vakkotaur | Entries tagged with cfl

On my desk ~~are~~ were four light bulbs. They are not classic incandescents, nor the slightly more efficient (less inefficient) halogen bulbs. These are compact fluorescent bulbs, and there is nothing actually wrong with them. They work. They do have the issue of slow-start and taking a bit of time to come up to full brightness, indicating they are now some rather early models. The fixture they were in now has LED bulbs which if they do not turn on instantly, the delay is so minor as to be readily ignored.

A local hardware store had a good sale on LED bulbs in a tolerable color temperature (3000K, not ideal but certainly better than the ugly yellow of 2700K) so I got a few of those and with various swappings, wound up with a few 'spares'. Eventually the CFL start delay of the dining room fixture bothered jmaynard and I replaced the CFLs there with the LEDs.

Now there are, I think, no actual incandescent bulbs in use in the house, aside from small appliance and indicator lamps. Even closets have CFL or LED. There are some incandescent bulbs outside the house, but they see minutes of use per year so there is no urgency in swapping them out. Even a straight tube fluorescent lamp above the sink has been replaced by LED. There is a torcherie halogen lamp - which I would love to change to LED, but the replacements for that aren't quite ready yet, as it's a 300W version and last I checked, LEDs weren't up to that. But I suspect it won't be long before replacements are affordably available.

We now have quite a number of spare CFLs - and not just the four that had been on my desk. They work. They're reasonably efficient. They give a good light. But LEDs are better, thus these join the collection of incandescents (we also have a box or two of those) as obsolete. It's a bit of a weird feeling, as these are not actually defective - they work. But, there is no useful place for them now. And these are the 'fancy' CFLs with the external A19 envelope to mask the spiral and look 'right' in exposed fixtures, too.

Current Mood: blah

I started trying LED lighting in 2009 with disappointing results. In 2010, things were better though the "40 Watt equivalent" was not really a true equivalent, but dimmer. Since then the price has been dropping some, the choice of color temperatures improving, and the brightness increasing. Today I bought two LED bulbs of different make. Both claim to be 60 W equivalent and put out 800 lumens. That might be a bit under a true 60 W incandescent (wikipedia has a chart claiming 850 lm for 60 W) but not by much. They are bright enough.

One is still heavy and has a color temperature still in the soft/warm white range of 3000 Kelvin. The other is a more cool white at 4000 Kelvins (roughly, reading the fine print it says 3880 K) which I prefer.

I will be using the light(er) bulb in a desk lamp and the heavier one, for now, in the office to replace the not really 40 W equivalent that went out. I plan to eventually change out all the office fixture with the new, brighter, whiter bulbs like the desk lamp will have.

The downside, such as it is, is that the new LED bulbs use almost as power as equivalently bright CFLs. But they are instant-on, which is a bonus.

The "burnt out" LED that is being replaced is frustrating. It didn't last even half a year (though all the others are still going, so far), but it's not completely dead. If I push this way or that, it will light or flicker a bit. This screams "cold solder joint" to me. It would be simple to fix - if I could get at the solder joints. The bulb is not made to be be repaired, so there's no nice obvious way to get it open. I haven't studied it in great detail to see if there's a way that isn't so nice, which won't ruin the bulb in some other way.

Still, it's been more (Moore?) than 18 months since I started looking at LED lighting and I'm finally seeing things about like I want: Roughly 60 W equivalence, a good white (not 2700 Kelvin yellow - eww), and getting lighter in weight. If the efficiency of the drivers can be increased (thus decreasing heat issues) so that they can be used in enclosed fixtures things would be about ideal. Granted, the price is still higher than CFL, but that is also coming down.

I can't see re-lamping the house entirely in LED yet, and perhaps not even at the slow attrition rate of replacing the CFLs as they fail. But as things seem to be going, in a few years I might well end swapping out a few more.

