On Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:03:20 -0500, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

On 12/17/11 06:10 pm, zzzzzzzzzz wrote:

I've had a garage door opener fail and the self diagnoses check that I
went through with Genie said that the circuit board failed. They would
send me a new board for $68.
We have a home warranty policy ($75 deductible) so I called in a claim
and they sent a company out and they declared the unit unfixable and
replaced it. The unit was an older Genie, and I had been using CFL bulbs.
He said absolutely do not use CFLs in the openers. Voltage spikes from
the bulbs can short out the circuit boards.

Is he right? I don't know. But I stopped using them in the openers.

No proof to back this up that I can find, but I'm just throwing it out
there. He does it for a living.

I have no idea whether spikes from CFLs would cause failure of the
garage-door-opener circuitry, but garage door lights usually are on for
such a short time that I cannot see CFLs being cost-effective -- same
with our bathroom lights.

Same with living room lights, bed room,... But the government knows what's
good for us better than we do.

No doubt it depends on one's lighting needs, Our living-room, bedroom,
kitchen and family-room lights are on for long enough that we use CFLs
there. The dining-room lights are on a dimmer, and dimmable CFLs are
still expensive enough that we still use incandescents (reflector bulbs,
which are not affected by the ban).

Nope. Tried them. They took longer to come up to brightness than the things
were typically on.

Moreover, if I understand the situation correctly, incandescents will
still be available, but they will be halogen ones giving more light per
Watt than the old-fashioned ones -- but still less efficient than CFLs.

I have some halogens. They're good for some applications but the light is
quite harsh and they tend to throw shadows, more than a standard incandescent.
It's possible that many of these regulations would never have been
imposed if you didn't have members of Congress that have been bought by
some corporation or other organization.

No, just too many do-gooders with too much time on their hands. No need for a
conspiracy theory when good old incompetence explains it all.

BTW, we have a good collection of CFLs that were only a dollar or two
for a six-pack thanks to an instant rebate at Costco from the utility
company. I imagine that electricity is going to cost a lot more if they
have to build new power plants to meet the ever-increasing demand; using
CFLs will postpone or eliminate that need.

Nonsense. More generation also means more revenue. The existing plants
didn't magically appear. No one is losing money delivering energy.