How many of you use CFL's? and of what wattage?

[Willmore]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

I use a 7W CCFT for the security light on my front porch. It's an ungodly high color temperature bulb--some 7000K. In daylight it looks very nice, but at night, it takes on a strong blue/green tint, but being so dim (7W), it doesn't hurt my night vision. Being closer to the scotoptic (sp?) ideal, it appears brighter than an equivalent incandescent would.

I'm just worried where I'm going to get another bulb for it when it burns out.

 

[Lurker]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

I use them and they are mostly in the range of 15-23 watts of actual power consumption, which is equivalent light to roughly 45-75 watts incandescent. My wife leaves all the lights on all the time, so CFLs are a less expensive option than divorce.

I still haven't replaced the bathroom vanity globe bulbs, but if my wife is willing to accept CFLs there, that is my next move. Lowe's home center is carrying them as well as the Sylvania 3-way reading lamp bulb and the other excellent Sylvania bulbs, too.

 

[Zelandeth]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Thanks for that link to Topbulb. Thost 105W CFL's certainly look intersting...shame that I'm in the UK, hence have a 220V 50Hz supply to deal with (Okay, it actually floats between 235 and 255V), so nothing there's of any real use to me.

Still, sure that someone makes a 220V version, albeit at twice the price most likely.

 

[Chris M.]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Want a big CFL? Try the 4-loop 65 watt Saver-Lamp from http://www.ultimastore.co.uk - it`s that horrid 2700K colour but it sure is bright and only ten quid! They also do an 85 watt spiral now, and although I havn`t seen that one myself yet, I can guarantee you it`s blinding. Claimed to be equivalent to 425 watts of tungsten lighting, and only £16.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

 

[hideo]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

me likes 'em. too and and as all of you patriotic citizens know, reducing energy dependence improves national security /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

out of the 16 bulbs in fixtures on the first floor of the house, 10 are CFLs, mostly Sylvania/Osram which last and have a pleasing tint--the six remaining are oddballs, or on dimmers--our second floor is almost all CFLs

read somewhere that if all Americans switched over to CFLs for the fixtures that would accomodate them, we would reduce our petroleum dependency by some obscene amount--anyone have the spec on that?

cheers to all of you!!

hideo

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

[ QUOTE ]
Willmore said:
[ QUOTE ]
PhotonWrangler said:
I think the "dimmable" moniker on the Philips package mostly means that a dimmer won't fry the electronics.

[/ QUOTE ]

dimmable means that you can use it on a dimmer and that it will vary brightness with the dimmer setting. 3-way lights actually have multiple sets of contacts in the base that they use to run two different filaments. The filaments are normally 1X and 2X in brightness, so you can get 1X, 2X, and 3X brightness by switching the first on, the second on, and then both on. They're completely different animals than dimmable bulbs. You can get CFL bulbs that are specifically 3-way. Keep looking. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, however this three-way lamp is electronic, in that it uses a single-contact (one-way) bulb and provides three different preset levels of dimming. It works great on almost any incandescent bulb, but the Philips dimmable CFL acts very weird in this fixture!

 

[evan9162]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Just went on a shopping spree at the Home Depot, and picked up a bunch of Commercial Electric CFLs. How come only Commercial Electric has figured out how to make ALL of their CF bulbs work right in enclosed/recessed fixtures, while most of the other maker's CFs say specifically not to?

Anyway, today, I picked up an A-type (bulb shaped) 14W CF to complement the other 3 I had, and put them in the cieling fan of the living room - I needed bulb looking CFLs because the bulbs in this fixture are exposed and need to look nice. The drawback is that I'm stuck with the pink-yellow warm 2700K color of those bulbs.

If I didn't care so much, I would have picked up a bunch of the daylight CF mini-spirals instead.

Just out of curiosity, I also picked up a 19W daylight spiral CF, and installed that in a table lamp in the living room. WOW. I love the color! 6500K. I guess I've been spoiled by LED lights or something. The color of this light matches both of my beautifully white 5W luxeon lights.

Also picked up 4 R30 14W reflector CFs to replace a couple of the recessed spotlights in the kitchen. These are also warm bulbs (2700K). They actually put out much more light than the 65W bulbs that they replaced. They are a touch longer than the original bulbs, so I had to move the socket up deeper in the enclosure to make it look nice.

After seeing the daylight CFL I got today in action, I will be severly tempted to go get some more daylight bulbs to replace some of my sickly yellow lights (both incandescant and CFL).

 

[jtr1962]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

I like the Commercial Electric daylight CFL also. In fact, I was so thrilled to find something other than the yucky yellow 2700K/3000K in a regular retail store. Some people here have complained that this CFL looks too blue. Maybe next to a regular CFL or before it warms up it does, but when viewed by itself it gives a much crisper light than regular CFLs. Too bad daylight and/or 5000K CFLs aren't more widely available in retail stores.

 

[Zelandeth]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Chris M...showing me that site was not a good thing for my wallet. I have just sooo got to get one of those 85W spirals...

 

[Chris M.]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Sorry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

But I have to get one too eventually (they didn`t have that one avaliable when I bought a few from them a while ago) so it isn`t all good here either. Wherever will I put the thing?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Zelandeth]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Okay, I just bought one. Will get the page up when I recieve it, and let you know what I think. That thing is massive though! 258mm long, that's 10 inches! Gonna have to do a comparison photo between the miniscule little 5W philips CFL, a standard bulb, and that monster!

Have a look at the PDF catalog, they have scaled photos there.

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

I got a two pack of GE Soft White 60 (15w) at Walmart.

