Who has CFL's in their home?

[karsen]

We use candles for lighting and burn the furniture for heating. I have a generator to power my Mac though. You've got to have your priorities in order!

[Racer X]

Is that genset powered with whale oil?

[OWC Jamie]

I haven't seen a CFL that took more than one second to 'light'. (yet)
Although some of my real old ones are starting to approach that.

The CFL I have in the un-heated garage was rated for cold weather outdoor use right on the packaging. The flourescent tubes I have over a work bench will not turn on under 20 degrees.
Some packaging have absolutely no information regarding temperature suitability (although there may be something on that paper in the package with the tiny printing I don't bother to read. )

I have seen some that specifically state not for cold weather use on the box, so I don't try to use those outdoors.

There are some rather crappy CFLs out there, just as there are some crappy incandescants.

[davester]

[quote Don C]Well, I guess I have my work cut out for me when I get home tonight.

I just replaced the bulbs in my garage fixture with two CFL bulbs. Which means -

1. the fixture is tied to the garage door, meaning it will cycle on and off every time we use the door.
2. it is in the unheated (cool) garage)
3. the fixture is enclosed, having reused a hallway ceiling fixture that we replaced.

Sounds like three strikes to me!!!

Guess I'll put the ol' incandescents back in there and save the CFL's for a more appropriate location.
Nah. If it is working fine, leave it alone. I have one in the exact same situation and it's been there for a year at least. You'll know if it is too cold for the CFL...it just won't light up.

[M A V I C]

[quote billb]I haven't seen a CFL that took more than one second to 'light'. (yet)
Although some of my real old ones are starting to approach that.
Yeah, I haven't seen any that take more than a second either. But they do take many times longer to come on than incandescents.

The CFL I have in the un-heated garage was rated for cold weather outdoor use right on the packaging. The flourescent tubes I have over a work bench will not turn on under 20 degrees.
Some packaging have absolutely no information regarding temperature suitability (although there may be something on that paper in the package with the tiny printing I don't bother to read. )

I have seen some that specifically state not for cold weather use on the box, so I don't try to use those outdoors.

There are some rather crappy CFLs out there, just as there are some crappy incandescants.

I've tried several different brands outdoors, all of them cease to function below ~45°. I've bought every brand available at Home Depot, Costco, Fred Meyer, Albertsons...

[Racer X]

davester, both of my garage door openers shipped from the factory with CF bulbs. I wouldn't worry about it. After 4 years of daily use several times a day, they still work fine.

I bet they went with CF bulbs because of the vibration a garage door opener generates.

[Grateful11]

I'm up to about 60% in our home. I really can't tell any difference in the quality of the light.

[GGD]

[quote Racer X]davester, both of my garage door openers shipped from the factory with CF bulbs. I wouldn't worry about it. After 4 years of daily use several times a day, they still work fine.

I bet they went with CF bulbs because of the vibration a garage door opener generates.
I was going through garage opener lights fairly frequently years ago in my old home due to vibration, and this was even when using the special Garage Opener bulbs designed for high vibration. Finally I decided to try CFLs there, and that solved my problem.

I switched my entire house to CFLs except for a few odd shaped or dimmable bulbs (and I haven't done the fridge yet, not sure if I ever will). I noticed an immediate drop in the electric usage (I read the meter every day). With the electric rates in my area, and bulbs from Costco for about $1.50 each, it was easy to do the math to see that within a few months of use, each bulb pays for itself in electric savings, so I didn't wait for the old bulbs to burn out (any market for used incandescent bulbs?).

The packaging said 2 year warranty and 8000-10000 hours of life depending on the bulb. I recorded when each bulb was put into service, and of the 120 bulbs that I installed just two have failed after 14 months. I have not had the time or motivation to call the manufacturer for warranty service on the failures.

My wife wants to change her parents ceiling lights to CFLs for longer bulb life because she's afraid of them falling while changing bulbs.

[OWC Jamie]

Mavic-
I know I got the outdoor CFL at Home Depot. (Lowes wasn't open here, yet)
I almost bought the CFL yellow bug lamp because it was rated for outdoors-cold start (down to minus 20 or something like that), then I noticed the white ones with the same ratings on the package right next to it.
I don't go to the Home Depot in my town because it sucks. (less inventory, store is a mess-like Wal-Mart, employees are generally rude and unhelpful) The one 12 miles away just has more stuff/choices. Employees are almost too helpful.

It's quite possible if temps in your area generally don't get too low, they don't stock the low temperature ones.

I do know my CFL porch light works at 0 degrees. It does take about a half a minute to come up from 75% brightness to 100%.

Add: they had CFL floodlights, too. For whatever reason the regular floods and Halogen flood were eating lamps every 6 months. The CFL floods have been in there for two years now. (they work fine in the cold, too.)

When I changed the majority of house lights to CFL my electric bill went down about 2 bucks/month.


Vhttp://www.eere.energy.gov/femp/procurement/eep_flour_tips.cfm

[M A V I C]

As far as vibration goes, my garage lights went out rather quickly before I put a CFL in. Now I haven't had to replace a bulb there for about three years.

billb, thanks for the info. It doesn't get below freezing too often here. No projected lows below 32°F this week. Maybe that's why I haven't found them. What brand is your low-temp CFL? I'll call around and see if I can find them.

If I turn mine on just before it's too cold for them to come on at all, they take hours to reach full brightness.