Bulbs shine a light on changing industry
By Susan Skorupa, Reno Gazette-Journal
The biggest changes on home improvement and hardware store shelves for consumers in the past couple of years probably have shown up on the light bulb aisles.
And there’s more change to come as the industry strives to improve energy-use standards and pricing on new light-bulb technology. There also are federal standards pending that — if enacted — will affect the sale of traditional incandescent bulbs.
Standard incandescent bulbs, the mainstay of the lighting industry for 100 years or so, are fading in popular usage and being replaced by more energy-efficient models. Some people bemoan the loss of the traditional bulb with its bright, golden light and cheap replacement costs. Proponents of new technology cite improvements to newer light sources — such as compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs — with greater energy efficiency, longer usage lifetimes and falling prices.
“People are aware of them, and they are taking off,” John Lazarus of Bulbman in Reno said of energy-efficient light bulb choices. “Incandescent is 100-year-old technology. I tell people, would you want to go back to the old cars? … I kind of miss my old ’48 Buick, but I like my new one with all the new technology.”
Incandescents aren’t going away entirely, lighting experts said. Some are being bolstered with high-energy efficiency. Some — such as appliance light bulbs — are not yet included in federal standards, but consumers should be aware that the lighting scene is changing continually with new models of light bulbs and new technology adding to the choices.
“For us, it’s all about education and helping consumers find the right lighting options,” Alyssa Steele, a light bulb associate at the Home Depot, said of the wide array of light choices now available.
Many of my CFLs burn out in less time than an incandescent. Tell me how I’m saving that much money.
How many?
90% of mine are still working after 4 years, including the outdoor ones.
Tell us about the 10% that burned out. Where and why?
The weird little fluorescents that our electrician installed in the bathrooms (code) 9 years ago are mostly still working. Good thing, because getting precisely the right one is difficult. Highly specialized bases, and there is an assortment of them in the stores.
But the ones that I’ve gotten as incandescent replacements have not lasted well at all. Not at all.
CR: I’d say about 10% of mine burn out within a year while they claim 7 plus years. I haven’t had them 7 years to know if in fact they will meet the number of hours they advertize.
Now that the utility companies are no longer subsidizing the purchase it becomes a significant price to pay with the government having taken away your option to buy incandesecent bulbs. I want the choice and if they’re worth it, the incandesecents will die by themselves.
I just love having my government mandated, mercury-filled glass containers in my house. I don’t worry at all when they break. Makes me proud of the left for bending over for the radical environmentalists.
I have mentioned this before. There are two types of ‘starting’ circuits used in the CFL’s. One type burns-out much sooner, and MOST PARTICULARLY it burns out quickly if the CFL is turned on and off quite often. CFL’s are best used for a minimum of 15 minutes per actuation, and by far the best is to turn them on and don’t turn them off.
Robert; Fleischer Electronics Service, SLT.
So, if I leave the darned things on all day, am I actually saving money and energy with them if I would normally be turning off lights that are not in use?
Answering dogwoman:
It is a MAYBE yes, MAYBE no.
It is quite easy to calculate what a lamp costs to operate as far as the electricity consumed is concerned. You need to use the figure typically printed on the base area of the CFL, which is the number of watts that the lamp actually uses; this is NOT the ‘equivalent light output’.
Here at South Shore, for most folks, electricity costs are approximately 14 cents per kilo-watt-hour (kwh).
As an example, suppose you have one of the latest especially higher efficiency CFL’s that claims to have the light of a 100 watt incandescent for a real consumption of 25 watts. Only a few types are this good; most REAL equivalents would be closer to 30 watts drain. One kwh means 1000 watts for one hour, and you are billed 14 cents for each kwh. Dividing 1000 by 25 shows that your 25 real watts CFL will take 40 hours to burn that much electricity. A 100 watt conventional bulb would take only 10 hours. So, 4 times less power, 4 times less cost to run….
