On Dec 23, 8:49*am, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
"Jim Redelfs" wrote in message
Say "goodbye" to the venerable 100w and 75w, cheap, light bulb. *(Thomas
Alva
Edison will surely turn over in his grave).
I rarely use exterior lighting. *Mostly, I switch-on the front porch light
when there is someone at the door - a rare occurrence.

On those occasions, I want IMMEDIATE light.

However, right now, it is 12F outside and that curly, compact fluorescent
lamp
outside, by the front door, doesn't provide usable light worth a damn for
a
minute or two.

With no apologies to anyone, I believe that switching to CF lamps won't,
over
the LONG "haul", provide a bit of "relief" to our ever-increasing energy
consumption. *Although that implies that our ever-increasing energy
consumption needs relief, I am adamantly UNconvinced of that in any case..

I agree with the lighting outside. *Until a better light comes along, I'm
sticking with incandescent for fast light, but I've switched a couple of
night lights already with good results. *They last longer too, a bit plus.

OTOH, I'm all for changing over now. *The quality of light is now good, not
the greenish color it once was. *I see no reason not to save my money and
use something that operates cheaper. *To do otherwise is kind of dumb. *I'm
looking forward to the LED lights in our future.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

My experience with CFL's has not been very good either and I agree
that the govt banning incandescent bulbs is the wrong approach. And
the advice to use halogen, sodium or neon makes no sense. How is JR
supposed to screw a sodium light into a simple outside decorative door
light fixture? Plus, I'm not sure what the legislation passed
actually says, but I'd consider a halogen to be a type of incandescent
bulb, as it relies on a simple hot filament that uses about the same
amount of energy.

There are some apps where CFL's work well. There are others where
they do not. I've put them in my garage and can put up with the slow
light up time. I tried them in the kitchen with some FEIT indoor
floods. First, they won't even fit because of the wider neck, so I
had to buy an extender. Then they take a good couple mins to reach
any reasonable brightness. Come into the kitchen at night and you
can barely see for 2 mins. And then, despite the claims of how long
they last, I've had 3 now fail after about 3 months of normal use.
And yes, they are installed in and rated for the ceiling cans they are
intended for.

So, I pay a lot more for them, yet they last a fraction of the time of
a cheap incandescent. And they have a warning on them about
containing mercury and to dispose of properly. Which means in the
majority of cases, they are going straight into the landfill with the
rest of the trash.

If the govt wanted to do something positive to get people to use them,
they should require that manufacturers spec out the time they take to
get to say 70% brightness. And stop pretending that they can be used
anywhere.