Notice I haven't said a thing about mercury? I consider that to be something that ought to be all but a non-issue. There's mercury in regular fluorescent tubes, in many thermostats, in older thermometers and some other instruments and devices. Those are probably much more significant and yet generally seem to be ignored. While mercury isn't harmless, it's not worth nearly as much worry as some "OMG CFL EVILBAD!" articles try make of it.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Brains! - Voltaire

Sometime this Summer I bought an outdoor rated CFL and replaced one of three incandescents with it. The outdoor lights are used so seldom that it doesn't matter that much, but I was curious about cold weather performance. The last few days have provided enough cold weather that one might think there was a Global Warming demonstration being held in the area.

The light does come one, even at -18 F, though it does so slowly. Instant-on it is not. It seems to do nothing for moment, then the base ends of the tube start glowing, flickering slowly for a bit, before the glow grows through the rest of the tube. Then it's on, but not at full brightness. That takes a few minutes.

The "locker light" motion (passive IR, I suspect, not actual motion sensing) lights with LEDs are work just fine even in this frigid weather. The dollar store alkaline cells don't seem affected by the cold, at least not at the current drawn by the LEDs. It's very nice to not have to fumble around in the dark in this cold to find a keyhole or pushbutton. Putting these lights into place a few months back was a very good idea.

A couple years ago I had some trouble with the battery for the garage door opener remote control and figured it was not just battery age (since I replaced it recently) but cold, so I went and spent a bit on a lithium battery since those were supposed to be long-lived and cold-tolerant. That went dead a couple months ago and it seemed like it had a rather short life for what I had payed for the thing. I replaced it with a dollar store special. It's not even an alkaline, but a carbon-zinc thing. The last few frigid nights (lows have been in the -20 F region the last few nights) it's worked just fine.

Current Mood: tired

One thing I will not be doing again is buying any Hy-Vee branded CFLs, at least not for in the office. When we switched away from incandescent to CFL, the office was switched first thing as its lights were the ones we used the most. All four were Hy-Vee branded. In the last few months, all four have failed. The last one started failing this morning. I've pulled a Sylvania from a little-used lamp to replace it. Now I have four dud CFLs to deal with.

This just happened quietly. The ceiling fan was not on and it's an open fixture. It's no "7 years" or whatever the life was advertised as. It has been almost three years, which while an improvement over filament lifespan, it's still disappointing. So far this is the only place where the bulbs are failing regularly, so it might be that they just don't last as long as said or that we have them on much more than the ratings figure.

I don't know for sure it's mainly the CFLs that the chain got their name put on, or if it's CFLs in general, but so far aside from immediate failures, all the burnouts seem to have been those. I think I'll be looking for other brands, nationally known ones, until and unless there is reason to suspect it's a more general issue.

Current Mood: disappointed

The repaired bulb didn't last very long. It's not an outright failure, but looks like a heat issue. After a while the base heats up and seems to go into a protective thermal shutdown. Then it cools down and the light starts up again. It's a slow cycle, but still annoying. I've pulled the bulb again and replaced it with a Sylvania-branded CFL.

Yesterday the warranty replacement LED bulbs arrived. I decided that the office needs more light than they provide. The office is now all-CFL again and looks the better for it.

One LED bulb is in a desk lamp that had been sitting all but unused for some time. That's where the Sylvania CFL came from. I put the lamp in the living room at the end of the couch where it makes a reasonable reading lamp. Since it uses so little power, I won't feel too guilty about not turning it off should I decide to take a nap and not feel like getting up turn off the light.

The other is near the back door and lights up the small area joining the kitchen, downstairs restroom, and laundry area well enough. But it also revealed that I need to change the switch (hopefully just the switch!) for that light: Off isn't really fully off. The bulb still glows, if dimly, when the switch is off.

Current Mood: annoyed

or: Repair Beats Recycling

There were two "burned out" CFLs on the shelf. I managed to miss the recycling day by exactly a day (I kept asking the folks who should have known and kept getting 'idunno' replies, yeah government-level competence makes itself felt yet again) and did not feel like having them there another six months waiting the next event, not did I feel driving all over the place to dispose of them.

