<p>I guess I better stock up.
[Shopping</a> for Light Bulbs | Consumer Information](<a href=“http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0164-shopping-light-bulbs]Shopping”>Shopping for Light Bulbs | Consumer Advice)
Or am I the only one who doesn’t like fluorescents for reading?</p>
<p>Hate fluorescent ones for multiple reasons. New LED bulbs seem to produce nice, warm light.</p>
<p>I don’t like fluorescents, but the new led bulbs (while pricey) aren’t bad at all. I picked a few up at Costco and put them in my lamps.</p>
<p>DH has been putting the newer bulbs all over the house for 7yrs. I can’t stand them. The ones in the lamps are fine, but the recessed lighting takes forever to get bright, and I’m blind as a bat to begin with. They’re useless in the closets, I can’t see navy from black and have asked him to jack it up. These things rarely burn out so I’m stuck with them for eons. He’s mr energy saver. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Our experience is that the friendly compact fluorescents have a far greater failure rate out of the box than do incandescents, last nowhere near as long as advertised (with a life comparable to or shorter than an incandescent), have non-existent or user-unfriendly safe / proper disposal facilities, and are more costly. I’m more inclined to use candles.</p>
<p>LED bulbs I’m okay with.</p>
<p>Make the switch to LED if you don’t like CFL’s - incandescents are so ridiculously inefficient and are antiquated. Its amazing to me that it’s taken us this long to push for the switch. Eventually we’ll be wondering what took us so long to switch from oil for the same reason.</p>
<p>I haven’t changed my incandescent bulbs in our closets and storage areas for * years*.</p>
<p>I will have to look at the led bulbs at Costco.</p>
<p>[Ultimate</a> Light Bulb Test - Incandescent vs. Compact Fluorescent vs. LED - Popular Mechanics](<a href=“http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/tests/incandescent-vs-compact-fluorescent-vs-led-ultimate-light-bulb-test]Ultimate”>Ultimate Light Bulb Test - Incandescent vs. Compact Fluorescent vs. LED)
But boy, are they expensive!</p>
<p>I guess I must not be too picky about the light wavelengths of incandescent vs. flourescent vs. LED bulbs. I switched long running bulbs to flourescent long ago to cut the electric bill and reduce need to replace due to longer lifetime, but left the incandescents in the short use frequent on-off places (frequent on-off tends to reduce the lifetime of flourescents). LEDs are coming down enough in price that I will likely choose them after the few remaining unused flourescents I have get used.</p>
<p>Incandescents aren’t really “banned” per se, but, they’re being phased out because they don’t meet efficiency standards. Well, now that I think about it, I suppose that means “banned” in the strictest sense, since they cant produce them, but they are just so horribly inefficient. And as others have said, LEDs are expensive, but much much more efficient. DS worked for a lighting company for a year and a half. I learned more about light fixtures and bulbs than I care to know. Fortunately, my memory stinks and I forget most of it :)</p>
<p>They stopped making the 100 and 75 watt bulbs a while ago. Now the 40s and 60s will be stopped. But you can stock up from whats on the shelves in the stores.</p>
<p>I’ve had a couple of hazardous waste cleanups because of broken CFLs. Also, if you have a socket that’s not good, they can burn out as quickly as incandescents. I’m a “green” type person and I hate CFLs. I splurged recently and bought several LEDs. Here’s hoping they do better.</p>
<p>Much happier with the LED recessed. Was going NUTS in my kitchen because the fluorescents took so long to produce usable light.</p>
<p>Now if I can figure out which energy-efficiency crazed rocket scientist put the useless fluorescent bulbs in the outdoor floods … I’ll make him fix those so I can see to walk the dogs at 5 am.</p>
<p>Agree with exPatCanuck. We switched over to the compacts from the good ole incandescents many years ago and our experience has been expensive bulbs that fail MUCH sooner than advertised. We kept a whole bag of the still-working incandescents which we removed to use when the CFL’s all fail. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I’d almost rather shop for a new cell phone plan than have to shop for light bulbs today. I must confess I get confused picking out right replacement light bulbs in Walmart with so many different types offered. Last visit to Walmart, I just grabbed a few 4-packs of good old incandescent bulbs for $1.00/pack.</p>
<p>didn’t find out from the article if LED bulbs can be used with light dimmers, but I know CFLs are not good for this. Can anyone help me with this?</p>
<p>Yes, some do work with dimmers. We have a lot of recessed lights in our house, and are slowly replacing the incandescents as they burn out with LEDs. Philips makes a really nice 13w (=75 watts) dimmable flood light. The light is whiter than an incandescent, but a great pleasure compared to the horrible CFLs.</p>
<p>My husband put CFLs everywhere, and they do go out too quickly. I REALLY hate the ones he put outside our two exterior doors. They are so faint at first that they do no good! The dog doesn’t even want to go out. So I have to remember to turn the light on a few minutes before we head out.</p>
<p>That’s good news about the LEDs working better. I will start buying those.</p>
<p>I agree today’s incandescent are plenty inefficient, I just don’t like the idea of the fed gov’t telling me I cannot use them. Would much rather choose other options than be forced.
Nevertheless, in a couple places, I use the bulbs for minimal heat near water lines to prevent winter freeze. Too dangerous for a heat lamp there, not sure what I’ll do in future, other than stock up now.</p>
<p>Some CFLs can be dimmed. I have no problem with the fed gov enforcing energy efficiency. Not all CFLs have to warm up, we only have one that acts like that and it is disconcerting! I just replaced the halogens in my study with LEDs and love them - great light, and at the rate the halogens went out it’s got to be cheaper in the long run. My kitchen fluorescent (which I do not love, but came with the house 14 years ago and is awaiting a remodel) has lasted the whole time without being changed. It’s on for hours every day. You can get much better color rendering on CFLs now than when they first came out.</p>
<p>You’ll have to sign up for a 14 day free trial or go look for a copy of the magazine at your library, but this is a very helpful article about your energy efficient lighting options: [Preview</a> - Energy-Saving Lightbulbs - Fine Homebuilding Article](<a href=“http://www.finehomebuilding.com/design/articles/energy-saving-lightbulbs.aspx]Preview”>Energy-Saving Lightbulbs - Fine Homebuilding)</p>
<p>Guess I’m in the minority. We’ve been replacing incandescents with CFLs and cousins over the years. When they first came out, we swapped all 5 recessed bulbs in our kitchen and noticed a meaningful reduction in our electric bill right away (these lights are always on except when we are sleeping). </p>
<p>Last month I bought the disables ones at Costco for the family room. They are pricey, but we hope they will be worth it. The only ones I don’t like are the candelabras - light is too white and the base is huge and ugly. I replaced the ones in our upper hall, but kept the old ones in the dining room and will stock up on these.</p>
<p>
I’m not sure what you mean by “hazardous waste cleanups.” The most dangerous thing in a broken CFL is the glass.<br>
[snopes.com:</a> CFL Mercury Light Bulbs](<a href=“http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp]snopes.com:”>Dangers of CFL Mercury Light Bulbs | Snopes.com)
There is more glass in a CFL than in an incandescent, but it’s not really a significant difference.</p>