[jbluzb86]

they are more energy efficient

 

[buffalowings]

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they are more energy efficient

in our house, they have this awful habit of dying prematurely compared to normal bulbs

 

[bixby]

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They are more energy efficient, they aren't advertised AFAIK to last longer than the other bulbs.

uh, unfortunately they are being advertised or were.  The ones I keep replacing are advertised to last up to 7 TIMES as long as incandescent, but the new ones I have seen have removed that claim and now only guarantee for 2 years.
 
Regardless, in many cases it is the quality.  I have an early gen Philips that is over 10 years old that we still have in a low use lamp.  The new Feits I buy for crap out sooner than incandescent and are total crap.  Especially the ones in the recessed cans in the kitchen.  The R30 bulbs will not last in unvented ceiling cans.  
 
We are saving some juice for sure, but how many of us actually recycle these things.  I have a  pile waiting for some mercury recycling day.  Most folks probably just throw them in the trash,.  Then we'll have a nice mercury cleanup to do 20 years from now.  So much for progress.  Maybe some of the geeks at GE or Philips will work on some bulbs that are efficient yet not full of carcinogens.
 
Oh, I know LEDS, they will be our savior, God I hope not they are the toys of lighting!

 

[IPodPJ]

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- They contain moderate amounts of mercury and must be properly disposed of.  You cannot dump them in your trash.

Also, if one ever breaks, you are supposed to open the windows and (optionally) leave the area for at least 15 minutes. This is not something that everyone realizes.
 
Edit: As an example, we once bought a pack of 3 CFLs at a grocery store and the sacker put something heavy in the same bag. All 3 were smashed and the packaging partially opened. This was not noticed until the bulbs had sat on the kitchen table for several minutes. Not cool.

Yes, mercury vapor is extremely toxic to a human.
 

 
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CFL's are very bad for the environment and bad for you!

The Canadian government heath department seems to think other wise.
 

They list all the problems people are having with them, but try to justify a way out of it?  Pathetic.  Watch some of the video reports on the people who have gotten ill from them.

 

[MCC]

 
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uh, unfortunately they are being advertised or were.  Ones the I keep replacing are advertised to last up to 7 TIMES as long as incandescent, but the new ones I have seen have removed that claim and now only guarantee for 2 years.

I just turned on a 5-bulb reading lamp and found that 2 of the CFLs were completely dead, one was flickering and a fourth was a sickly color. I'm pretty sure we only bought the lamp one or two years ago.
 
I'm waiting for LED bulbs to come down in price or for Vu1's ESL bulbs to become widely available. Until then I'll only be buying incandescents. And if neither of those happen, I'll just buy a stock before the 2012 cutoff.

 

[fraseyboy]

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- They contain moderate amounts of mercury and must be properly disposed of.  You cannot dump them in your trash.

Also, if one ever breaks, you are supposed to open the windows and (optionally) leave the area for at least 15 minutes. This is not something that everyone realizes.
 
Edit: As an example, we once bought a pack of 3 CFLs at a grocery store and the sacker put something heavy in the same bag. All 3 were smashed and the packaging partially opened. This was not noticed until the bulbs had sat on the kitchen table for several minutes. Not cool.

Woah, srsly? I was removing a blown one once and it shattered it my hand... I just picked up the bits of glass and lightbulb innards, wrapped them in newspaper and put them in the bin.
 
Sounds like they're more harm than good...

 

[mark2410]

so buy good ones rather than the cheapest you can find
 
i have several 6500k ones and they are just fantastic and produce a beautiful bright white light

 

[MCC]

 
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so buy good ones rather than the cheapest you can find
 
i have several 6500k ones and they are just fantastic and produce a beautiful bright white light

We always buy major name brands and they always fail prematurely. I took apart a dead Sylvania a while back and found it to contain Nippon Chemicon caps amongst other decent quality parts. Still died in under two years.
 
Maybe we have bad power?
 
Edit: Either that or they're simply overheating. An switchmode power supply inverter crammed into a tiny space behind a heat generating bulb couldn't possibly have a low operating temperature.

 

[fatcat28037]

Thomas Edison is probably rolling over in his grave.

 

[Shark50521]

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We always buy major name brands and they always fail prematurely. I took apart a dead Sylvania a while back and found it to contain Nippon Chemicon caps amongst other decent quality parts. Still died in under two years.
 

It all depends how you are using them, if you are turning them on and off frequently, they will die more prematurely as opposed to turning them on for 15 mins and then turning them off, the on and off again must be rough on something in the bulb.
 
http://www.kcpl.com/residential/CFLfaqs.html#onoff

 

[ClieOS]

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They list all the problems people are having with them, but try to justify a way out of it?  Pathetic.  Watch some of the video reports on the people who have gotten ill from them.

 
I have been using them for 30 year now and never get ill because of it, but unfortunately I don't have any video that I can show to you
 

 

[Uncle Erik]

I saw a news report the other day where some activist or other is trying to relabel incandescents as "heatballs." Thing is, that's something of a benefit. When I lived in the middle of nowhere, my furnace died in the dead of winter. There was snow out and it got into single digits at night. It was a couple of days until the parts came in, so I left all the lights on and the place stayed in the low 50s. Good enough. Even now, I don't mind getting some heat off the lights.

I will probably pick up a house this year. Part of me wants to find a big transformer and associated parts so I can put all of the hardwired light fixtures on one circuit and feed them with DC. That would make bulbs last for a decade or two. Probably wouldn't meet code, but screw it.

 

[MCC]

 
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I will probably pick up a house this year. Part of me wants to find a big transformer and associated parts so I can put all of the hardwired light fixtures on one circuit and feed them with DC. That would make bulbs last for a decade or two. Probably wouldn't meet code, but screw it.

 
My high school was remodeled while I went there, and some days they left unattended blueprints out in the hall. I recall seeing something that indicated that the new lights were running on their own high voltage DC supply. It really does make sense- why rely on cheap, disposable inverters for every bulb or fixture when you can have a single high quality unit powering everything? The cost will be lower over time and you'll save some material from the landfill.

 

[mark2410]

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I saw a news report the other day where some activist or other is trying to relabel incandescents as "heatballs." Thing is, that's something of a benefit. When I lived in the middle of nowhere, my furnace died in the dead of winter. There was snow out and it got into single digits at night. It was a couple of days until the parts came in, so I left all the lights on and the place stayed in the low 50s. Good enough. Even now, I don't mind getting some heat off the lights.
 

oh yeah your absolutly right, depending on where you live (ie how warm or cold it is) the offset of more efficient lighting is that people use a touch more heating to make up the shortfall.
 
i just much prefer the light given off by 6500k (kelvin btw) i always found incandescents to be so horribly yellowy orange

 

[Sanveann]

We actually just had something really scary happen with one of these. I was SURE I smelled something burning but couldn't pinpoint the source for the life of me. I was starting to think I was imagining it (I'm pregnant and prone to smelling things that aren't really there!). Finally, I saw a few wisps of smoke in front of the window, when the sun was shining really brightly. I freaked out and called my husband (he just works a few minutes away) and got the kids out of the house. 
 
So, my husband immediately figured out it was a bulb in the living room lamp. This is what he found (GE brand bulb, btw):