I had sent the LED bulbs back under warranty (and I have yet to see any results of that), but these were CFLs and had outlasted the warranty. Also, I'm not sure I still had the receipt and such showing the purchase. I plan to be much more paranoid about recordkeeping for light bulbs in the future. So if I don't chase all over the place to find someone to the things, I don't send them anywhere, and I don't leave them on the shelf, then what?

Repair. After all, these are not incandescent bulbs with a broken filament. They're fluorescent and it was pretty obvious that the circuitry in the base was what failed. The base had that peculiar 'something electronic got too hot' smell. I bungled the first bulb in trying to get the thing apart and wound up cracking the glass envelope. Nothing spilled, so everything is now in a zipped plastic bag. I'm not sure what I'll do with that one. I'd like to give it to some of the ignoramuses at the city office - they well and truly deserve it.

I did manage to get the second bulb base apart without breaking the glass envelope. After a while I managed to get fair if not decent access to the circuit board. It wasn't obviously charred and a big capacitor wasn't bulging. One 330k Ohm resistor didn't look right. It was darker than it should have been and had a spot that looked rather... boiled. I replaced it. I did a quick test and the bulb lit up after a moment. After reassembling the base, I put the repaired CFL back into service where one of the LED bulbs had been (and I had left the socket empty) in the office.

Now one bulb is back to being useful and the office is a bit brighter again. And I know how to get CFLs apart and have at least a chance of repairing any further burn-outs.

Current Mood: geeky

The second LED bulb put into service in the office is now out of service. That it gave little light was brought home by the fact that we didn't really notice just when it went out. jmaynard was surprised when he happened to glance at the light fixture. It wasn't a loose bulb, either. The base has that peculiar "electronics that got too hot" smell to it. We both suspect the current limiter burned out.

I did save the original package and the receipt, so we will now see how good the manufacturer's two year warranty is. The light didn't even make it a month. The other LED bulb is still going.

Meanwhile, the room is a little brighter and a little yellower (or less blue) as I've put one of the older CFLs back into service.

Current Mood: disappointed

It's been a couple weeks of life with a mix of CFL and LED in the office, and battery-powered motion-sensing LED in a stairway. I no longer foresee replacing the remaining CFLs in the office with LED. The LEDs are okkay for filling in the gaps, but they just aren't that that bright, even allowing for the lower equivalent wattage. And they are bit color-skewed.

In the office I was for a time considering going back to a "soft white" for at least one of the CFLs. The somewhat bluish LEDs and the white CFLs result in a cold feeling light. I'd say clinical, but every clinic I've been in was careful not to give this impression. It's sort of like the descriptions in some UFO stories: cold, slightly bluish, almost eerie light. If it was the same white or blue-white throughout the house I probably wouldn't notice so much. But every other room has CFL (or halogen for the living room[1]) that is more of a so-called soft white. The difference can be stark. I am curious enough that I might try switching to all LED in the office, but only as a very short test. I expect the office to remain a mix of CFL and LED unless or until LED gets significantly better: brighter and more of natural white. A more diffuse light would also be a Good Thing. Right now, for general use, CFL wins over LED everywhere except apparent power consumption. I say apparent as I suspect that with current LED technology to get full illumination would require so many more LED lamps that they would use as much power as the few CFLs they would replace.

I can see using LED in places where color and great brightness aren't that critical. A porch light that is only needed to reveal a step and the keyhole seems about an ideal application. Maybe LED lighting in a storage, but not clothing, closet would make some sense as well. If there was a light over a stairway, that's another place that only needs enough light to let you see where the top and bottom steps are.

I bought a couple "locker lights" which are a combination motion sensor and LED lamp. I put one in the main stairwell near the bottom so that it trips before I get there when descending. That lets me see the bottom step without my needing to switch on an upstairs light or carry a flashlight around. Another will go on the porch so that I can easily find the keyhole at night.

The LED lamp still isn't ready for general purpose lighting. It's fine for specialized applications and can fill in some gaps, but CFL wins big on brightness and color.

As I see it:

LED - For applications where efficiency matters more than color or brightness.

