There's a point below which 'low energy' bulbs cease being useful

[slowfox]

I've always thought that the wattage-equivalent ratings on low-energy CF light bulbs are somewhat over-optimistic, and the (until today) latest acquisition, deemed to be a 60W equivalent, proved the point rather nicely.

I won't say that the room got dimmer when I turned the light on, just that it failed to get any darker when I turned it off...

So I've now replaced the living/dining room lights in Castle Fox with 20W CF bulbs, labelled this time as 100W equivalent, but I'm not convinced. Still, it's a marked improvement over the purported 60W pair.

Actually, these bulbs are also supposed to have a 10,000hr lifespan. I doubt that highly, and remain unsettled over the disposal issues once they do expire. But the dining room light (which was replaced first with the 60Weq and now with the 100Weq) managed to die in most peculiar fashion (for a light bulb): I turned it on, and it started to warm up, then flickered. Thinking that this might be a signal of some kind of power surge, I initially dismissed it, but then the light settled into a steady rhythm of blinking about once every two seconds, before it finally flickered out for the last time.

Yes, I do realise that I've just written a post about CF light bulbs, thanks.

Comments

[alicit]

I seem to remember hearing on the radio, about a week or two ago, that energy saving light bulbs, not only don't last as long as they are supposed to, but they also get dimmer with age. I think it was on BBC radio Two.

[slowfox]

I seem to remember hearing the 'dims with age' thing recently, too. And I have to say that would certainly concur with my experience, although it's quite a subjective thing to measure (unless you've got a lightmeter handy - I used to have, but no more).

[aome]

Can you imagine the job of the person who has to verify the lifespan?

*an hour passes*
*timer dings*
*employee checks bulb, makes tick mark on clipboard*
*goes back to drinking coffee and doing the crossword*
*an hour passes*
*timer dings*
[repeat 10,000 times]

Fourteen months later, after sighing deeply, he hauls himself to his feet and limps down the corridor to the testing room only to find - huzzah! - the bulb has finally burnt out. Now comes the actual work: adding up all those tick marks. And working off all those snacks.

[slowfox]

I do wonder how they arrive at the 10,000 hour lifespan thingy. Presumably, after all, it depends on how often you turn them on/off!

[cynthia_black]

There are some bulbs in our house that I refuse point blank to replace with the 'energy-saving' ones, most notably the downstairs toilet - by the nature of the place, you need light instantly and for a short time, and those bulbs just aren't suited to it, because of the time they take to 'warm up' to full lighting ability. And in our experience, they last a lot less time than the old ones, as well as costing far more.

[slowfox]

The bathroom at Castle Fox has an ordinary incandescant bulb for that very reason - you're generally not in the room long enough for a CF to warm up to proper brightness.

[schnurble]

The chandelier in the living room needs five light bulbs, so when we bought it we thought it would pay off to have five energy saving bulbs for this. Well, they die regularly after a few months, but never all at once, so we keep replacing the broken ones with other energy saving bulbs so all look the same. I think we'd gone much much cheaper if we'd started out with ordinary light bulbs...

[slowfox]

Argh! That must be frustrating!

[uninvitedcat]

My main three lights (two in living room, one in hall) are all fitted with these very annoying fixtures that will only take those little lightbulbs that don't yet come in energy saving stylee. I'm starting to think perhaps that's not as much of a bad thing as I previously thought...

[slowfox]

I've no real complaints about the general durability of the low energy bulbs taken by themselves, but I do think that the 'performance' stats trotted out for them (wattage equivalent and longevity) are... optimistic, at best.