading under any type of FL, so we've kept using incandescent in the living room, but CREE LED's are probably in our near future.

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I love sanding.

I've been gradually switching over to LEDs in the house, based on waiting for their prices to drop somewhat.
For our outdoor holiday displays, I switched over to LEDs over the years starting back in 2005 when they first came out. almost entirely LED/RGB at present, and I am saving a ton of energy costs (used to require 130 amps )
I dislike CFLs. They don't last as long as predicted (ie 7 years), and looking at them from the environmental side they do they add mercury to land fills..

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Greg Young - L3
NAR #42065
TRA #00234

I think CFLs were the first solution to reducing energy consumption for lighting, but not necessarily the best, and they are going to lose out to LEDs very quickly. I used a few CFLs in the house in fixtures that did not have dimmers. Much of my house has dimmer switches installed, and I like being able to dim the lights. CFLs don't function with dimmers, so I didn't use them in those fixtures. Now that they have dimmable LEDs, I've been swapping those in as the incandescents burn out. Costco has good deals on them. I like the energy savings, but even better, I like not having to change the bulbs in the hard-to-reach fixtures.

LEDs are just going to continue to get better and cheaper, and i'm pretty sure most lighting is going to be LED pretty soon.

BTW, the government did not "ban" incandescent bulbs, as some people seem to believe. The government set efficiency standards for lighting and did not specify what the technology should be. As the standards adjust higher over time, incandescents are having a harder time meeting the standards, and CFL and LED lights that do meet the efficiency standards are filling those vacated slots in the market. Some incandescent manufacturers have been able to produce incandescent bulbs that meet the standards, but they are expensive and not widely available.

I'm not GH either, but I LOATH CFL's because:

1) the color temperature is poor.
2) they have a "warm up" time (and if the garage is very cold they never achieve full brightness.
3) the 3-way bulbs don't work well.
4) they're too large dimensionally for some of our fixtures (like ceiling fans.)
5) the Hg content.
6) they're butt-ugly (except they sometimes give me a soft serve ice cream Jones)

As our incandescents burn out I replace them with LED lamps-- always the "daylight" version and not the "soft white".

I'm a fan of LED bulbs because

1) the color temperature of the "daylight" version.
2) no warm up time.
3) they fit in all of our fixtures.
4) the high-end CREE's are U.S. made.
5) no Hg content.
6) the noticeable energy bill reduction.
7) the (estimated) 20+ year service life.

The only (2) drawbacks of LED's that I know of are:

1) the cost (except they seem to cost less every time I buy them.)
2) AFAIK there's no 3-way LED bulbs.

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Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Absolutly! CFL's are going by the way side, people know the dangers and they aren't as good as they have been made out to be. I can speak from experience, I work for a retail service company our biggest contract is with Lowes, I have six stores that I maintain, we mostly maintain the ceiling fan and lighting displays, remove and replace, repair, wire and general maintenance, including keeping all displays fully lit. This means changing burned out light bulbs. What I'm seeing in all the stores is an increase in LED displays and sales, the LED's are taking over. CFL's don't impress me, many time they will break right in my hand just trying to remove them and they don't really last much longer than an incandecent and they are definantly dimmer, you could save money by just buying a lower wattage bulb and get the same effect.

LED's are by far superior, brighter, generate no heat, last longer and you won't need a hazmat team if it breaks, oh, my bad, there's nothing to break. No bulbs to change. I am slowly changing everything in my home over to LED's It's just a matter of time all bulbs CFL's and incandecents will all be phased out. LED's are the wave of the future, unless some bulb manufacturing big wig buddy of some corrupt congressman greases a few palms to get some stupid law passed to keep the status quo, which is why CFL's became dominant six years ago.

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"A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves."

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Electric...1vZbm79Z1z0u4wk

I switched most of my incandescent lamps ("bulbs") to CFL years ago. Some last forever, some fail. Taking them to the proper disposal site is annoying, but I eventually get them there when they are open. last time I dropped one off at the local Ace hardware, they had a sale display end cap with lots of CFLs and 2 LED lamps marked down to $1.00

I bought them. They are better. Way better.

I can't wait for prices to drop and buy a bunch more LED lamps at Costco.

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-Fred Shecter NAR 20117 (L2)
Southern California Rocket Association, NAR Section 430

Dittos on ditching CFLs. You can buy LEDs pretty reasonbly now. I bought a bunch of Great Value brand at Walmart for about $6 for 75w equivalent (standard A19 household bulb shape.)

A few months ago I found 65W equivalent floodlamps (PAR30) oddly on sale for less than $7, and these can cost $15-20 or more at the big box stores. I went to 6 Walmarts between Denver and Fort Collins and cleared them out!

If you are unfamiliar with LED home lighting, go to Home Depot and compare Soft White, Warm, Cool, Bright White, and Daylight. Manufacturers vary the name, but most Soft White is the color of incandescent (yellowish, 2700K color temp). I personally only buy Daylight (5000K) since I want the purest white I can get. I have a mixture of Daylight LEDs and Bright White (same color temp -- 5000K) fluorescents in my shop. Others may like the warmer colors. LEDs at least offer lots of choices.

Another Idea on Recycling CFLs:
I do not worry about tossing my CFLs in the trash. I gave them all to Goodwill.

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp