The Best Compact Light Bulb at the Best Price

Good to save electric what did you used for base on ceiling for the bulbs how did you space them

-- Jim, Kentucky

My shop is 16 feet by 32 feet. I placed eight of the bulbs in two evenly spaced rows lengthwise. With the rows being about 8 feet apart. I also used a pair of these lights at one end of my shop where my workbench will be in front of the south-facing window. (Actually I have one more of these light bulbs in my ceiling fan in the center of my shop too.) For a fixture I used a standard ceiling fixture like you would have in most basements & a slick 12 inch diameter reflector that screws right into the light socket & the bulb screws right into the reflector. Installs in seconds. With semi-gloss white walls & ceiling, it’s nice & bright in the shop.

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri "The New Show-Me Woodshop"

I REALLY like compact florescents throughout the entire house, so they are definitely in use in the garage as well. One note about the low cost bulbs. I’ve found that they tent to burn out in an unsafe manner. In other words, I’ve had 2 occasions when I literally had flames and smoke or a small explosion followed by smoke. Both times the bulbs were from lights of America? I took the rest out after the second incident and have replaced them with GE’s. I’ve had no issues with the GE’s. While I’ll agree that the cheap ones may be brighter, I think the cost savings come from cheaper ballasts(?). Just be careful with the cheapies. The stuff inside these bulbs isn’t great for your health and the fire hazard seems real to me. Make sure to turn the lights out when you leave and I recommend a reliable brand name. Thanks for the review. IF you remember, post back after a few thousand hrs of use.

A really good review, and on a “tool” that isn’t too often considered until you can’t see what you are doing. You get what you pay for. I too once bought the cheapie’s but have since changed my thinking. I really like the compact fluorescents because of the savings they provide, but I I no longer buy the inexpensive one. Spend the extra $ for the more expensive brand and you will really save money by buying half as many bulbs.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

I too use the GE 150 watt bulbs, one thing I have learned is that you have to wait about ten minutes for them to become brite. I mean when you first turn them on they are kind of dull and after a few minutes they become very bright. It is noticably different and brighter. Just my observation.

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

I recently (about a month ago) bought two of these for my wife’s laundry room and was pleasantly surprised. They are very bright but not over powering. I’m glad to see you like them too. I have bought in the past bulbs from HD and will never buy them there again. They don’t last.
Thanks for the review.

-- Bob K. East Northport, NY

I use these in my shop, too, and also replaced about 40 incandescent bulbs with them in my house. I have some incandescent bulbs still in the house, but those are on dimmer controls and you cannot use CFL bulbs with those.

Two points about these CFL bulbs:

First, I read somewhere that if you break one you are supposed to leave the room for 15 minutes, with the windows open if possible, before cleaning up the mess. The gas and solid materials inside the bulbs are somewhat toxic. I have already broken one out in my shop, and vacated the place before heading back in to replace the bulb and sweep the floor. Why take chances?

Second, florsecent bulbs can fade things. For several years we had long-tube, warm-whilte florescent bulbs in our kitchen. I think there were a total of six, in three fixtures, totaling 120 watts. One day, I decided to replace the butcher-block formica countertops with new ones and I took the old ones out and cut them up to make bench tops for my shop benches and some mobile stands. When I got them outdoors I noticed that some areas had a green shading to them. I thought back and realized that the greenish areas had been directly exposed to the light from the nearest florescent fixtures, with the non-greenish areas having been shaded by the upper cabinets. Over several years those florescent lights had caused the otherwise tough formica countertops to change color slightly.

I have no idea if the CFL bulbs will do this sort of thing, but at least the kitched lights I have in that area now are incandescents that are on dimmers. Time will tell if CFL bulbs have any negative impact on things like home furnishings, wall paintings and photos, and the like – or on humans.

Howard Ferstler

Thanks for the great review , I need some more lighting in my shop , think these will work out fine .

ferstler

DorS (Dimming on random Switch) bulbs have an input power of either 100%, 66%, 33% or 5%.

-- Fred

There’s one more benefit of using the CFLs: they have long lifespan even if they’re used under vibration condition (e.g. lamp clipped or attached to the bandsaw).

-- The time I enjoy wasting is not time wasted

The toxic element from breaking them is mercury. The bleaching effect is from ultra-violet light (the stuff in sunlight that gives you skin cancer and decreases your eyesight). Both are in minimal amounts and for most of us old farts, the effects will probably be minimal. For infants and young children, the long term effects as they age under the constant and increasing use has not been determined.

Go

-- Go http://ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=730

Hi Frank
I was wondering where you got the reflectors for your shop lights
THANKS Jim

-- Jim, Kentucky

I bought a cheap bathroom wall fixture that accepts 3 bulbs. I put it over my workbench and it does a great job. The ceiling bulbs were behing my back when I was at the bench and this helped a lot.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

I had worked within the lighting industry years back and even took some classes offered by the IES-Illuminating Engineering Society. Quite a deal of research and design has gone into the various types of luminaries and their lamps. One characteristic of CFL is both foot candles and CRI will deteriorate over time, simply put they will be dimmer and “less daylight” looking over their lifespan, but a small price to pay for their savings in energy consumed over their +/-10,000 average lifespan. There are now models that are dim-able now on the market, technology is improving the so when dimmed there will be little effect on CRI. The Fiet Brand is an import line, often halogen and fluorescents fixtures that are sold with lamps (bulbs are planted) included use this brand. They are not GE or Sylvania, but still a reputable residential lamp manf. One last random lightbulb nuggets—when a lamp explodes rather than simply “burn out” the industry term is non passive failure—I always liked that term. JM$0.02

-- Ciao, gth.

I’ve been using CFL bulbs for quite some time now. They save on power, but I’ve had lousy service from the bulbs.

It seems like I buy more bulbs than ever.

They say they’re supposed to last 5 to 7 years, but I’m lucky to get 6 months usage before they burn out.

The reason you have to be careful about breaking them, is because they have Mercury in them.

I’ve been waiting for the prices on LED bulbs to come down.

They’re the bulb of the future, & you don’t have to worry about Mercury. Every traffic signal in the country now uses LED’s.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

This is the first I’ve heard of these bulbs exploding. That is not a selling point. I bought a package of 5 to try them and two have already burned out and the other three are or seem to be doing ok. I don’t like the color with them but that just me.

They claim they use ONLY 23 watts, yes that is true but, you are paying for almost 50 watts. These bulbs have transformers inside them and the transformers have to be ‘fluxed’ turned on if you will in order to work properly. That power is called Reactive power and like any field or capacitor that power is returned to the power company. The bottom line is you are paying for using that Reactive Power because it has to be generated and transmitted.

Also they don’t work well in cooler weather if they come on at all they are very dim, this is typical of all flourescents. I know flourescents are popular in shops all over the country. I don’t use them because of the strobe effect they generate. Also, They can give the Illusion that a piece of machinery is stopped when it is not.

I will not buy them especially after hearing about the things exploding. But that is just my opinion.

I started using the compact bulbs in my house (the shop has new bulbs) almost 2 years ago & none have yet burned out. I can’t say that for most of my tungsten bulbs. None have blown up either. People have been using fleurescent bulbs, with ballasts (transformers), in various shapes for years now. They have always had some mercury in them &, with reasonable care & clean-up of a broken bulb, have never been a toxic problem in homes or businesses.

Two of the bulbs on my new shop are 60 watt (equivelent) yellow “bug light” compact bulbs. It was zero degrees here in Missouri last week & any difference in light wasn’t noticable. I turn my shop heat off when I’m not in the shop. It was down to 40 degrees in the shop last week & yes they were dim at start-up but were warmed up & operating bright in a couple of minutes. Very quickly.

If it’s true that they really do use 23 watts (on a 100 watt equivelent bulb) & your electric meter records an actual 23 watts of use that is what you will be charged for. Unless your electric meter has a fault of some kind.

And say they do use 50 watts… That’s still 50% savings over a 100 watts of tungsten use! And a person can check the actual use for his or herself by using an amp meter to check the actual load of the bulb & “Watt’s Law” to calculate the wattage. At 120 volts & 23 watts the bulb should be drawing approximately 0.2 amps. At 50 watts after warm up there would be about 0.4 amps draw.

As far as power being “returned to the power company”... Reactive power is not measured by your electric meter & the excess generation is wasted. It doesn’t cost the customer… It costs the electric company by increasing the generation load unnecessairly. This inductive load that increases the demand on generation is not only NOT charged to the customer but the customer is protected from equipment damage by your electric company’s use of capacitor banks (& reactors) to balance the load at various transmission substations & distribution points along the way from the power plant to your home or business.

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri "The New Show-Me Woodshop"

This is true Reactive power is not measured by the meter only true power is measured by the meter. Power factors in homes or residential services are generally around a .9 to a .95. That said, with the advent of the Gore bulb and the possible safety hazard of the murcury, which has your legislators worried. There is a problem with increasing the reactive power necessary to light these POS. According to a new law, we will have to be off the incandescent by 2010 or is it (11), no matter. Of how many homes in this country. say 150,000,000 and many hundred thousands of apartments and so on you don’t think this will increase the requirement for more reactive power. I think so.

S0 you keep believing that “Renewable” power is going to be OUR savior and we will all be cutting wood by candle light.

I NEVER said I believe in renewable power. I believe in coal, hydro, natural gas, nukes & especially trash for generation. Wind power is a load of… It takes 95% generation to back it up because ya can’t store those little electrons in large amounts efficiently yet & the wind isn’t “dependable”. And I do believe is saving MYSELF $. That’s why I want the gore bulbs… Oops… Lamps. And what new law? Anyway It’ll take a long time to get off of incandescent. And the actual major source of induction is… induction motors. And what about all these little chargers for laptops, cell phones, mp3 players & such. Getting off of incandescent isn’t gonna help much. An I tain’t worryin none bout breakin no compact bulb… er lamp anyways.

-- Frank, Florissant, Missouri "The New Show-Me Woodshop"

Fluorescent strip lighting has worked well in my shop. Newer fixtures are available that use electronic ballasts that have a very high cycle rate, and don’t cause any ‘strobe” effects. Some of them are rated for fairly cold environments, down to about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also add plastic safety sleeves and wire grids to protect the bulbs from impact. Fluorescents have always had mercury in them, so there’s always been a certain amount of risk, and if memory serves, fluorescent lighting is a lot older than Gore.

The system has been used in industry and commerce for many decades because of the cost savings. We started trying to cut the utility bills years ago. Our electric bill is down 17%, despite the rise in rates, due mostly to CFL’s. The first ones we bought some 7 or 8 years ago for the basement remodel were 12 to 14 dollars each, and DID have a tendency to fail messily; now they’re down to less than $4.00 each
(for example, www.elightbulbs.com/GE-89095-FLE26HT3-2-D-CD-Twist-Screw-Base-Compact-Fluorescent-Light-Bulb) and seldom fail with little more than a soft “pop.” The modern ones are vastly superior to the older ones; I’ve gotten them for as little as $3 each, in boxes of 10, at HD.

Some of the bulbs have a high Color Rendering Index, too, which makes finishing a good deal easier.

-- Now, where did I put those bandaids?