Losing valuable minutes of my life being "green"

chowhound

New member
I had no idea...

I needed some new 60w light bulbs for the kitchen because my stash had run out. So, I went to Wally World with the intent of buying those new energy efficient bulbs I had seen before. The ones that last five years before burning out (we'll see on this) and that save me $36 a year over a standard light bulb. How could I go wrong? Hey, I'm being green I told myself :smile:
I looked around for a standard bulb 2-pack, just to price comparison, but I didn't see any, so into the cart my $10.46 for a 2-pack bulbs went.

I got home and installed the six bulbs and saved the standard ones that were not burned out yet. I turned one of the light switches on, expecting it to be like the "first day of creation", but I did not see light... rather I saw dawn, slowly filling up the room with light as the bulbs warmed up. I was not expecting this. A standard fluorescent tube comes right on, what's up with these lights?

Now, when I walk into a room and flip the light switch on, I expect there to be light. I do not expect to stand there while the light comes on. I expect to work, cook, shave, whatever, before I have ample light to see what I am doing. Otherwise I'd have 15watt bulbs in all my fixtures and walk around more in the dark than I already do :bounce:

So if standing in line, waiting at a light and all those other things that add up as time we'll never get back can count against our time on earth, then I guess going green can, too. I am really hoping they are not phasing out standard light bulbs... They can have their 36 bucks a year back.

And that's all I have to say. :neutral:
 

Lefty

Yank
I have stayed away from those. I have halogen in the kitchen which I love because I can see real good. I am waiting for the price of LEDs to come down to reasonable so I can do the whole house.
 

suziquzie

New member
The new bulbs DO NOT last 5 years.
We put in a TON in this house when we moved in 4 years ago.
Every single one has been LONG AGO replaced with the old-fashioned cheapies thank you very much. I give them 2 years max and thats in barely used rooms.
DH is waiting on LED's also....
 

buzzard767

golfaknifeaholic
Gold Site Supporter
I have stayed away from those. I have halogen in the kitchen which I love because I can see real good. I am waiting for the price of LEDs to come down to reasonable so I can do the whole house.

LED flashlights produce a funny looking light but I gotta admit it's bright. The Samsung TV I have in the apartment is a DLP but the light gun is LED instead of the standard bulb setup. Life expectancy is a crazy 60,000 hours. Mine is 67". This year they're making LED flat screens up to 55" -- http://www.samsung.com/us/productsubtype/led/
 

pugger

New member
I had no idea...

I needed some new 60w light bulbs for the kitchen because my stash had ... all I have to say. :neutral:
I'm right there w/ you, :wave:, slowing replacing 120w'ers in the kitchen w/ the newfangled (since I can't seem to find what I had any more) & so far it's a lot darker for a few minutes as the wattsavers warm up. :confused:
 

chowhound

New member
The new bulbs DO NOT last 5 years.
We put in a TON in this house when we moved in 4 years ago.
Every single one has been LONG AGO replaced with the old-fashioned cheapies thank you very much. I give them 2 years max and thats in barely used rooms.
DH is waiting on LED's also....

I can only hope that I remember where I put the barcodes and receipt in 2 years, because GE offered a 5 year warranty with them. And my kitchen has no natural light, so these will get used even in daylight hours.
 

phreak

New member
I've been happy with our cfl's. The only one that I notice taking any amount of time to brighten up is the big outdoor one on my patio. We've had them over 3 years and the only ones we had problems with were on dimmer switches(dumb me). We did keep the packages they came with and after they burnt out(even though it was my fault) we took them back to Home Depot and got replacements for free.

The amount of mercury in 1 bulb is something like less than 1/500th the amount of mercury that was in the old school thermometer we all used. Plus they are pretty hard to break.

