Help me go green - lightbulbs

Lots of candles, LOTS!

 

~Kurt

The problem isn't CFL's or LED's the problem is the colour temprerature of the bulbs you're buying and the quality. A good quality screw in LED retrofit bulb should run you at least twice what you paid.

 

You can get CFL's that have a colour temperature very close to incandescent, you can also get a cooler 'whiter' light without delving into the blue range.

 

Where did you get them and maybe I can point you to a product they do carry that would meet your requirements?

Yeah, you have to look very carefully at the color temperature.

I have not found there to be many good LED alternatives on the market yet. The "compare to incandescent" wattages are just not high enough for my tastes. And they're very, very expensive.

CFLs are passable if you get the right color temperature. However, I hate the whole warm-up thing. So annoying.

^You have to look at electrical contractors industry suppliers to get the good products. The cheap stuff mass produced for the consumer market is about three grades below that.

I replaced my LEDs with incandescent bulbs this week. I couldn't take it any more.

I just keep buying high watt incandescents on Amazon.

I hate CFL as well, I use halogen bulbs but have the shape and socket of a standard lightbulb. Basically a halogen inside a standard lightbulb, ordered via Amazon...

Color temperature is really important for LEDs- it's kind of fun to get a toy diffraction grating and look at the various light bulbs. It shows the spectrum- sometimes there are just three colored LED that are supposed to make white/warm light. The best one we found had a diffuser and a pretty good spectrum.

I think LED bulbs are still a year out on the quality/cost curve. They're close though, and given my hate for the CFL...

Plenty of perfectly decent CFLs out there...I have them in all of my general overhead fixtures.

In my table and living room floor lamps, I use GE Reveal incandescents which are great...but that is mostly because they are easily dimmable so I can get the right balance of light when watching TV/Movies and I shut off the overhead fixtures.

I haven't had to replace a bulb since I moved in in january 2010 and the power bill is incrementally lower.

Edit: apparently they make GE Reveal branded CFLs now...I may have to give those a shot.

The problem is that you buy one of these early phase light bulbs, CFL or LED, and they never die.

Even if they suck, like the set of CFLs in my living room that takes 2-5 minutes to really turn on, you don't get to replace them as they die out. They never die. But they always take 2-5 minutes to turn on. They're probably 8 years old at this point.

I think the LED in our kitchen is like that; it's still an early generation LED but farther along than those CFLs were. The color spectrum is good, but it takes about 2 seconds to turn on: just long enough for you to wonder if you turned the right switch. And of course, it will never die. Luckily, I like that bulb.

^ Good point, buying an annoying early stage technology to save money, isn't a savings if you're going to want to replace it when they solve the annoying problems.

Exactly.

We do it to try to save the world, but I have to whine about it once in a while.

well actually some of the early stage stuff is significantly better quality.... sometimes! I have a very early CFL thats been kicking for 15 years now IIRC and the color is quite good. I also have an incandescent bulb from the 50's thats almost always on and has been for the past 20 years. Give manufactures long enough and they will work planned failure into their products.... they risk to lose far too much if a lightbulb truely is to last a lifetime.

I'm glad to hear GE has branded reveal CFLs now, I wil definitely check them out. but as far as color, you really need to experiment on what works for you. Strangely I've been a fan of the cheap Fleet bulbs from walgreens

This is why I don't plan to switch light bulbs when I move...I had originally figured I would just pull the cfls with 7 years of life in them and put back in some dirt cheap incandescents but now I realize I should buy brand new bulbs if and when I move.

unfortunately the amazon reviews aren't so great...there are probably better looking cfls out there