Posted by Mark Norton on June 24, 2005, 9:56 am
When I first moved into my home over 7 years ago, I was using standard
Incadesant lighting. I was burning at least one light somewhere in the
house out every week! This was due to bad brown outs followed by spikes as
the power was coming back up to the proper voltage/amperage. One of the
first things I began to do was replace the lights with GE Brand CF bulbs.
In the last 6 years, I have only had to replace ONE BULB, and it was NOT
because it failed, but because I dropped the bulb and broke the tube while
installing it! These bulbe were a little more expensive at the time I put
them in, but they are worth it! I bought them at $16 for a 4 pack of 40
watt equiv and abou $14 for a 2 pack of 100 watt equiv. Now the prices have
dropped to around $12 adn $9 respectively at the local Walmart.
The Youthman
> Eric Sears wrote:
>> They certainly sound like they don't last. But perhaps we must not
>> generalise to all makes of bulbs.
>> I buy various brands here in NZ, mostly the cheap variety (about NZ
>> $3-4 = $US 2 - 3) and have had very good service from most.
>> We have 230 volts here and of the 20 compact flouros in the house,
>> only about 2 or 3 have failed in 4 to 5 years.
>>
>> Many look a bit black on the glass after 5 years but still work fine.
>> Most are on for long periods of time.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>In article
>>>>>>abc@def.com says...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I've had about 8 of these bulbs over the past 2 to 3 years, and NONE
>>>
>>>have
>>>
>>>>>>>lasted for more than a few hundred hours of use
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Have you put a meter on your line? You may have a slight
>>>>>>over-voltage.
>>>>>>--
>>>>>
>>>>>Just did. 126V.
>>>>>A bit high, but certainly not enough to cause this.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I've tried various long-life bulbs and have been less than satisified
>>>>with any of them. I think the did last a bit longer than a
>>>>store-brand cheapo but not by enough to justify the cost.
>>>>
>>>>Robert
>>>
>>>I claim no knowledge of the brand you mention. I will say that when we
>>>were
>>>installing electronic ballasts 12 years ago, a helper opened a neutral
>>>and
>>>fried a whole string of electronic ballasts. After that we worked on one
>>>dead circuit at a time. The electronics did not like a lot of things.
>>>Check
>>>your panel connections especially the neutral and ground.
>>>
>>>I get mine at Costco and they last a few years.
>>>126 v is not even considered high.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> We are on Great Barrier Island. Recently got a new CF bulb from the
> Warehouse (made in China) to replace a bulb that's been working for
> several years but was causing aa bit of interference on TV 1. New bulb had
> been in use for only a week pr so... turned the lights on one night and it
> exploded. Not the ballast, but the actual tube itself. Ordered a new bulb
> from Woolworths online and they shipped over an ES bulb instead of a
> bayonet fitting! Haha, the hassle of having to order everything from the
> mainland!
> At least we still have lights when you guys over there on the 'West
> Island' are plunged into darkness!
Posted by wmbjk on June 24, 2005, 10:13 am
On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 04:36:19 GMT, phoneme@025379386.for.email.address
(Eric Sears) wrote:
<CF light bulbs>
>They certainly sound like they don't last. But perhaps we must not
>generalise to all makes of bulbs.
>I buy various brands here in NZ, mostly the cheap variety (about NZ
>$3-4 = $US 2 - 3) and have had very good service from most.
>We have 230 volts here and of the 20 compact flouros in the house,
>only about 2 or 3 have failed in 4 to 5 years.
>Many look a bit black on the glass after 5 years but still work fine.
>Most are on for long periods of time.
>Eric
Often when the topic of CFs comes up, one brand that gets spanked is
Lights of America. Yet all of ours are that brand. 20 some bulbs, all
about seven years old, first failure a few months back on one of the
most used ones in the kitchen. So I agree, it's best not to
generalize.
Wayne
Posted by funkbastler on June 24, 2005, 6:50 pm
>Often when the topic of CFs comes up, one brand that gets spanked is
>Lights of America. Yet all of ours are that brand. 20 some bulbs, all
>about seven years old, first failure a few months back on one of the
>most used ones in the kitchen. So I agree, it's best not to
>generalize.
When I first started installing CF bulbs several years ago, I bought
one (and only one) Lights of America bulb. It lasted about 30 minutes.
The GE bulbs that went in at the same time, on the same circuit, held
up for several years.
--
-fb-
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>> They certainly sound like they don't last. But perhaps we must not
>> generalise to all makes of bulbs.
>> I buy various brands here in NZ, mostly the cheap variety (about NZ
>> $3-4 = $US 2 - 3) and have had very good service from most.
>> We have 230 volts here and of the 20 compact flouros in the house,
>> only about 2 or 3 have failed in 4 to 5 years.
>>
>> Many look a bit black on the glass after 5 years but still work fine.
>> Most are on for long periods of time.
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>In article
>>>>>>abc@def.com says...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I've had about 8 of these bulbs over the past 2 to 3 years, and NONE
>>>
>>>have
>>>
>>>>>>>lasted for more than a few hundred hours of use
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Have you put a meter on your line? You may have a slight
>>>>>>over-voltage.
>>>>>>--
>>>>>
>>>>>Just did. 126V.
>>>>>A bit high, but certainly not enough to cause this.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I've tried various long-life bulbs and have been less than satisified
>>>>with any of them. I think the did last a bit longer than a
>>>>store-brand cheapo but not by enough to justify the cost.
>>>>
>>>>Robert
>>>
>>>I claim no knowledge of the brand you mention. I will say that when we
>>>were
>>>installing electronic ballasts 12 years ago, a helper opened a neutral
>>>and
>>>fried a whole string of electronic ballasts. After that we worked on one
>>>dead circuit at a time. The electronics did not like a lot of things.
>>>Check
>>>your panel connections especially the neutral and ground.
>>>
>>>I get mine at Costco and they last a few years.
>>>126 v is not even considered high.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> We are on Great Barrier Island. Recently got a new CF bulb from the
> Warehouse (made in China) to replace a bulb that's been working for
> several years but was causing aa bit of interference on TV 1. New bulb had
> been in use for only a week pr so... turned the lights on one night and it
> exploded. Not the ballast, but the actual tube itself. Ordered a new bulb
> from Woolworths online and they shipped over an ES bulb instead of a
> bayonet fitting! Haha, the hassle of having to order everything from the
> mainland!
> At least we still have lights when you guys over there on the 'West
> Island' are plunged into darkness!