Home long life lightbulbs?

[Bowman9]

Has anyone here tried those "long life" lightbulbs (for the home)?
I think they are Fluorescent Bulbs and use less energy (or maybe thats a third type of bulb), but anyway they screw into normal household outlets.

It just seems that everytime I turn around I am changing the lightbulbs in my living room.

Any input?

[BruteForce]

I put them in a couple table lamps but found they weren't really bright enough to read by. I switched back to incandescents in all but one and moved the rest to the garage. This is in reference to the kind you can get at Costco. There may be brighter ones... don't know.

[Rider90]

Wire up some 9007s :lol:

[Bluerauder]

Has anyone here tried those "long life" lightbulbs (for the home)?
I only used one once for my outside pole light. It did seem to last a "little" longer; but not enough to offset the much higher cost of the bulb. The one that I used had 2 U-shaped flourescent elements inside a plastic cover/case. After several months, I noticed that the light pole seemed to be not as bright and was actually giving off an orange-ish glow. Upon checking the bulb, I noticed that the plastic case was actually beginning to melt and discolor. This was probably due to inadequate air circulating inside the pole lamp. Consequently, I replaced the bulb with a halogen pole light.

[twolow]

I use them all over the house. I got the ones listed at 13 watts but put out the light almost that of a tube flouresent (sp?) light.

When they are first turned on they are dim as they have to 'warm up'. After about 4 or 5 minutes they are bright as all get out. I use them on my front and back porch as it lights up far more area than a standard bulb and I also use them in my game room, garage, and kitchen as I can't stand 'yellow' light and like bright white light without having to install tube lighting.

I wouldn't use them in areas where you wouldnt leave the light on long such as a hall or bathroom as it is too dim for the short time it would be on.

I leave my porch lights on 24/7 and can tell you that I was replacing bulbs every month or so but so far these have been burning since beginning of the year.

I recommend Lowes or Home Depot as they are better quality wise than what they may be at Wal-Mart. FYI: They do not work on dim controlled lighting either.

[1gtx]

Being in the northwest (and having a deep cheap streak) we use compact flourescents (sp?) throughout the house. There are two disadvantages:

1) Many of them take a few minutes or more to hit full brightness

2) While they do last a lot longer, their failure rate early in their life cycle is quite high (20-30% die in the first 20% of their rated life). If they survive that long they seem to last their full rating.

Overall with their high cost to purchase it's really questionable whether you'll really end up saving money (unless you have children,like I do, that never seem to be able to turn off a light).

[dwasson]

I've used a few of the LED bulb replacements. The sellers will tell you that the 2 watt lights are the equivelent of the 100 watt incandescent, but I use the 3 watt leds in everything.

[Bowman9]

Hmmm... well thanks for all of your input.
Maybe if I see them on sale somewhere I'll give them a try.

[wchain]

lED home light bulbs? Really?

I tried the compact flourescent, but the color is yellowish, cant do that inside the house personally.

[dwasson]

The LEDs we have are more blue than yellow. Or maybe it's just that they are more white than the incandescents.

[Badger]

I used to use four 65Watt halogens for my kitchen. I even put it on a dimmer to cut them back when I didn't need them. Found the wife kept them running full bore all the time and never dimmed them.

Changed the dimmer out for a standard on/off and put in the compact florescent lights. At the rated 7Watts each they provide a brighter light with more of the red spectrum when they get up to temperature. It usually takes about a good 4 minutes to get there. Halogens were very hot.

[Dr Caleb]

It's true that older CF's took a few minutes to warm up, but most of my house is the newer 9W CF's, and they are on and to full brightness in a couple seconds.

One of my older 25W CF's runs on a timer, 6h a day every day, for the last 10 years. Even if it did cost $25, it was worth every penny!

I've gottta try those LED's though. There is a company here in town that exports a solar panel and LED lamp to developing countries that have no infrastructure. They gotta sell them cheaply, and in quantity!