[Cialug] OT: cheap CFL bulbs

[Jeff Chapin]

I've noticed that many of those '5 year lifetimes' come with some fairly
silly caveats sometimes : "based on average use of 40 hours/week" or
other not always realistic baselines -- and many are looking at 'ideal'
environments -- just the right air flow, humidity, temp, length on,
length off, cleaned power, etc.

Jeff

Dave Hala Jr wrote:
> I have all CFL's in my house, various brands and in the last 5yrs have
> had a 60% failure rate. The 5-7 year lifetime is obviously marketing
> hype.
>
> On Thu, 2010-06-03 at 10:46 -0500, Matt Breitbach wrote:
>   
>> Well, some people aren't going to like this, but I say stick with
>> standard incandescents.  I use CFL's all over in my house, and after 4
>> years, I'm happy to say that I've only had about 5 bulbs fail.  With
>> that being said, it's always a nightmare to get rid of them after they
>> do.  So much so that I still have 5 bulbs sitting in a box waiting for
>> disposal since they contain hazardous materials.  I'm wondering how
>> good all of this low power usage is if the bulbs themselves can't go
>> into a proper landfill.  I also wonder how many people do just throw
>> them in the trash without even thinking and are polluting our
>> landfills with mercury.
>>
>>  
>>
>>                                    
>> ______________________________________________________________________
>> From:cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On
>> Behalf Of Matthew Nuzum
>> Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 10:37 AM
>> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
>> Subject: [Cialug] OT: cheap CFL bulbs
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>> Hello, I just moved and my new house uses an astonishing number of
>> light bulbs. For example, the master bath has a vanity with 15 40w
>> bulbs. When you turn it on you get a sun tan. (I hope they're 40's -
>> they're the fancy kind and there's no imprint indicating their
>> wattage)
>>
>> The problem is that a lot of the light bulbs are the round globe kind
>> (not the normal bulb shape, but the spherical shape). I have 24 of
>> these and Home Depot wants $12 for 2.
>>
>> I also have lots of the smaller base bulbs. Some of these are the
>> candle flame shaped bulbs, others are just smaller bulb shaped bulbs.
>> I have 13 of the bulb shaped ones and 8 of the flame shaped ones.
>>
>> I found normal bulbed shape CFLs at Sam's club for about $1 per bulb.
>> (GE) That, imho, is an awesome price. Home Depot also has contractor
>> packs of the common CFL spiral shaped bulbs for only slightly more per
>> bulb. I can't find a deal on any of the other bulbs though. 
>>
>> Any suggestions? My goal is to avoid the up-front cost of replacing
>> all these bulbs.
>>
>> -- 
>> Matthew Nuzum
>> newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter
>>
>> "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they
>> sought." –Matsuo Bashō
>>
>>
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>>     
>
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