ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area CFL's in incandescent fixtures

I think one thing to consider about CFLs is the quality of manufacturing; they're not just a filament in a glass bulb--they contain electronic ballasts with capacitors, PCBs and the like. Pick your type of comparison; Harbor Freight vs. DeWalt, whatever. Pressure to keep these cheap as a reasonable replacement for $0.25 A19 incandescents can't mean there is a lot of time spent on high grade engineering and quality assurance. Aside from the manufacturing quality issue, there are also simply many more parts that can fail. I've had some CFLs that don't last as long as a 2000-hour incandescent. I also have a pair of "Designer's Edge" CFLs that I bought around 2000 that are still going strong.

Consumer Reports did an article about CFLs a couple of months ago (October 2010, p26-28) and included some reliability tests. Surprisingly, the "EcoSmart" brand sold at Home Depot had the best ratings for indoor lights; GE and Philips did okay-ish. Their test list wasn't very long, but it gives you a good idea of the range of quality.

Re: fluorescents and UV: one particular range of 1980s Siemens light swtiches is extremely prone to yellowing if exposed to any direct sunlight (sold in Austria and Germany in the mid- to late 80s and early 90s I think). I know some in an English basement that never get any sun and those still look like new. Now there is one university restroom that doesn't have a window, not even the hallway in front of the door. So the only light in there is a CFL in a recessed fixture. The light switches in the stalls (pretty solid, there are tiled drywall stalls floor to ceiling) are as yellow as they ever get. So yes, apparently fluorescents do emit a considerable amount of UV.

Evidently I am wrong. Not a problem. I have been wrong before and I expect to continue my imperfect record.

I sit corrected. Thank you to all who brought this to my attention.

Larry C

as an aside here, there seems to be a great concern about UV and electrical equipment.....

errrrumhhh.....


what about us?


~S~

If you go outside or live in a house with windows, the big light source in the sky will give you more UV than any man-made source... At least, not any that aren't made specifically to produce UV.

Let's hope they kill all the bacteria in there too then!
Joe