I too am definitely looking forward to affordable LED lighting.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I use these energy efficient bulbs through out my property. They are brighter than a 60 watt bulb and I have cut the electric bill on my property by about half. Now my electric bill isn't your typical home lighting bill but in the $1000 up range in that I'm lighting spaces inside on when needed plus flood lights though out the 2.9 acres the property takes. We are a self storage facility by the way which doesn't use much water but a lot of electric. It has been a big savings in that the bulbs do out last a conventional bulb but no where near the 5 years you stated.
 

VeraBlue

Head Mistress
Gold Site Supporter
I've got them all over the house...
While I don't have to deal with the 'slowly warming up' it's true, they don't immediately illuminate. I'd say there is a 1.5 second delay, if that much. I can live with it. I began changing to the new bulbs about 3 years ago. I haven't had to change one of them yet.

I'm a fan of flourescent.

We bought our house about 16 years ago. There was a light fixture over the bathroom sink/vanity mirror - a flourescent tube type fixture. We have not had to change that bulb once since we bought the house. Now I ask you....do you know anyone who has had the same light bulb in place for over 16 years????:idea::idea:
 

Mama

Queen of Cornbread
Site Supporter
I changed all of my bulbs to the cfl's about 5 or 6 years ago and have only had one blow out. I've saved more than enough on my electric bill to pay for them several times over. Like Vera said there is only a one or two second delay until they come on but they do take a few minutes to come up to full brightness but I don't mind.
 

buckytom

Grill Master
i replaced every bulb in my house too. some take a few seconds to " warm up", others seem to be almost immediate. i guess not all electronic ballasts are made the same. (old flourescent lights used electromagnetic ballast)

the sconce lights over the front and rear doors take a few minutes and look kinda pink while warming up.

btw, if you try to put them into a lamp or fixture with a dimmer, be sure to buy the one's marked dimmable. they have a different ballast to handle the variable load. if you put in a regular cfl, it will begin to flicker like a disco lamp as you lower the joltage.
 

chowhound

New member
So some work more quickly than others?
I saw on the box that mine were not intended for use with dimmer switches. I didn't notice if it listed a lag time or delay. Are they like digital cameras in that some operate more quickly than others, or do you just get lucky and some bulbs happen to get up to speed more quickly than others?
These bulbs are self-contained, right? Meaning the fixture doesn't make a difference?

If this is what light bulbs are all going to, I'm going to have to come up with something different, like switching some fixtures over to fluorescent tubes. If I'm going to run into the basement at night after something, which is cluttered to the max, I shouldn't have to think to turn on the light a minute ahead of time. I did not expect to lose anything over incandescent lighting when I bought these.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
They are basically a florescent light so they act the same as. In my case where I have them in the house they seem to all come on almost instantly though the light does get a bit brighter after they have been on a few seconds. Oh and we also installed power saving baffles in the kitchen and office florescent lights with no change in them other than cheaper to operate. Oh yes now I don't know about other brands but we use GE exclusively since we get them next door at Lowe's.
 

buckytom

Grill Master
yup, they simply are a flourescent light, just in a compact package with and edison type screw base.

the ballast electronics and uv ignitor are in the base, and the lamp sorta loops around connecting to the base on both ends.

there are non-integrated cfl's where the tube can be replaced into a "permamnent" base, but they're not very common.

and yes, the cfls that don't have a long start up time were produced with better ballast electronics. so brand names actualy count in this case.
 

FooD

New member
The City of Los Angeles gave us a bunch of those bulbs for free several years ago to replace standard bulbs throughout the house. They did the whole city I believe.
I like the high temperature "white" light for the kitchen. I can see better.
 

GotGarlic

New member
The reason being "green" has become necessary is because we have become a "throwaway" society, where too much of what we use every day is considered disposable. Years ago, people carefully saved aluminum foil. Now, foil and plastic bags are marketed to us as convenience items - save washing time by lining dishes with foil or marinating foods in plastic bags, then just throw them away. Walking or cycling or taking public transportation take a lot more time than each person driving their own car, but it's unsustainable.

