LUKEWARM ON compact fluorescent bulbs. My own experience here. I’m still pretty happy with these.
UPDATE: Reader Dave Walter emails:
You can take the credit for most of the illumination in my home and your blog posts on cf bulbs are always illuminating, but the NY Times article you link to in ‘LUKEWARM ON compact fluorescent bulbs’ says less about the bulbs and more about the NYT (insular, complacent, reactionary, elitist, lacking balance – although they do briefly discuss “distaste for change” 3/4ths of the way through) Reminds me of all the complaints about how terrible CDs sounded when they first came out.
I started using compact fluorescent bulbs on a whim several years ago after an Ikea blow-out. Those early Ikea bulbs are pretty poor in design (they jut out of lamp shades, waiting to be whacked, or won’t fit inside housings) and light output is poor in the lower wattage ones. All, however, are still burning (whereas all the wine glasses from the same trip are long broken and the Luxor lamps held together with wire and duct tape). After reading about your experimentation on your blog, I started replacing my incandescent bulbs with the GE Soft Whites whenever they are on sale at the grocery store (joined your bulb group too) and I don’t miss incandescent bulbs at all. Actually, I had to check the lamp on my left just now to make sure that warm yellow glow really was one of those old Ikea rectangular-tube monstrosities. The greatest advantage I’ve found is using 26 watt bulbs that don’t overload my the wattage of my reading lamps and provide enough illumination so that I can read without glasses – especially useful after a few glasses of wine.
Always happy to hear about people’s experiences.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader emails:
I purchased a six pack of GE Softwhite 100s (product code 47709) at Sam’s Club. I have one left in the pack, and one currently in use in a fixture. The other four have died. This is in less than one year of use, despite the fact that the pack claims these are “Guaranteed*” 5 year bulbs. The pack cost about 12 bucks. While I have no doubt that they saved me some money on electrical usage, I am underwhelmed by their reliability and longevity compared to incandescents. Just thought you’d like to know.
Yeah, that’s not saving you any money, regardless of electrical savings, given the bulbs’ price. I haven’t had any of the GE’s fail yet. However, I’m told that if you put them in enclosed fixtures where the bulb is horizontal — especially if you have incandescent bulbs in the same fixture — they won’t last as long. I had that happen with some other fluorescents that I put in a 3-bulb ceiling fixture with a couple of 60 watt incandescents. They didn’t last long, I guess because of the heat buildup from the incandescents.
I’d return those to Sam’s, anyway.
MORE: Reader Katie Kearns emails:
Not only do they not last as long in covered (or recessed) fixtures, some will have a nasty tendency to smoke and even catch on fire. There are a lot of not very safe ones out, including the one that my landlord apparently put in a closed fixture in my bathroom. I discovered this when my house was filled with the smell of burning plastic. We found it smoking quite unpleasantly. After a quick search on the net, I found out this was frighteningly common, especially for certain makes and models of lights (ours were Costco specials…). We searched through the house and found a total of 8 of these fluorescents, all of which were in inappropriate places.
This is one reason the ban on incandescents makes no sense — half the fixtures in my house are recess and/or covered. I can’t put a compact fluorescent there without creating a fire hazard! (Which I’m sure is probably worse for the environment. And my house!)
The incandescent ban is asinine.