It is entirely another thing to factor in the cost of the lamp itself.
CFL’s have their place, just select carefully.
Note that only a few types of CFL’s will work with standard wall dimmer switches; and they do NOT have full control either like you have with a conventional old-fashioned incandescent lamp. CFL’s can’t be used in your electric oven, can’t be used in conventional Christmas type lamp strings. They are quite useful for such as a hallway or stairway light, especially one that might be used all night or all the time. It takes a very powerful and rather tall CFL for a reading lamp next to your couch/chair. Ones that draw about 65 to 80 actual watts do well for this purpose. CFL’s don’t have quite as nice a color output for such things, although some are pretty good. You can even get three-way CFL’s now; but not the really powerful ones…yet.
The upcoming generation of LED lamps will replace CFL’s and incandescents eventually, but for now, the costs are quite high for the lamps. LED lamps have real problems with cooling the wee tiny light-emitting part(s).
For me, the bottom-line is to USE CFL’s WISELY! They are not the answer to but a small percentage of lighting situations.
Thank you, Robert! Staight answer, if somewhat complicated. But then, everything is getting more complicated these days.
The government is not taking away your option to buy incandescent bulbs.
10% = most of to you? OK. I don’t know what to tell you.
As for fluorescent lighting and ‘government mandate vs free market’
What form of lighting dominates in the buildings designed by developers to serve their customers in the free market?
Florescent bulbs. The market has spoken. If anything, the government is behind on this one.
And if you really care about mercury so much, you would be focusing your efforts on reducing the amount of coal we burn, or advocating for some way to prevent Hg from being burned directly into the atmosphere. Or you focus on regulating hard rock mining, which is a massive Hg polluter.
Over the product life cycle, even assuming that all CFLs are not disposed of properly, the amount of Hg introduced into the environment is less. And you save energy. Environment, check. Cost incentive, check. So what then is the source for all the resistance? Ideology.
example:
“CFL is turned on and off quite often. CFL’s are best used for a minimum of 15 minutes per actuation,”
reply
“So, if I leave the darned things on all day, ”
There are 1440 minutes in a…never mind.
The 10% of the bulbs that burned out were the crappy ones I got for free, and they were located in the bathroom. I imagine the humidity had something to do with it, as the other ones used in hallways lasted much longer. And yes, I saved them all in a box and disposed of them properly. The high output one I have in my garage, which is subjected to short on cycles, has been there for 7 years.
Robert: When are the ceramic metal halides going to be available in the US? The indoor gardening enthusiasts are going to love them, or so I’ve read on the internet.
“The Government” has mandated that 100 watt incandescents, the most popular type, will not be sold to the public.
People have been stocking-up on them.
As for halide lamps, the old styles have been available industrially for decades. Newer higher efficiency types will be available in the US, some probably already are, I do not know, since I have not checked into it. My only personal experience with metal halide lamps was for a factory, these lamps were NOT “plug’n play” for home use.
One could check a major lamp supplier. Industrial lamps are generally NOT what you find sold at a hardware store, etc.
Wasn’t all that long ago that some understood that reducing the voltage by 10 or 15% to standard INCANDESCENT lamps would lengthen their life tremendously. I installed 130 volt rated lamps at my house and business. Most lasted for many many years. Some foreign lamps like that are still available. Some use bases we do not, generally anyway. Lamp dimmers do almost the exact same thing.
Yes, the indoor gardening folks (marijuana growers) are going to latch onto anything more efficient, whether it be by type of lamp output, or electrical efficiency, whatever. I suppose this discussion could lead to comments about the ‘problems’ with collectives, growers, rentors ruining houses, blah blah. I don’t think I want to get much into any controversy about the City of SLT, growers, State versus Federal laws, enforcement, and all the rest….I will leave it to others, including Steve Kubby who posts on Lake Tahoe News, and elsewhere’s now and then. It is pretty obvious (to me) that there are egregious abuses by all sides.