Fluorescent - General purpose lighting. (Some can be dimmed and some are outdoor rated, but you have to look for these.)

Incandescent - Specialty applications (appliance lighting, e.g. oven and refrigerator lights). Easily dimmable. Runs cooler than halogen.

Halogen - Slightly more efficient than incandescent and can easily be dimmed.

[1] Which is a dimmable torcherie that would not be a trivial swap conversion to CFL. If/when the halogen fails, I would certainly consider swapping out the socket arrangement to go to a dimmable CFL.

Current Mood: awake

I went looking for a small 40W incandescent appliance bulb for the fridge this morning and while the local hardware store did not have such a thing (the dollar store did, though) I saw something else of interest: A supposedly 40W equivalent LED "bulb" that uses only 1.5 Watts. And while the price was not as low as incandescent, or even CFL, it was about what CFLs were not all that long ago. I splurged and bought one.

Why buy a $10 bulb? Lifespan, heat, efficiency, and just plain curiosity. I'm expecting another CFL to fail in the office light fixture (four bulbs and a fan) and it's tiresome. Mainly because I have to store the defunct CFLs until sometime in October when the folks that deal with fluorescents are in town again. So now it's three CFLs and one LED bulb which has pre-emptively replaced a CFL, which is now a spare.

Here are my initial impressions:

The good: It works. If you like full instant-on, this does it. The light is diffuse enough that in a typical non-horizontal reflector fixture it doesn't seem like a spotlight. It runs relatively cool. The current limiter gets warm, but one can grasp the envelope and unscrew it even after it's been on for some time. I haven't noticed any flicker, something one might expect with AC-powered LEDs. No mercury. And hopefully a really long service life.

The bad: The price is a bit high. This isn't something I'd re-lamp the whole house with, at least not yet, but the next CFL that goes out in the office* will get replaced with LED. It looks like this would not be a good replacement for a horizontally mounted bulb. Also, 40 Watt is the highest wattage equivalency I've seen for sale in person yet. If there were a 100 Watt equivalent at about the same price, the kitchen light would likely be up for replacement. Also, there's no Energy Star logo on the packaging that the local electric service requires for a rebate of some of the cost, but then the rebate is (so far) only for CFL.

The... not ugly: The LED looks bluish when you look at it, even compared to the "natural white" CFLs which are certainly whiter or bluer than the "soft white" yellowish CFLs. The LED bulb doesn't seem as bright or perhaps just not as dazzling, but working under it doesn't seem dim or lacking at all. Checking back, it should seem dimmer as the CFLs are 60 Watt equivalent, not 40 Watt equivalent.

The bulb is a clear plastic globe envelope with 20 individual LEDs near the base. They appear to be indium phosphide with fluorescent powder. When switched off, the internal surface of the diodes glow for a while. The glow is enough to be seen, but not enough to really see by. In a desk lamp fixture, the bulb does not protrude from the reflector at all and even it did, the LEDs would not. Between that and the narrower beam width of LEDs the result is that the light doesn't flood as much of a room as the equivalent incandescent - I checked. The beam width isn't overly narrow, however. It's just more like what you might expect or hope for from a shield or reflector.

Before we converted away from incandescent, the office light fixture had four of them, at 40 Watts. That was 160 Watts total. The CFLs (60 W equivalent) use 13 Watts each, for a total of 52 Watts. The LED uses a mere 1.5, so if when we convert the office fully to LED, the lighting will use all of 6 Watts - one Watt less than an incandescent nightlight.

* Or one like the ones in the office, then one in the office gets moved and replaced by LED.

Current Mood: hopeful

Over a year ago, in late February or early March, jmaynard and I switched almost all the lights in the house to compact fluorescent. Now that it's been over a year with them, I've realized that the reliability claims seem to be true.

In the past year we've replaced two CFLs. One was a case of "infant mortality" where the circuitry failed immediately when first switched on. This was covered under warranty, almost. A replacement bulb was sent, but not in the same style. When we informed the company of that issue they sent another bulb, but it was the same style as they had sent and not the one we wanted. So that was the one bulb we bought a replacement for.

