Anyone else hoarding incandescent bulbs?

[NutBucket]

The government forced the change, and mandated the phase out of incandescents. CFLs are a false economy. They divert the cost to other locations on the planet, and the energy savings is overstated. They make more sense in public/municipal facilities than they do in the house.

I would argue both. Trust me, in general I don't need the government telling me what I can or can't do. In my home every light except for the two bed-side lamps are CFL or regular florescent. My choice. Hell, even my aquarium is lit with LEDs. Saves me money so I'm going to complain why?

While there are certainly downsides to CFLs, the main one I see people complaining about is color temperature. You can get CFLs is just about color range you like these days. I don't see the basis for the complaint.

But I will be the first to admit it does take getting used the warm-up time of CFLs. Aside from that I haven't had to change a bulb in the last two years.

But ultimately, if you replace bulbs and save money on your energy bill most consumers are going to choose CFL/LED. I think my local utility is prepping for a rate increase this year too....

 

[Red Squirrel]

I always try to keep a box of CFLs and incads handy so I can change a bulb in the house if it blows on me. I have mostly CFLs but a couple spots I have incadescent since it makes more sense there. Bathroom being one of them, as bathroom lights tend to be turned on and off more often as opposed to staying on. CFLs don't like lot of on/off cycles.

I actually like the light produced by CFLs, provided it's the right type. Different brands seem to have different color temperatures, so depends where you buy it.

 

[KeithTalent]

No. I don't even know what the difference between the bulbs are. /shrug

KT

 

[disappoint]

No. I don't even know what the difference between the bulbs are. /shrug

KT

You've always struck me as a little slow but this is ridiculous.

 

[KeithTalent]

You've always struck me as a little slow but this is ridiculous.

They both give off light, I know that. I assume one of them is the bulbous old school type and the other ones are the twisty ones? :hmm:

KT

 

[Anubis]

They both give off light, I know that. I assume one of them is the bulbous old school type and the other ones are the twisty ones? :hmm:

KT

please tell me you are trolling your boat

 

[KeithTalent]

please tell me you are trolling your boat

I'm not, but I just googled and founds my assumption was correct.

I had no reason to know about this before. A light bulb dies, I pull it out, take it to Home Depot, and ask for the same bulb; bring it home and screw it in. That is the totality of my interactions with light bulbs.

KT

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

You've insulted the bulb fanatics.


Btw I'll accept any of those evil cfl bulbs.

 

[slayernine]

Nope. LEDs are just as good.

I just hope the price on LEDs come down significantly. I changed my bedroom lights to LED because I spend a lot of time in there. Too expensive to change over the whole house.

 

[Possessed Freak]

A light bulb dies, I pull it out, take it to Home Depot, and ask for the same bulb; bring it home and screw it in.

I find it HIGHLY unlikely that you did this with bulbs 10 years ago. Wait... maybe you are only in your teens, then I *might* believe it.

 

[slayernine]

LEDs are great for directional lighting like flashlights, but their battery drain rate is unacceptable, at least on the cheap $5 pocket sized one I have.

Ok, now you are just trollin....

LEDs flashlights have great battery life. Other than trolls I think none would seriously suggest that LED flashlights are power inefficient.

 

[Red Squirrel]

CFL = Compact Fluorescent Light. Basically the same thing in most offices, just smaller. So it's a different technology. The base part is the ballast.

That's one thing with CFL/LED is that they don't operate on 120VAC so they need their own converter. Whether it's a ballast, in the case of CFLS, or a rectifier, in the case of LEDs. There really needs to be a lighting standard where you have a box somewhere in your house that supplies the proper power for the bulbs then the bulbs would not need to have their own converters. Would take a while to implement that mind you but I think it's something that needs to be done for new houses at least. The trick is forming a proper standard that nobody has monopoly on, and that's never going to happen. Cell companies can't even agree on a charger standard FFS!

 

[KeithTalent]

I find it HIGHLY unlikely that you did this with bulbs 10 years ago. Wait... maybe you are only in your teens, then I *might* believe it.

Back then it was Safeway. What the hell is the big deal about light bulbs?

KT

 

[Red Squirrel]

Actually I always forget you can bring bulbs to HD for recycling. I should start doing this instead of throwing them out. Same with batteries. For big lead acid batteries I always do that though. There's a place in town that gives you 5 bucks for a dead car/marine battery. For UPS batteries they just play it by ear. If it's about the size of a car battery they'll count it as one.

