Phillips Altos are horrible, but most of their other laamps seem to be very good. I've heard bad things about Sylvania's CFLs, thoguh I wanted to be sure. Sylvaina HID and incnadescent lamps are very good though. GE has started to go down hill since they outsourced all their plants from Hungary to China....
The older Philips CFLs were great too and the old magnetic ones (if they fit) are good too. And remember CFLs are junky partly because the companies designed them that way too..........
The CFLs in the living room of the house I am renting a room in already started aging after 6 months, they now start out dimmer and take longer to warm up. They already have lost some initial lumens too. Man, what lousy bulbs they are! I am really tempted to change them to halogen.
Yes those are actually at a strip mall...I remember this pic, it did catch fire (that one that did) but it didn't burn down the mall...
Hey Joe, use Self Ballasting CMH! I saw there was Self Ballasting CMH lamps outside of entrance of the Empire State Building, which used to be incandescent!
I was pretty clear. I was respondign directly to Dave's comment, which was right before mine. He said "I am really tempted to change them to halogen," so i responded saying "I'd change them to halogen too if I were you. If they're recessed can lights and you have the extra $$$ I'd go for LED."
Yep that's right the CFLs are at my place, although I didn't put them in. I don't think the landlady would notice if I changed them, but she doesn't care that I fix the lights in her house since I am a big help. I did replace a few CFLs with incs or halogens already, mostly because they started warming up too slowly.
I actually had a CFL floodlight base melt before to nothing, then a little spark/fire for 3-5 seconds. This was 4 yrs. ago and luckily outside in the snow for a Christmas display along with 10 others. The other 10 burnt out shortly after that a year later but silently with no "show". I don't remember the brand, but they were (23w ?) 100w equivalent. I had one in the house too, but that went out at the same time about, and silently. So I know the weather didn't affect them. I got them all in a contractor pack, but I don't remember where. Seems like they were "MADE" to burn out at a certain time. SCARY!
Yep that's planned obselescence for you. I dislike the Curly Fry Lamps, but my parents don't seem to mind the fact that those hunks of cheap plastic could set or house up in flames!! Is there a reason why when a CFL has been used on a switch for a while it will start making a "pop" sound?
A friend had one that BLEW UP last month! The glass tubing blew to pieces! Likely a ballast short. I have heard of others having CFLs flame out. No wonder sales of CFLs have dropped a lot here.
Everybody, have you seen any difference in your electric bills after trying out CFLs or LEDs in a large percentage of your lights? People here say they only see like a $1-2 difference in their monthly electric bills.
We switched to "good" expensive CFL's since. (Ones that burn out quietly and have a good life). Our bill dropped $50 for lighting. We replaced about 15 of our bulbs with CFL's.
Lighting is not a big part of the utility bill, unless you have gas heating and cooking. Thus the replacing of lamps is not going to be easy to see in the bills. Biggest difference is turning the thermostat down, and insulating piping and the house. Insulating the 2m of pipe out of the geyser and turning it down from 90C to 55C dropped the bill by 30% in the next billing cycle. 90C was how it was set when I moved in, did not like being a lobster in the bath.
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Hey Joe, use Self Ballasting CMH! I saw there was Self Ballasting CMH lamps outside of entrance of the Empire State Building, which used to be incandescent!