Is this Obama's not so bright idea?

[puma guy]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

[jimlongley]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

[Dave2]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

At my place, the burn out after about three power outages or so, which usually takes about a year and doesn't really seem to affect other stuff all that much.

[Mike1951]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

Could be. That's about par for me, too. Recently, was shopping for CFLs on Amazon. The reviews were not encouraging. Apparently, lots of folks have issues with them.

A friend's uncle, who retired from HL&P, monitors his incoming voltage constantly. According to him, it's quite often too low.

[RX8er]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

Until everyone figures out just how much mercury (actually very little but it all adds up) is in the CFL and we are all poisoned for life because of the millions that end up in the land fills.

And, don't break one in your house:
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=c ... ls_mercury" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have people and pets leave the room.
Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.
Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning system, if you have one.
Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb:
stiff paper or cardboard;
sticky tape;
damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes (for hard surfaces); and
a glass jar with a metal lid or a sealable plastic bag.

[RottenApple]

CFLs and LEDs are the future.

I wish LEDs were more affordable. Those things just don't (ok, rarely) die!

[C-dub]

I bought my first LED light to replace a fluorescent that replaced an incandescent several years ago. So far I like it, but it's only been a week or two. I like the daylight ones.

[MadMonkey]

I've been using LEDs and CFLs for a long time. I think I've had one CFL burn out... couple of cheap LEDs have dimmed noticeably.

I'm doing a full LED conversion when I buy a house. No sense blowing money on electricity for bulbs that are better heaters than lights

[brainman]

I've tried several different LEDs. Some suck, but if you get a good brand, they are awesome.

[chasfm11]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

Not true. I have had CFLs in some of my outside lights for several years. They are burning out in about 9 months. The electrical current to the outlet is solid at 124v. The CFLs cycle on a photo eye daily. The CFLs are inside reasonably large glass enclosures.

My limited experience suggests that CFLs only have longer life if they are on and don't go through a lot of on-off cycles. YMMV.

[RoyGBiv]

My limited experience suggests that CFLs only have longer life if they are on and don't go through a lot of on-off cycles. YMMV.

My experience is similar.
We have CFL's in select fixtures throughout our house.

We have one in the vent hood over the gas stove that is ALWAYS on. The only time it gets turned off is if the hood is getting cleaned and someone accidentally hits the switch. Using a CFl here allows us to get more lumens for a fraction of the cost and the bulb lasts years.

I have daylight CFL's in the garage, hooked up to a motion sensor. When anyone walks in the garage the lights come on. No need searching for the switch. The lights are on a 20 minute timer. These bulbs need replacing about once per year, even though the number of hours they're "on" is substantially less than the one over the stove.

[jimlongley]

I was just at my local Home Depot to get some stuff I needed and decided to pick up some light bulbs. They only sell one variety of 100w bulbs. 4 for 5.97. The cheap Phillips I used to buy are on the bottom in 60W and 75W only, with no 100w at all and no sticker on the shelf for 100W. There were only about 7 -10 of each so I bought several. I was using the compact florescent bulbs but I got tired of paying through the nose for a 6 year bulb that lasts a year.

Started before bambam and his minions, 100W incandescents are pretty much gone, and 75W on the way out. CFLs and LEDs are the future.

If you are only getting a year out of a CFL, you have issues with your electricity.

Not true. I have had CFLs in some of my outside lights for several years. They are burning out in about 9 months. The electrical current to the outlet is solid at 124v. The CFLs cycle on a photo eye daily. The CFLs are inside reasonably large glass enclosures.

My limited experience suggests that CFLs only have longer life if they are on and don't go through a lot of on-off cycles. YMMV.

First of all, "The electrical current to the outlet is solid at 124v." is not even possible, current is measured in Amps, not Volts. If the voltage at the outlet is "solid at 124v" you have something special going there because the voltage should fluctuate some as the loading changes up and down the primaries. But be that as it may, voltage is just one little part of what your electricity consists of. There are several other possibilities that crop up in the world of electricity, such as excessive harmonic frequencies on your power lines (which you may even be causing yourself) or even a poorly conducting neutral which can show a voltage drop at the outlet that "seems" normal while still causing issues with sensitive devices, and even though they haven't told you so, CFLs are sensitive.

Heck, even CFLs can cause problems with CFLs. Because of the way fluorescent lights operate, they have a tendency to rectify the currents that flow through them, causing the frequency of the current to change some as it flows (this is oversimplification) and what comes out of the light may be significantly different than what went in. One of the biggest noisemakers the power industry has ever had to deal with has been buildings with huge numbers of fluorescent bulbs, such as large businesses, schools, and factories. And of course the power companies don't monitor the frequencies present on their transmission lines, so they depend on the phone company to tell them when they have a problem because they are interfering with the telephone system. And then it's a fight to get them to fix it.

The power companies MUST deliver 120v +/- 5% and 60Hz +/- 1% and anything outside those norms must be fixed.

One problem being that the power companies SAY they don't carry anything but 60Hz, that their systems are designed around 60Hz and will only 60Hz. Of course that's not true, but that's their mantra. So the guy with the machine shop down the road using synchronous motors and rectifying voltages back onto the line, and the school down the street, and your local Home Depot, all can be contributing to noise pollution on your power grid, and it CAN and WILL have a deleterious effect on consumer electrics and electronics.

And then there is the good possibility that you have one of those poorly conducting neutrals I mentioned above (or poorly conducting phase wires for that matter) where although your standing voltage, measured by that meter you stuck in the outlet, looks normal, as soon as it is under load, the story changes significantly.

If I were you and losing CFLs at that rate, I would go through your electrical system and make sure all of your joints are tight, then monitor your voltage for a period of time, and then see if you can borrow or rent a spectrum analyzer (I wish I still had mine, but the phone company owned it) and see what OTHER frequencies are getting delivered to your house (assuming you are not generating them yourself.)

BTW, my computers and the big TV (which are noisemakers) are isolated from the power grid by my uninterruptible power supplies, so that they don't get excessive noise from outside and don't put any out there either.

ETA, by the way, your electric eye might be killing your CFLs for you, if it opens only one side of the line when it turns off, if so then there is ever so little capacitive leakage that occurs through the CFL. Go out on a really really dark night and shade the CFL from ambient light and turn off the electric eye (if necessary shine a flashlight in it) and see if the CFL is glowing ever so lightly. If it is, then you may have found at least part of the problem.

All of the above was a vast oversimplification.

[fickman]

I despise the Federal government involvement in this switchover. When the bulbs are efficient, produce quality light, and affordable, the market will make the switch on its own.

We're trickling in strategic LEDs and a couple of CFLs. . . at our own convenience.

[Ark03]

Is this Obama's not so bright idea?

It was the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by George W. Bush, that effectively requires the removal of 40-150 watt incandescent bulbs by 2014 through a phase-out. If I recall correctly, incandescent bulbs with a wattage greater than 60 can no longer be produced in 2013, and in 2014, 60 watt bulbs are out. I've already started buying a few when I've seen them on sale for $1 per four, but I'm not putting much money into them as I don't think they'll last all that long.

That being said, I don't really have a problem with the CFL's, except that they look ugly in my light fixtures. My little stash will probably put me switching to them them off for another few years, and hopefully by then I will have all those ugly fixtures replaced.

[RPB]

I'm still using CFLs I bought in 1979, Well, just got tired of them last year and gave them to my brother and got LEDs for my house now; now he has CFLs that have been in constant use since 1979