CF Bulb Life

Some CF bulbs are of very low quality (although they are not cheap) and will only last a few weeks. Specially if they are made in China (regardless the "manufacturer" that comes in the label). Also they need to be in an open lamp case, because they generate too much heat (due to poor quality ballasts) and need the open space to dissipate the heat. They also give a very low quality light and make an annoying noise.

I have some CF bulbs (not made in China) that has lasted me for several years, my husband recently bought some China made (with a big and trusted American brand in the label) and they only lasted a few weeks, I discovered they were made in China. Unfortunately, he did not kept the receipt and we were unable to return them to the store and ask for a refund .

Next time I recommend you read the label to make sure they are not made in china.

Good luck .

Seems that if these bulbs generate so much heat, then they are not efficiently producing light which negates the purpose of forcing them on the public to reduce electrical energy consumption.

They are more efficient than incandescent bulbs but they still produce some heat, the problem is that the heat builds up over time causing the problem.

It is worthwhile to keep your receipt. I would hold the store responsible for selling defective products. CF bulbs, like all fluorescents, have to get a lot of things right when they are made. They have two coils instead of the one in an incandescent so the failure rate due to a coil problem is at least twice as common as an incandescent.

And when a coil breaks in a fluorescent, it can cause a catastrophic melt down of the coil clamp (made from flattened piece of nickel coated iron). An incandescent won't do that because it is not really involved in a plasma.

Frequent failure modes consist of tiny cracks or leaks in the metal to glass seal. Again, you have twice as many as in an incandescent. And getting that seal just right takes some expertise that is difficult to acquire. Incandescents are subject to the same issues but when you loose one of those, it is just an inconvenience and not a lost investment.

compact fluorescent - all part of the great green lie.

As to longevity I've just changed one in a village hall that has been there for 15 years to my knowledge. Its 15 friends are still burning bright.

The GLS is very inefficient. 90% of what it gives out is heat.

But what of the CF. Well for a start the claims of energy usage are bunk. Don't ever use them in a commercial situation which measures kVA rather than kW. At best the power factor is 0.5 so twice as many amps as you would expect to get to the Watts.

Look at the recommended disposable techniques. Clear the room for 15 mins. Environmentally friendly - I don't think so.

As to getting hot well they cetainly get warm and warmth is waste energy cos its heat and not light.

Can't comment on country of orgin. The Chinese do have the ability to make some fantastic goods but we all keep screwing them on price.

Most failed CF lamps I have analysed, were the result of poor quality & under sizing of the electronic components.

Your answer is the most sound so far, according to my experience since I started using them for the last 12 years.

A rather rash statement without qualification.

How would you recognize an undersized component if you were only looking at defective lamps? Did you perform some kind of life test? Did you test lamps against specifications? Or are you just making some sort of judgemental statement?

Just so I understand, on what do you base the observations as poor quality? There are many factors that could be a quality issue, but throw us a bone here. Is the overall quality being based on the poor performance of a few or the whole?

I'm not trying to pick a fight here. I'm simply trying to understand how these conclusions are made.

I bought some when they first hit the market and were putting 5 to 7 years warranty on them. One went after 4 years of service. I can't blame that on the bulb as i found issues in the lamp after it blew. But the other 7 are still working fine after 10 years.

Those I bought were a little pricey at the time. I guess the general public wanted less expensive CFL's. Which they got, a long with a cheaper product. So now you pay just three times as much as an incandescent for the same warranty ZIP.

Twenty something years ago, when I lived in Worcester, Mass (Woo-sta), our local utility basically paid for a certain model CFL through a rebate program. I purchased three of them. Light quality sucked, they took about two minutes to come "up to temperature" and they were big, clunky and heavy. Rather than a spiral, if you took off the outer glass casing, you would find a "double-U" shaped tube. I know this because I broke the outer casing on one when I accidentally whacked it in the basement with a piece of lumber or something. It still worked as the inner tube was not damaged. Because the light quality sucked, even for an advertised 50-W equivalent, I relegated them to basement duties for general use, laundry area, etc.

The interesting thing, is these things never die. They typically get daily use, even several times a day, sometimes they get forgotten and get left on for days. At 13 watts consumption, I don't worry if the kids forget and leave them on.

Human nature is a funny thing. Back when all we had were incandescents, we promptly turned off any light we didn't really need to keep the electric bill lower. Now that we have all these efficient bulbs, we're inclined to leave them on because "we know" they are efficient and we like to have our spaces well lit. I wonder if we are really saving energy, or are we just fooling ourselves?

I date all my CFL's at installation. Life expectancy seems to have no rhyme or reason to it. For instance, in my upstairs hallway ceiling fixtures, I installed 60W-equivalent CFL's in a cylindrical globe (think of a small cake) fixture just barely big enough to fit the bulb. One would think that the frequent use and power cycling, hot temperatures on the ceiling in the summer months from the attic baking in the sun, tiny fixture with no ventilation and a horizontal orientation would doom these bulbs to a short life. One of the two finally failed after three years. The other one is still going strong four years plus now.

Yet, I have installed the same manufacturer, size, and model CFL in a living room lamp fixture, base down, open ventilation, reasonable use and had it fail in a few months. I don't get it.

Well, actually I do. The components and assembly processes are not tightly controlled, so while the average performance may meet the specified values, you will get numbers all over the map. It's a cost trade-off and few people ever save their receipts or bother to return the infant mortality units so the manufacturers have no real incentive to change anything. I can't blame them, it's a competitive market and when you can purchase an 8-pak of CFL's from Sam's Club for about $6 who's going to bother to try to return a bum unit?

Cheers !!

"Jack" and "TCM" (posts 8 and 10) totally got it right- These lamps are great in open lamp holders where the ballast is on the bottom.

Any installation where the lamp coil is facing "down" absolutely MUST have adequate ventilation around the ballast- which MOST installation do not support (exterior lights in hanging enclosures, can lights, ceiling fan lights, etc.).

If possible, they must be installed vertical UP or horizontal with no enclosure to trap heat.

The ONLY good thing, even if they only last as long as the "old" incandescent lamps is that the only take about 25% as much power.

My utility company GIVES AWAY 15 lamps at a time rated equivalent to 60 and 75 Watt incandescent lamp output, so life expectancy is NOT an issue for me. When I actually PAY for CFLs it is for 3-way equivalents that are used in vertical lamp holders in my living room and family room.

I agree on all the heat and usage comments. I have several installed "upside down" in my basement in open ceramic fixtures, they last years and years. Bathroom gets replaced more often, and the dog kennel has several that are effectively outside but under cover that are the longest lasting...also the coolest location, but they take a while to warm up when it's 20 below!

In the tropics, where I live, they don't last long. Sometimes not even for a month, even in an temperature controlled room.

The CF light bulbs we stock have a rated life of between 8,000-10,000 hours. A standard incandescent bulb ranges from 750-1000 hours. One CF light bulb will save you 10-13 trips up the ladder.