Those plastic bags will be in landfills (which we're running out of space for) for centuries, while water that goes down the drain is collected, treated and reused. It definitely takes more time to be "green", but it's for the best, for all of us.
 

Deadly Sushi

Formerly The Giant Mojito
I use these energy efficient bulbs through out my property. They are brighter than a 60 watt bulb and I have cut the electric bill on my property by about half. Now my electric bill isn't your typical home lighting bill but in the $1000 up range in that I'm lighting spaces inside on when needed plus flood lights though out the 2.9 acres the property takes. We are a self storage facility by the way which doesn't use much water but a lot of electric. It has been a big savings in that the bulbs do out last a conventional bulb but no where near the 5 years you stated.


A THOUSAND DOLLARS?!?!? For electricity!?!? You live on the Vegas strip man? :ohmy: Our electric bill last month was $50.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
I have a sign out front with 100 neon lights, about 100 exterior lights out side the property and a bulb in every unit which is 455 units. We also have a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment as well an office and half bath. This is a self storage facility which also pays a higher rate due to being a business and not a residential. Our phone bills are more expensive also than a residential phone would be. I live where I work so that will explain the high electric due to having to keep the place light up like a stadium at night so the cameras catch everything that happens here. Don't want break in with people losing stuff, don't you know.
 

chowhound

New member
Those plastic bags will be in landfills (which we're running out of space for) for centuries, while water that goes down the drain is collected, treated and reused. It definitely takes more time to be "green", but it's for the best, for all of us.

Not to worry about my plastic bags winding up in landfills, GG. I burn them. It makes one hell of a black smoke, but no more bag. :clap:








:yum::yum::yum:
 

S.Shepherd

New member
I have a sign out front with 100 neon lights, about 100 exterior lights out side the property and a bulb in every unit which is 455 units. We also have a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment as well an office and half bath. This is a self storage facility which also pays a higher rate due to being a business and not a residential. Our phone bills are more expensive also than a residential phone would be. I live where I work so that will explain the high electric due to having to keep the place light up like a stadium at night so the cameras catch everything that happens here. Don't want break in with people losing stuff, don't you know.

for some reason I jot got a mental image of the " EAT AT JOE'S" sign in my head:D
 

S.Shepherd

New member
I've been happy with our cfl's. The only one that I notice taking any amount of time to brighten up is the big outdoor one on my patio. We've had them over 3 years and the only ones we had problems with were on dimmer switches(dumb me). We did keep the packages they came with and after they burnt out(even though it was my fault) we took them back to Home Depot and got replacements for free.

The amount of mercury in 1 bulb is something like less than 1/500th the amount of mercury that was in the old school thermometer we all used. Plus they are pretty hard to break.

I too am definitely looking forward to affordable LED lighting.

so what happens when, in 5 years, a couple million hit the landfill?
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
for some reason I jot got a mental image of the " EAT AT JOE'S" sign in my head:D

I do to when my kids, sister in law and her brood show up for dinner here. :lol: I keep telling them we are a storage facility not a restaurant but they don't seem to understand that at all. :mrgreen:
 

chowhound

New member
Well I've already determined that these light aren't going to save me any money. Or for that matter use less of the world's energy.
I went into the kitchen about 7:00 to make myself a sundae after dinner, flipped on the switch, started pulling the stuff from the fridge and got the peanuts out, finished making the sundae by the time the light had reached full brightness, then decided to leave the fixture on in case I went back to the kitchen and really needed to see what I was doing, like rinsing the chocolate syrup from the dish... So rather than having the light on for a few minutes at a time, it ended up staying on for 2-1/2 hours. And while I like leaving the curtains open until I go to bed, I don't like leaving the lights on in the house to illuminate the rooms all night. These are getting swapped out. Live and learn. Next time I buy an energy efficient bulb I'll make sure it doesn't need a warm up period.
 
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