Now that you’ve replaced every bulb in your home with those twisty compact fluorescents, you can relax for a while, right? They last 10 years, so by the time you have to change another bulb, you’ll be ready to replace them with LEDs. Not so fast, says California utility PG&E, which insists that CFLs don’t last nearly as long as claimed. But our brighter brethren at Consumer Reports state that some of them really do, and they’ve got test results to prove it.
Consumer Reports flips the switch on the debate:
The Wall Street Journal reports that in California, compact fluorescent lightbulbs aren’t lasting as long as expected. Utilities like PG&E, which has subsidized consumer purchases of CFLs in the state, originally figured a bulb would last more than nine years, but based on experience has lowered that to about six. We’ve found in our past tests that some spiral CFLs were still shining brightly after 10,300 hours of use. That works out to 3 hours a day for 9.4 years.
Our latest CFL tests found that after cycling on (for 3 hours) and off (for 20 minutes) since early 2009, or 6,000 hours, brightness and warm-up times remained virtually the same as after 3,000 hours of testing. An outside lab has confirmed our result.
While PG&E may be bemoaning the miscalculation, our experts say that you’ll save money even if a CFL lasts 6,000 hours rather than the 10,000 the manufacturer claims. A typical incandescent lasts about 1,000 hours and costs 50 cents. You’d need six bulbs and spend about $42 on bulbs and electricity. Or you can buy one CFL and spend $12, electricity included.
Consumer Reports does point out that CFLs aren’t right for every lighting need, and also recommends that you keep your receipt when purchasing bulbs, just in case they really do cut out a few years early.
California utility says CFLs burning out faster than expected [Consumer Reports]
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If I am going to save the receipt, do I need to save the original packaging too? Also do I make the return request to the store that I bought the bulb from to the store I bought it from or am I going to have to go through the manufacturer.
I really do not like the CFL lights, but have some very nice LED bulbs in some recessed lights in my home.
I do wish the packaging on the LED lights would tell me how they correspond to regular incandescent bulbs. Many of the more-expensive ones do, but I’ve seen some deals lately but have no idea what a 2W LED bulb will look like. You’d think they’d make that pretty prominent.
Actually… I just found this chart, which I’ve saved to my Dropbox so I have it handy on my phone when I’m shopping!
http://eartheasy.com/live_led_bulbs_comparison.html#b
In my home, I can’t get a CFL to last more than 2 years.
What really bugs me is I have 2 light switches that have “remote” light switch panels (so I didn’t have to rerun wiring to the other side of the room, just stick up the remote switch and i’m done).
CFLs controlled by these remote sockets die within a few days literally. I really hope once I run out of my hoard of edison-bulbs , that they’ll make a CFL compatible with these switches.
Mercury!
Debunked!
i’ve been using CFL bulbs for about 6 years now, approx 35 in total, have yet for one to burn out.
I have a ceiling fan with a 4 light fixture in my living room. The 40 watt bulbs in it used to burn out every 3 months, almost like clockwork. (I am assuming fan vibration damaged the filaments.) I even bought some expensive ($3) ceiling fan + utility light bulbs. They lasted … 4 months. Finally I tried CFLs. I haven’t changed them since then and it’s been about 3 years so far!
Some CFLs may last. I installed a couple of very expensive Philips bulbs after a remodel in fixtures which see at most an hour a day of use. These bulbs have lasted thirteen years so far and are still working. THAT IS TWO BULBS. On the other hand, I’ve bought entire bulk packages of Feit bulbs in which every single one died within a year. After much labor I got Feit to replace them. After half of the replacements had died within another year I took the entire remaining batch to the recycling center. I’ve had similar experiences with other inexpensive bulbs from big-box stores — they just don’t last. THAT IS PERHAPS FORTY BULBS. (And you wouldn’t believe the smell when the electronics on a CFL go supernova!)
The lesson I’ve learned is that, if you are willing to buy absolute top-of-the-line CFLs you can probably expect them to perform as advertised (and sometimes even better). Otherwise, forget it.
I bought my house 5 years ago and the previous owner had put CFL’s in every light socket except the bathroom vanity. As of today I only replaced the 2 in the bed room (about 8 months ago). So that’s 2 out of about 10 that did not last 5 years plus who knows how long they were installed before I bought the house. I have since replace the bathroom vanity and any new light fixture in my house with CFL’s too. The lights seem to last longer than incandescent, how much longer I haven’t been keeping track.
my first CFL: burned out last week. Bought it with my nelson bubble lamp 12 years ago.
for the first 5 years it was lit 24×7 over the last 7 just 9hr/day/6days
Probably not, and then they are treated like hazardous waste when they do. I just stick to the good ol regular light bulb.
