On Sun, 23 Dec 2007, Cydrome Leader wrote:
clare wrote:
On Sat, 22 Dec 2007, "BillM" wrote:

Got sucked into the whole compact flourescent whirlpool a
few years ago. Local power company (Portland General
Electric) was handing out coupons for free/deep
discount/rebate on compact flourescents, and we were
lighting up a new home.
I think there are maybe 4 left in the whole house. Short
life, unacceptable warm up time, just general crappy
performance. Unless there has been a huge improvement in
the CF technology, I'll keep my incandescents!

Likewise. All you can buy is cheap but overpriced Chinese CRAP that
burns out or otherwise fails in less than 2 years - generally within 6
months. I still have a few incandescent bulbs in the house that were
here when I bought it 27 years ago.

Todays long tube flourescents are also nothing but crap. Untill I
changed out to halogens in my office/rec room I was replacing tubes
every couple of months, and ballasts every year or so.

get commercial grade flourescent bulbs from an electrical or lighting
supply place. Anything at home depot is junk. You will pay more, but those
cheap crap bulbs don't work.

The electrical and lighing supply houses will gladly sell you the
same crap that The Borg will - If the price sounds too good to be
true, it probably is. The two brands I tell people to avoid like the
Plague are 'Lights of America' and 'Dabmar' - they do have a few good
models with decent internals, but try to pick them out in a hurry...

Even the reputable lines like GE, Lithonia, Progress Lighting,
Elite, Juno, Kichler, RAB, Simkar and Mc-Graw Edison (to rattle off
just a few) make some junk with Chinese ballasts and Indonesian parts,
but they are usually good about labeling them with a euphemism like
"Value Line" or "Builder Model" to tip off the buyers.

Tract home developers love the "Builder Model" fixtures because
they're cheap first and foremost, don't look hideous, the Fluorescent
or HID models meet the "Energy Efficiency Guidelines", and they will
last at least long enough for the house to pass inspection and clear
escrow - and that's all the builders worry about.

For tract houses, it's up to the resident to pick out the fixture
designs they like and put them up after they've bought the house and
decided how they're decorating it. But the builder has to put up
something to cover that empty box on the ceiling, they can't pass
Final and sell the place without a permanent fixture installed.

For custom homes, the owner was involved in the decision process and
picked out the fixtures they wanted ahead of time, and are willing to
pay the extra for a good fixture the first time.

-- Bruce --