I just replaced a compact fluorescent bulb in our bathroom with an LED bulb.

[hunter]

I feel a little sad actually. This compact fluorescent lasted a little over twenty years and was one of the older light bulbs in our home.

Rest in Peace little energy saving warrior.



The package of the LED bulb I replaced it with promises an oddly specific lifetime of 13.7 years.

I remember when replacing inefficient burned-out incandescent light bulbs was a regular occurrence. There would be a flash-pop and then the sound of me cussing as I went to look for the step stool. When I was a kid it was even worse. My parents didn't always keep spare light bulbs around, their first priority was always food, so sometimes you'd have to swap out a bulb from somewhere else in the house and hope nobody caught you doing it, especially if you wanted to read in your room late at night, which I frequently did. The back porch light was always a safe bet, but sometimes that was burnt out too.

Trump wants to bring that back???



As an early adopter of compact fluorescent bulbs I also remember how some of the cheaper brands were absolute crap. The color was awful, some of them flickered (if not right out of the box then soon) and they tended to burn out quickly. But the big name brands were fairly solid -- Philips, Panasonic, etc..

It was the all the crap compact fluorescent bulbs that turned some people off of them.

LED bulbs can also have ugly coloration, same as the cheap compact fluorescent bulbs did, but most soft white LED bulbs I've bought recently are excellent.

[Girard442]

1. LED bulbs generally come in either 2700K (warm) or 5000K (daylight).

I put a daylight bulb in the bathroom and it made me look unwell. I've grown to prefer the 3000K bulbs for indoor living situations although they can be harder to find. Target has them.

On edit: I might add that I have 5000K bulbs in the office in our apartment. Things seem sharper to my not-so-young eyes under that light.

[kacekwl]

2. I put a set of six led 3 foot lights

in my garage. They were dirt cheap, light as air, use next to no power are light up like the sun. Very pleased. Way better than the fluorescent ones I replaced in every way.

[brush]

3. We replaced the old incandescent bulbs with cfbs 6 or seven years ago now they're all burning out...

Last edited Wed Sep 18, 2019, 06:39 PM - Edit history (1)

but finding replacements for the coil version of them is not easy. One bathroom light fixture has a row of four bulbs and swapping out one burned out one with an LED bulb that doesn't match looks terrible. The coil bulbs are hard to find.

And remember the clip-on lampshade that had the double loop wire clip inside them that fit about the old round incandescent bulbs? Those shades and lamps are no longer functional either.

[hunter]

7. The LED bulbs I just bought are the same size and shape as incandescent bulbs.

A clip on lamp shade would work fine.

Sometimes I wonder if crappy compact fluorescents, and now LED bulbs, are being pushed in some parts of the country.

My poorest compact fluorescent experience, years ago, was with bulbs I bought at Wal-Mart. I haven't had problems with lights purchased at Lowe's, Ace, or Costco.

I recently replaced the fluorescent shop lights in our garage with LED shop lights from Costco. Those work very well. It will be interesting to see how long they last.

[brush]

9. Thanks for the tip one LED bulbs the same size as the old incandescent ones.

[Phoenix61]

8. You can get LED bulbs that look just like the old style incandescent bulbs

The wire harp lampshades work just fine on them.

[brush]

10. Thanks. I've got a couple of those lamps which I thought were useless.

[Midnightwalk]

4. Ah yes

The old swap your burned out bulb and not get caught trick. But you didn’t want to do that with a bulb that would never get noticed or eventually you wouldn’t have a good “unnecessary ” one to borrow.

And lights with two bulbs were redundant. You didn’t have to replace one until both were bad. I still do that but it’s years between burn outs.

I have a compact fluorescent bulb that I’m saving for someone special. It has some fault that makes it turn off and back on at random times. By the time you find a spare it turns back on.

Why am I telling everyone about that? It’ll be my alibi if I get caught. I didn’t break in to steal anything, I was just leaving a light bulb.



Just kidding.

How evil do you have to be to fight against efforts to fight global warming? Especially ones like this that save people money. Revoking California’s waver allowing additional car regulations fits right in.

[lastlib]

5. My ultimate goal is to replace every bulb....

...on my property with an LED. I'm slowly gaining ground toward that, but a lot of my non-flourescent fixtures have globes that a suitable LED bulb won't fit in--so I have to replace the globes, too. And then I have the flourescent fixtures downstairs and in the garage that will have to be changed out completely. The garage will be an extra challenge, because I'll have to get a ladder tall enough to get me up there. But I'll get there.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. when i moved into my apartment 15 years ago, i keped blowing incandesanc bulbs.

evry time id turn around it seemed lilke that i was blowing one , went to compact florescense ones and hadnt had any issues , untill one day the cfl that was in my lamp for a very long time blew out and set of the master fire alarm of the building. i may look at diode lights as an alternative to cfls too.

[northoftheborder]

11. I have to decide by tomorrow what to use to replace my fluorescent fixture---

in my sewing, project room. I need an even light as to color - is daylight the correct color selection in the LED fixtures??? The existing fixture is 4-5 feet long over my work table.

[hunter]

12. My wife is much more sensitive to color shades than I am.

She hasn't complained about the LED lamps above our washing machine.

These are not inexpensive 48 inch "shop light" tubes. I paid some attention to the color quality when I bought them and they cost about half again as much as the least expensive tubes. They are somewhere between "soft white" and "daylight," I don't recall the exact color temp, but I do recall they claimed to be "full spectrum" or something like that.

These LED tubes are meant to work in standard fluorescent light fixtures but won't work in older fixtures with magnetic ballasts. Magnetic lamp ballasts can be replaced with the solid state ballasts these LED tubes require but it's usually easier to replace the entire fixture.

I also replaced the fluorescent lights in the laundry room of my wife's parents' house. My wife's mom specifically asked for "daylight" lamps which are bluer than ours.

[northoftheborder]

13. Thanks for input!