omon

auto manufacturers, use led more and more, why? is it economy? to be green? none of above, if you noticed first led, in cars, were stop lights,(and still are for the most part) led lights up faster, so you see car in front of you brake sooner with led, than incd. how much sooner? at 60mph you have extra 5-7 feet, according to tv program i saw, but it isn,t all, leds last longer, more visible in fog, and you don,t need reflector, so entire taillight assembly can be sealed,(if all lights are led), and flatter.
my 06 accord has led stop lights, but incd turn light, in the same housing.

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RustyBattleship

Don't feel bad. I didn't know there was a time limit either. But it does make sense.

Oh, one more thing I dislike (hate, loathe) about CFL bulbs is they will NOT fit in some sockets. A friend gave us a small fold-up Manger scene that came with a light fixture to illuminate it at night. We first tried a CFL.

Yup! You guessed it. It didn't fit. We finally wound up using a clear incadescent.

I have also found that true with my front porch sensor activated security lights. CFLs do NOT fit in a weather-tight socket.

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Gun Grape

I am slowly replacing then in my house as the old bulbs burn out.

This can be solved on regular fluorescent bulbs by using a high frequency electronic ballast. I believe that most of the high quality CFLs already have them. I read somewhere that CFLs may do that when they are nearing the end of their bulb life

Ironduke

Rusty, do you mean they will not fit the socket itself, due to the socket being of a non-standard type, or the bulb itself is too large or won't fit because of the sheer size of the bulb? If it's the latter, they are made in all bulb sizes.

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RustyBattleship

The weather seal of the outside socket will not accept the short stem of a CFL. When I turn on electrical items in the rain, I feel a bit more confident if they are watertight. So naturally I will not cut out the rubber seal just to take an overpriced and badly designed CFL.

Ironduke

Just because you can't find one that doesn't fit inside a particular fixture, doesn't mean they're useless in every application.

I've just had the feeling however from some of your previous posts that you were unaware of the varying bulb sizes of CFLs, however. In contrast to incandescent bulbs which are the same size emitting different light outputs on a standard size bulb, CFLs are of various sizes, and some as manufactured are too long to fit in certain fixtures because of the size of the bulb itself.

JAD_333

Where are you finding those prices. I thought I did well getting a 150Watt equivelent today for $7.95 at Target (down from $11).

In my experience, a good CFL will outlast more than 8 incandescents; I've had a CFL on my porch going on 6 years...6 years of 100 watt incandescents at 3-4 a year comes to 18 to 24 bulbs. I have a 24" flourescent going strong from 1996, which is 11 years at 3 to 4 a year or 33 to 44 incandescents. I've been sold on CFL and flourescents for years, except where color was an issue. Now I see CFLs with 6400K, which is pretty close to true color.

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JAD_333

One of the downsides of switching to CFLs is not all existing light fixtures work for all of them. And try attaching a lampshade to one of those sprial jobs... Rusty, you'll just have to do what we did back when the horseless carriage came along...adapt. Remember?

RustyBattleship

You mean I don't need to stable my horse anymore?

JAD_333

Let's not be too hasty. The way gas prices are going, the old nag may get a new lease on life. Hope you kept your buggy whips.

Ironduke

4-pack of 100W equivalent for $7.58 ($1.90 ea):
Great Value CFL Light Bulb: 23 Watt (100W Equiv), 4-Pk - Wal-Mart

6-pack of 100W equivalent at Wal-Mart for $15 ($2.52 ea):
Walmart.com - Always Low Prices! - GE CFL Light Bulb: 26 Watt (100W Equivalent), 6-Pk

6-pack of 60W equivalent for $9.88 ($1.64 ea):
Walmart.com - Always Low Prices! - GE CFL Light Bulb: 13 Watt (60W Equivalent), 6-Pk
A disabled friend of my mom's, an AF vet, I picked up six CFLs for him in July 2004 so he wouldn't have to get up on a chair and change his incandescents which frequently burned out because of the electrical in his apartment. Of these, four he never turns off (100w equiv).

The first one of those four burned out in September 2007, after about 27,000 hours of use. The other three are still good, and have clocked up over 30,000 hours, as are the ones in his desk lamp and bathroom.

Back then, CFLs were rated at around 8000 hours... if not less. So they have lasted over three times their rate life, and three of them are approaching four times their rated life.

At the rated life of the incandescents, he would have had to install 117 to 156 incandescent bulbs during this time frame.

At 50 to 75 cents apiece, that's $59 to $117. Truth be told, they burned out more often than that. And instead of installing 117 to 156 incandescents (in his case probably over 250 purchased at a gas station), he's had to install 1 CFL.

Ctom3

There is another issue regarding life expectancy. All lamp types suffer light loss over a period of time. This is certainly true with any fluorescent lamp. Cathodes erode and the phosphor coating gets "tired". Light loss on a typical, good quality CFL is a 20% reduction at mean output, which is generally at about 40% life. So, after about 3,200 hours on a 8,000 hour lamp, its light output is only 80% of what it started at. This is pretty good, but it gets much, much worse as time goes by. So, a lamp that is still burning many thousands of hours after its rated life is no longer efficient and should be replaced. More importantly, it simply is not doing its intended job and the lighting environment is very poor. I bet replacing those "good" lamps with new ones will have pretty startling results.

This situation is rarely a problem with incandescents since they normally have the decency to completely fail before lumen depreciation gets too low. The all time winner for the "lamp that refuses to die" award is mercury vapor. They typically have a rated lamp life of 24,000 hours, but it is not uncommon for them to last 50-60,000 hours. G.E. has shown that in those cases, output can drop to only about 10-15% of their initial output. Since the owner sees that the lamp is still burning, he or she thinks that it is still good; however, it has become a money pit that is not producing needed illuminance levels. It is the same for fluorescent, just not as dramatic.

RustyBattleship

My ex-wife took all of our whips with her.

Ironduke

There was absolutely no visible difference between the three old lamps and the new one. Overall, the apartment he lives in is too well-lit. He could stand to put the glass lamp covers back up.

dalem

I don't care if someone wants to light their home with "enviro friendly" stuff or a burning mouse in a glass bowl - I just don't want them forcing me to do one or the other.

If I want to use 8 billion kW hours a day, I'll pay for it and do so.

-dale