Have not had any CFLs die on me in a while though. They DO last longer. The people who say they don't probably turn them on/off a lot and should use incandescent in those areas.

 

[WHAMPOM]

As production of LED replacement bulbs goes into high gear, prices will go down and consumer demand will give you the perfect lighting you want.

 

[CVSiN]

I cant stand CFLs in certain rooms, especially my bedroom. They produce too many shadows IMO, unlike incandescents which are so strong that refracted light is able to illuminate shadows better.

SO...I forgot to stockpile 100Ws last year, but this year Im going to be warehousing the 75Ws. So far I have 7 bulbs.

How many do you have?


Note - 60Ws are not even worth it. Might as well use a CFL.

nope LED FTW.

 

[Slew Foot]

I turning all my lights into LEDs as they go out

 

[xanis]

Wow, I didn't realize LED bulbs were so expensive.

 

[jagec]

They divert the cost to other locations on the planet, and the energy savings is overstated. They make more sense in public/municipal facilities than they do in the house.

The energy savings are overstated? What do you mean? A 13W CFL outputs 800 lumens, which is the same amount as a 60W incandescent. You can complain about color temperature/CRI, mercury content, bulb life, and other factors all you want, but that's an objective 78% energy savings, no two ways about it.

 

[phucheneh]

CFL's are trash, but the OP makes no sense. They're too bright, not too dim. The only ones I'll use are like 40-60w equivalents with coatings that make the light yellow.

I bought some one time that were apparently in a mismarked package. Nowhere on it did it mention that the bulbs work make it look like a Lexus was driving down my hallway.

The biggest problem is the half of the fixtures in my house can't even use them. Either they flicker when on, they flicker when off, or they just flat-out don't work. Some have gone from working to not-working, leading me to suspect that the damn things actually do something to degrade the circuitry in certain fixtures; like the relatively modern but pre-CFL fan in my bedroom, which has a remote dimmer. It used to work with CFL's as long as the dimmer was all the way up. Now it does not. At all. Incandescents still work fine.

 

[quikah]

The halogen bulbs that are widely available are a pretty damn good replacement for the old style incandescent. They use a little less power, but otherwise I can't tell the difference. Something like 71W for the light provided by the 100W old style.

I have these for my living room. They work great and I can keep using my old crappy dimmer.

 

[phucheneh]

What's a 'halogen' bulb with regards to indoor lighting? I've only ever heard that term with cars; and it's still an incandescent (filament) bulb. The gas inside just allows it to be smaller and brighter...but since all the light is being produced by a glowing filament, I was under the impression that amount of watts used per lumen would about the same.

Hence the (as far I knew) lack of indoor use- no constraint to 12v or small size, so regular bulbs make more sense.

 

[lxskllr]

The energy savings are overstated? What do you mean? A 13W CFL outputs 800 lumens, which is the same amount as a 60W incandescent. You can complain about color temperature/CRI, mercury content, bulb life, and other factors all you want, but that's an objective 78% energy savings, no two ways about it.

They're "free" to operate in the winter if you live in a cooler area, and at 10¢ per kwh, the "savings" is almost non-existent unless you're naturally wasteful. In that case, the economic, environmental, and patriotic solution is to change your behavior. Buying bulbs that use more energy to make, and ship doesn't save anything.

 

[phucheneh]

They're "free" to operate in the winter if you live in a cooler area, and at 10¢ per kwh, the "savings" is almost non-existent unless you're naturally wasteful. In that case, the economic, environmental, and patriotic solution is to change your behavior. Buying bulbs that use more energy to make, and ship doesn't save anything.

I dunno if you can say that they're free in winter. I've thought along the same lines, but can you say that a hot filament is really the best way to produce heat?

I guess wattage and heat produced would have to be linked inexorably (assuming the electricity isn't doing other 'work'), but pure electricity isn't the only way to produce heat, obviously.

 

[Red Squirrel]

They're "free" to operate in the winter if you live in a cooler area, and at 10¢ per kwh, the "savings" is almost non-existent unless you're naturally wasteful. In that case, the economic, environmental, and patriotic solution is to change your behavior. Buying bulbs that use more energy to make, and ship doesn't save anything.

Especially if you heat electric to begin with. In that case it actually makes more sense to stick with incandescent because it's simply adding to the heat in your house.

In fact I heat with gas but I have a couple electric heaters in places where I sometimes want more heat. Electric heat cost more but is greener. Assuming your power comes from hydroelectric or other renewable source, that is. If it's an older area that runs on coal or something then that point is moot, natural gas is cleaner.