Those curly energy-saving lightbulbs...

[MooseMom]

...are a joke.  I am very mindful of the environment and always try to cut my energy consumption.  I replaced all my lightbulbs with the curly ones, and they burn out more quickly than the regular ones.  I have had FIVE conk out on me in the past 18 months.  FIVE!  I thought these things were supposed to last, like, a decade.  I've got a box filled with burnt out ones that I can't toss or recycle because of the mercury content.  I think we've been duped.

[Rerun]

But, the temperature has dropped 1 degree, so that is good.

                 

[Henry P Snicklesnorter]

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[galvo]

Clever people who marketed them!

[looneytunes]

May be the brand?  We put them in our house when it was completed in 2007.  So far I have only had to change 2 of them (out of about 50).  Ours came from Sam's Club.  I'm not sure they are saving us much in energy costs but they do burn a lot cooler. 

[BigSky]

...are a joke.  I am very mindful of the environment and always try to cut my energy consumption.  I replaced all my lightbulbs with the curly ones, and they burn out more quickly than the regular ones.  I have had FIVE conk out on me in the past 18 months.  FIVE!  I thought these things were supposed to last, like, a decade.  I've got a box filled with burnt out ones that I can't toss or recycle because of the mercury content.  I think we've been duped.

Could be where you are using them.

One particular light I have burns through them like crazy, had to go back to the old light bulbs..  The rest of the lights in the house are fine and never have had to change them.


To recycle, if you have a ACE hardware they may take them.  They take them here free of charge.

[RichardMEL]

I've never had any burn out, but what bugs me about the bloody things is you pick one up and it says "equivent to a 60w globe" - yeah well no way in hell does the light that comes out of those things equal the globes they supposedly replace. For my reading light and lights in bathroom/kitchen I had to go out and get the strongest ones I could find (I think 23/24w.. something like that) just to get enough light to make things useful.

I'm all for saving the environment, using less power etc, but when you can't see well enough what's the point? Besides why they have to be curly and weird shapes is also beyond me. Took forever to tind one for my bedside that was even close to a "normal" (ok old) globe size/shape to fit my light.

[Stoday]

There's a sound technical reason why the low energy lamps produce less light than the "equivalent" filiament lamp. You need to buy the next size up to get as much light as before.

I hesitate to bore you with the technical details — if someone is interested I'll post them.

[Zach]

I hesitate to bore you with the technical details — if someone is interested I'll post them.

I'm interested.

[RichardMEL]

There's a sound technical reason why the low energy lamps produce less light than the "equivalent" filiament lamp. You need to buy the next size up to get as much light as before.

I hesitate to bore you with the technical details — if someone is interested I'll post them.

well that's fine, but instead of saying that a 13w globe = 60w equivalent(or whatever) they should be honest and say it's the 20w globe that gives you equivalent light or whatever. I mean what's the point of advertising something that's clearly false? I don't know why they do that and it was frustrating with the first few globes I got being essentially useless(so I relocated them to low traffic areas like my spare room).

[MooseMom]

I'd like to know, Stoday.

I've had to replace these bulbs in four different lamps in four different rooms, so I can't see a correlation between bulb failure and bulb placement.

[kitkatz]

I cannot stand the bright light those curly lights put out.  Makes my head hurt.

[Jean]

We have them everywhere possible. That is to say wherever the shades or fixtures fit over them and they last for what seems like forever. Most especially on the outside lights.

[Henry P Snicklesnorter]

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[Stoday]

The reason for dim low-energy lamps.
Both filament and low energy lamps are tested at the nominal voltage on the lamp, 230V in Europe. So the low voltage equivalent gives the same light as the filament lamp at this voltage. However if the voltage is 10% higher, the filament lamp will produce much more light than the low energy lamp, which is more stable. Something more than 30% extra light for the filament lamp. However the life is halved.

The supply voltage varies from the declared nominal voltage. This is 230V in the UK but it is allowed to vary from 216V to 253V. During off peak times the voltage is nearly always higher than during on peak. As the load on the network increases, the losses increase and the voltage drops. At night, (although not the early evening) the network load is light and the voltage is high. Moreover, the average voltage is not the same as the nominal voltage. It's higher. Somewhat over 240V in the UK compared with a nominal voltage of 230V.

All this means that the filament lamp burns more brightly than the low energy equivalent. Also the manufacturer's life of 1000 hours for the filament lamp is far too optimistic because the manufacturer tests his lamps at 230V instead of the typical voltage of 240V.

[looneytunes]

I noticed they are making them now where the curly part is enclosed is a regular type of bulb so the shape is more "normal"...but of course there is an extra cost for this.   

[peleroja]

I wish they weren't so darned expensive.  I have 12 of the old bulbs that are pink tinted, and to replace them with the new pink tinted curly thingies would cost a couple of hundred bucks!

[BigSky]

I've never had any burn out, but what bugs me about the bloody things is you pick one up and it says "equivent to a 60w globe" - yeah well no way in hell does the light that comes out of those things equal the globes they supposedly replace. For my reading light and lights in bathroom/kitchen I had to go out and get the strongest ones I could find (I think 23/24w.. something like that) just to get enough light to make things useful.

I'm all for saving the environment, using less power etc, but when you can't see well enough what's the point? Besides why they have to be curly and weird shapes is also beyond me. Took forever to tind one for my bedside that was even close to a "normal" (ok old) globe size/shape to fit my light.

I think it depends on the brand. 

I bought a couple and the light out put sucked.  The next time I got a coupon from the power company for 10 free bulbs and I chose a different brand and they light up like  a regular bulb.

[jbeany]

My ex husband put 40 watt curly bulbs in the ceiling globe light in the bedroom, since he hated snapping on a bright light first thing in the morning.  I'm more of a yank open the curtains and soak up the sun person, so they always annoyed me.  I'm also on a tight budget, so when he moved out, I figured I'd just wait until they burned out before I replaced them with something nice and bright.  He's been out of the house almost 4 years now, and I still have dim lighting in the bedroom!

[paris]

I was at WalMart today and spent a good 20 minutes looking at lightbulbs.  Buying lightbulbs shouldn't be this hard.   I confess, I came home with regular lightbulbs.  *hangs head in shame*    Sorry if I am not doing my fair share to save the planet, but I need lots of light to see with! 

Jbeany, I chuckled at your post.  The lightbulb will outlive the divorce!   

[jbeany]

At this rate, the darn light bulbs are going to last longer than the marriage did!

[okarol]