Another bulb failed a month or two later, and was replaced with one of the bulbs that had been sent. Since then we've had no problems.

Had we still been using incandescents I expect I would have replaced two or three bulbs in the office light fixture in the last year.

I don't expect incandescent lights to ever completely disappear as there are places that I really wouldn't want a fluorescent light, such as in an oven. But the idea of using incandescents for general lighting seems a rather quaint notion to me now.

Current Mood: pleased

This weekend there was small expo at the local mall and one of the area power companies had a booth promoting compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and LED lighting. There was demonstration to show the difference in power between fluorescent and incandescent lighting using a very large "compact" (if it could still be called such) fluorescent light with an equivalent output of 500W. It took about 90 Watts to run, but that was still less that the regular 100 W bulb used in the comparison.

While the different lamp styles were interesting, what I noticed was a confirmation of what I've suspected since we switched to CFLs at home. Some lights are on as soon as the switch is flipped. Some lights have a short delay before they turn on. Some lights seem to be at full or near full brightness immediately. Some lights start out noticeably dim and slowly come up to full brightness. At first this was a bit puzzling. It wasn't a matter of age, as a couple of the older CFLs in house were the ones switching on instantly to full (or near full, it's hard to tell) brightness.

The answer is wattage. I'll use the equivalent, rather than actual, power here. The big 500W light at the demo was cold before I switched it on. It switched on instantly and was as far as I could tell at full brightness right away. The 100 W CFL was about the same. The 75 W CFLs at home seem to be fairly quick. The 60 W CFLs start out noticeably dim and take time to brighten. The 40 W equivalent globes around the bathroom mirror start out instantly, but take a minute or two to come up to full brightness.

I suspect that besides the power used, some lights might be of better quality and come on instantly. The dim start seems to be related only to power. I am curious about a 25 W or 15 W equivalent would behave, but I have no reason to get such a thing.

I've already gotten used to the slight delay in starting. The slow brightening, like an accelerated a miniature sunrise, I find I rather like, at least at times. I'm really glad I don't get hit with the full brightness of the bathroom mirror lights right away, for example.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Holiday for Strings - Spike Jones

There have been more than a few articles about compact fluorescent lights recently. Today jmaynard and I went over the lights in the house and we wound up replacing a good many of the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights.

The first place to get the treatment was the office as those lights get the most use. Other rooms, such the kitchen, the machine room, and with some effort the bathrooms got changed next. Later, after another trip to the store (we cleaned Hy-Vee out of their inexpensive 60 Watt compact fluorescent lights) the various closets, part of the basement, and a hallway light fixture were converted. That last one could use another CF light, but one will do for now.

There are a few incandescent lights left in the house. The attic lights which don't see much use are unchanged, as are the lights in the track lighting of part of the basement. There are a few lamps that don't see too much use so changing them over can wait indefinitely. The spiral design (and the now hard to find design with the multiple U shaped tubes) don't look right in the exposed setup the dining room fixture uses. While there are compact fluorescent lights that look more like regular bulbs, those are still rather pricey and the fixture needs four of them. A fixture at the top of the stairs probably can't be changed without changing the fixture itself. It's quite certainly original with the house, built in 1949.

Things are generally much brighter now, even as each fixture with swapped lights consumes less energy. The office had four 40 Watt incandescent bulbs, for a total of 160 Watts. Now it has four 60 Watt equivalent bulbs, so we get the light of 240 Watts incandescent - but each light only uses 13 Watts, so we're only using 52 Watts total for office light now.

The downstairs bathroom is much brighter though that is mainly because the tubular bulbs (not 1949 -- made in Taiwan) had such huge dark deposits on the inside of the envelope that they reminded me of a vacuum tube "getter." The lights still burned, but were so dim we figured they were 15 Watt bulbs.

We now have a drawer full of incandescent bulbs. One did get put to use, replacing a bad bulb in the garage door opener. We've got spares to last a while.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: The Glow Worm - The Mills Brothers