On 05/06/08 06:39 pm Don Klipstein wrote:

When we moved into this house in Nov 2003, we replaced most of the bulbs
by Sylvania CFLs. Many of those have had to be replaced already; some
emitted "cooked electronics" smells at the end.

I'm going to go easy on the CFLs and hope that LEDs become more widely
available.

So, most of your CFLs lasted less than 5 years? How long would
incandescents have lasted?

Probably not as long, unless I had bought 130-volt ones. But the point
is that the CFLs did not last as long as is being claimed. Maybe the
fact that they were Sylvania has something to do with it: a few years
ago I bought a couple of packs of Sylvania incandescents, some of which
popped as soon as I flipped the switch and some of which lasted only a
day or two.

Meanwhile, are you putting any CFLs in small enclosed fixtures or
recessed ceiling fixtures? CFLs can overheat there, especially if they
are higher wattage ones (more than 23 watts).

Many were CFL floodlights (65-watt equivalent) and were installed in the
cans that had previously held incandescent floodlights. Some that didn't
last long were the exposed-spiral type and were not in cans.

LEDs are advancing, but slowly. LED technology appears to me to have
been advancing about half as fast as computer technology has over the past
many years.

Perce