The light is different despite bulb materials and shades
and its just creepy and for people who unfortunately cannot
see out of one eye or the other (I mean blind here), the effect
is truly awful and gives them headaches. Sorry fluorescent light is
nasty and hopefully LEDs will enable the warm look and non-flickering
appearance that incandescent has. For me, I’ve reduced the wattage
somewhat on my bulbs and am careful to turn them off when not needed.
And in the end it isn’t lighting that causes high electricity use, it is heatling
water, heating air, refrigeration, and drying clothes.
The longest they’ve lasted for me is 3 months. I don’t have to buy them as management hands them out whenever we need one.
Plus, mercury or not I toss them in the trash when they die, everyone does. I suspect our trash bin outside could be declared a toxic spill zone.
So, over the last year, I’ve stocked up on regular incandescent bulbs, CA laws be damned. I love the light and the heat they give off over the cold winter.
i don’t know when the bulbs that were in the fixtures when i bought my house were installed. but i had to change one of them recently and the base style was HUGE, much different than any i have bought the last few years. and the plastic on the base was yellowed with age.
however long it lasted, it was a lot longer than any incandescent bulb.
but as the report states, it’s not right for every fixture. my sister had CFLs go bad about every year in her ceiling fan before an electrician who was fixing something else mentioned that you can’t put them in that type of fan.
Some do. Cheap ones don’t. And you have to use the right bulb for the right socket- for example, standard CFLs can overheat in recessed ceiling lighting, shortening life span. They make other CFLs designed for those kinds of fixtures.
CFL do not do well in sealed light fixtures on the ceiling, or when installed upside down.
Also if you put a dim a dimmable CFL you cut the life even more ( I have fried dimmable CFLs with in weeks of months )
I’ve had a lot burn out as well. Kinda pisses me off considering the price is supposed to reflect their longevity.
Since CFLs give family members migraines – and should be treated as hazardous material when broken or being disposed of – I’m stockpiling incandescent bulbs until LED bulbs of equivalent lumens are cheaper.
Well, I haven’t done too well with CFL’s. I bought a Sylvania CFL two months ago and it died after just two months. One thing that’s not mentioned is that with fluorescents if you turn them off and on too much the life will not be nearly as long. I guess this means you have to leave them on if you’re not using them for more than an hour.
What I don’t understand is, why the newer bulbs take longer to start up? Could it be that the hardware and grocery stores in my area, and the Lowe’s and Home Depots, are just carrying cheaper brands? Or are the slow-starters significantly more economical than quicker-starting models?
When CFL’s first came on the market, that was one of the complaints against them, but when I converted most of my house to CFL’s about 10-15 years ago all of them were the quick-start type, almost indistinguishable from incandescents. Then, we moved in a new house a year ago, that was completely fitted with CFL’s, and they are all s-l-o-o-o-w to start. It’s probably quicker than this, but they seem to take about a minute or two to reach peak brightness.
It’s not worth replacing them if they’re still working, but when two burned out I went shopping in my neighborhood. The only replacements I could find were the same brands as the ones that burned out.
It really is just a minor annoyance, compared to the economic savings. But odd.
Steven
At my house the CFLs last about half their rated life. I use a Sharpie to write the install date on the base.
Besides the drawbacks mentioned earlier in this thread, their performance in cold weather outside is anemic at best and pitiful at worst.
I’ve also noted they tend to attract insects more than incandescents.
They also aren’t very good for very short usage cycles such as in a stairway or hallway where you turn on the light upon entry and turn it off once at the other end.
There are also some types of bulbs where the CFLs don’t work – examples include oven lights and refrigerator lights, and other shapes/sizes where you can’t get them to work such as vacuum cleaner lights, pilots lights etc.
Can’t wait for economical and practical LED lights.
I think most of my CFL’s are 6-8 years old, a couple are newer. I only ever had one burn out … spectacularly, with a flicker, a spark, and some smoke — that wasn’t fun to watch, and it stunk in that room for a week.
I have never had one single CFL last more than 2 years. I have them in my kitchen and family room area. I also have them in my garage (specifically made for outside). Those last a bit longer but never more than 3 years. I am hording incandescent because I won’t put CFLs in the baths, or anywhere where I need instant lighting like the stairs area. I had no idea that I could complain about these not lasting even close to what the packaging says, and honestly, even if I did, do you think they would be replaced? Its my word against theirs. I am better off in the dark that I usually have unless I really need to see. LED is the way to go.