I put one in my cieling fan light. It is a dim start needing about 30 seconds to be full strength. It is also a bit too yellow (compared to 60w Reveal).

When I have some cash, I'll visit Home Depot.

I notice that some of the way off brand CFLs I got at Big Lots are starting to dim in some tubes.... this after at least a year.

 

[Willmore]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Ahhh, okay, so it's not a '3-way', but a 3 setting dimming fixture. Odd that the Philips bulb doesn't work in it. I wonder how they're doing the dimming. For the normal in wall dimmer I have in my bedroom, the philips bulbs work just fine--except at extremely low levels where they cycle on and off.

 

[woodsman]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Mine are around 9 inches, says the package, although I haven't measured them. These things are big and powerfull!
When I flip the switch on mine, they are at about 90-95% brightness. After ten seconds they are rocking. Three of these spread out over 500 or so square feet are unreal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Zelandeth]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Well...the bulb arrived this morning...first reaction "Holy resistors, this thing's a monster! To give a sense of scale, the BASE alone, is almost exactly the length of a standard light bulb...and the tube section as long again, and wider. Thanks to this, is going to be a total nightmare to photograph...my camera hasn't got good depth of field in macro mode, and as such, getting it all in frame will be "fun"

Okay, time to see how it performs, not ideal timing given that it's midday, but what the heck, I'm impatient, been wanting to get my paws on this thing for two days now. Getting it into the intended fixture required removal of the shade...as it was too wide to fit through the hole! So I just set that aside for now, flick switch, *blink* *blink* WOW! That sucker's BRIGHT. The 425W equivilancy claim I can't comment on, but this thing totally blows a 250W incandescent clear out of the water, by a very considerable margin. Sure, it's 2700K temperature, but that's a heck of a lot whiter than the incan was.

If you have space for one in the fitting, and need serious light, this is what you need!

Will be putting up a page with photos in the next hour or so on my "LED & Lighting" page. Just look in that section for the "SaverLamp Super Spiral 85W 2700K" Entry.

Only problem I've found so far is that it's in the category of CFL's which don't like my illuminated light switch. (Puts two NE-2H lamps in series with the bulb when the switch is off). Some CFL's manage to charge a capacitor in the ballast from this mA or so, and eventually will get to a point that the cap will discharge through the tube, this visible as a flash. This one blinks very dimly about once every 6 seconds. Time to alter the switch I think!

Okay, I'll be kind. Here's a direct link.

LOZ Page: SaverLamps "Super Spiral" 85W 2700K

Chris M. If you haven't already ordered one, GO DO SO! Be intersting to see what a more professional bulb expert makes of this than me. Is certainly a necessary purchase for a collector though.

 

[jtr1962]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

In case anyone is interested in the US, you can buy 85W CFLs here for $29.99 each in both 2700K and 6500K. If I had spare cash I'd probably order two of the 6500K variety to replace the 23W warm white CFLs in the garage.

Based on the lumen output of other large CFLs (42W usually gives around 65 to 70 lm/W), these probably put out in the neighborhood of 5500 to 6000 lumens, which is roughly equivalent to a 300 incandescent bulb (6200 lumens). One will light an average room pretty brightly, and two ought to be enough for almost anyone.

Using the standard lamp socket as a point of reference that thing must be huge.

 

[pedalinbob]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

holy cow, so much info!

i have 3 outside lights that automatically come on at dusk, and off at dawn. they also are 2 stage: full power when they sense movement, and 1/2 power when idle. i have 40w incans in them now--plenty of light. but, it is still 60w running all night.

is there a CF bulb that will work with this setup?

also, what would be nice brands/watts color temp for general use arounfd the house (with perhaps 60w or 75w equivalent light output)?

Bob

 

[James S]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

I noticed yesterday at Home Depot that they are now carrying a monster 40 watt CF from commercial electric that says it's equivalent to a 150 watt regular bulb. It's rather large also, but not like that one pictured above /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I didn't buy one, so I can't comment on the color temp. But the other ones are completely acceptable to me once they warm up. When you first turn them on they are a little green, but they brighten up nicely. The commercial electric ones I mean.

 

[Chris M.]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

Just got my Big Giant Spiral lamp today. It`s not so big....

Actually it is. It`s vast. I can`t get over just how enormous this thing is. Having also recieved an Inova X0 the other day, which looks identical to the X1 but much bigger, I suddenly feel like I`m really small!

Incidentally, the tungsten bulb in the first photo is a ~1930s 1000 watt Edison Mazda lamp, used for warehouse and yard lighting, and possibly smaller lighthouses? Here`s a more sensible comparison next to the smallest spiral in the "Saver Lamp" range, and a bog standard (well, vibration resistant 15 watt) regular light bulb....

And compared to a Pellincan M6-LED:

As far as brightness is concerned, it is extremely impressive. After the sun *finally* sets for another day, I`ll run a comparison next to a 500 watt tungsten bulb assuming I can find a suitable one, to see just how well it does. Won`t be anything scientific but should give a decent idea of the relative outputs.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

 

[Chris M.]

Re: How many of you use CFL\'s? and of what wattage

OK, well I tried to take a side by side "beamshot" comparison of the output of this lamp against that of a 500 watt tungsten lamp (2 seperate photos, fixed camera settings/one photo, divided down the middle somehow/etc) but couldn`t make it come out the way I had hoped. And the 500 watt lamp is a vintage Philips Argaphoto, photoflood lamp that runs hotter and brighter than a 500 watt GLS, at the expense of lifetime. Not exactly a fair comparison. And unfortunately I have no idea where my light-meter went so I can give no lux readings either right now.

You`ll just have to take my word for it. This is a heck of a big, bright lamp!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif