In , Jim
Redelfs wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
Heck, no! They know a CA$H COW when they see it.
Compact Fluorescent Lamps provide a higher profit
margin since they CO$T more.
Negated by the much longer service life.
The average service life of the average Compact Fluorescent Lamp is
nowhere near that claimed of the manufacturers. Makers are including a
multi-year guarantee in confidence that most owners of prematurely
failed lamps will not have the documentation required to avail
themselves of the warranty coverage or will simply not bother.
I have a lot of experience with CFLs. Most do last as long as claimed
or only a little less.
Keep in mind that the industry standard for lamp life is for testing
with 3 hours runtime per start. Despite that being not very realistic for
most home use, I still find most CFLs to have life expectancy in home
use indoors being a majority of what is claimed.
Ones used where they stay on a long time once started mostly meet or
exceed life expectancy claims in my experience.
The industry is WAY too young to state, unequivocally, that CFLs are
superior to incandescent.
Without legislative strong-arm enactments, the 50-cent, incandescent
light bulb would never be replaced by another technology.
Without legislation, airbags for cars may still be something newfangled
now.
I have been using CFLs since 1989. Plenty do work well and last a few
thousand operating hours even in typical home use.
In my experience, early failures are mostly in these areas:
1. Ones overheating in downlights. Not all can take the heat
accumulation in downlights. Screw-base ones over 23 watts fare
especially badly there.
2. Higher wattage ones in small enclosed fixtures.
3. Lights of America brand, though they may have done better after I
largely stopped buying them in 2001.
4. Dollar store ones - I find a lot of things wrong with most of those.
I find those to largely be stool specimens. Bad things there include the
only smoky CFL failures in my experience, 100% rate of falling short of
light output claims in my experience, and a high rate of lousy color
and/or lousy color rendering.
5. A bad run of 25 watt spirals around 2001 or so.
6. Ones with glow switch starters (they blink a few times when turned on)
fare worse with frequent starting. But screw-base integral-ballast ones
with glow switch starters appear to me to have become obsolete in the mid
1990's or so.
- Don Klipstein )