I am not sure what you guys do to your bulbs, but i have not had a single failure in 2 years, i replaced every bulb in the house, all of them. The ceiling fans, outdoor fixtures, indoor fixtures, even the refrigerator has a cfl inside of it. The only burnouts are in the dimmable fixture in the dining room, but the company happily sends me replacements. Saves about 20 a month in electric, cost about 75 bucks to replace them all, not sure why anyone would waste time on incandescents.
I brought a set at sams in 2001, I just replacement them before Christmas, they all stopped working the same week.
Now the ones I got in 2007 or 2008, when Lowe’s was giving them for nearly nothing during black Friday, those only last a year or so.
I find they burn out much sooner than 10 years but they’ll do until we have a full line of affordable LED bulbs on the market.
But they still suck! The light is annoying, and I generally hate them unless I’m using my work light for close up work.
I replaced have of my bulbs. The new CFLs go out FASTER than the old bulbs.
“That works out to 3 hours a day for 9.4 years.”
Where do you live that you only have a light on for 3 hours? A more typical 6 hours takes even CRs rosy 9.4 years down to 4.7 years.
Also, as we all know, bulbs more often burn out when you initially turn them on. CR should run a test based on cycles, not time.
If you really want to make people listen, stop the “last 10 years!” lie and simply state:
“100 watt” CFL energy cost per year = $6
100 watt Incandescent cost per year = $25
The consumer is smart enough to realize “Huh, I’ll save more money than the bulb costs. Cool.”
(Except for the dumb halogens installed in the kitchen and the dinning room, all our lights are CFL.)
Do they last longer? Technically, yeah. But no where near 10, or even 6, years, at least not for me.
I only use them in fixtures that are inconvenient to get to, so that I don’t have to change them as often, but I’m still replacing them…I don’t know…at least once a year. The problem is that they don’t necessarily “burn out” the way regular bulbs do, they fade. At what point is a CFL bulb considered at the end of its life? When it outputs 10% less light? 20%? 50%? That number makes a big difference when specifying lifespan. I use CFL bulbs in my main kitchen light fixture and just the other day realized that I was standing in a half dim kitchen even with the light on, so it’s time to replace them again and it’s been nowhere near a year. The dimming happens slowly, so it’s easy to not notice it at first.
I hate CFLs, and only use them to keep from having to climb up on a ladder and take apart a heavy glass fixture more often. The light quality is bad (yes, I know they’re improving, but they’re not there yet) and the dimming issue drives me nuts. I use Reveal bulbs in my bathroom and it makes a world of difference in light quality. The funny thing is that I end up replacing my CFL’s almost as often as my Reveal bulbs, and they both get around the same amount of use.
Now if they only made them so they light up when you turned them on, instead of having to wait. The so called instant on bulb suck too.
I switched the majority of my apartment over early on when they were about $5 a bulb. From the same place, incandescent bulbs were about $0.70 for the same amount of light.
On average I got 7 years out of a bulb. Some died in as short as 4 years, some made it 10. Given that incandescents got so cheap and shoddily built that it cost me $0.70 every time someone slammed a door too hard, they were worth every penny even before you factored in electricity costs.
From my own experience, lifespan is also highly dependent on the brand. I used to by the nVision CFLs from Home Depot, and half of them would overheat and eventually melt the connection between the glass tube and the base. I’d have to wait for the melted plastic to set before removing it from the fixture. I’ve moved to GE and, two years later, they’re all working flawlessly. Now, I’m not a GE fan–I’ve had to force them to replace my dishwasher four times, including one time where faulty wiring burned a hole in the front panel because they couldn’t make a leakproof JetDry container–but at least now I’m not wasting money on CFLs that lasted less then an incandescent.
I’ve never had one last near that long, maybe just over a year and a half. However, I like them and they do last much longer than the old fashioned kind. I also like that they don’t put off heat.
Fact: I have a CFL in my old bedroom at my mom’s house from the early 90s that still works great.
My son told me he heard that incandescents will become illegal in 2012. Is that true? I may have to speed up my bulb hoarding.
I have had good luck with CFL bulbs. I have one in the living room that I paid $8 for in 1997 that still works, but that is in a low-use reading light over the couch. As most of my lights are on 24/7 (I may flip some of them off when we are all gone from the house, which is rare), they usually last about two years (17,000 hours or so). As they claim 6000 hours on most packages now and they cost about $1.50 each, I can live with that. For the record, in 1997 they claimed 10,000 to 12,000 hours. When they first came out in 1990 or so I bought two cylinder-shaped CFLs that lasted for four years of just about 24/7 use (and they cost $35 each, IIRC they claimed 20,000 hours at that time) and the only reason they quit working is because the house burned down. Even in 1990, they saved more in electricity than they cost, so I am happy.