CFL Longevity

[tim walker]

CFL manufactures say there is a long term life expectancy for CFL's. I however are not seeing that. I have had an outdoor CFL running 24/7 for about 6 months and it has burned out. That is about 4300 hours. Promise is of 10000 hrs. Anyone else seeing shorter life? How do you get a refund for these early burnouts. I really don't keep receipts for light bulbs and how would you prove it is THAT light that burned out and not an older light.

[tyler mckee]

I've been using only CFL bulbs for about 4 years now and only had to replace a couple. never thought about trying to return them, figure one or two burning out early isn't too bad.

[David G Baker]

I had one that burned out after a few months. I had several on hand from the same manufacturer and found the contact information on the bulb container. I gave them a call and they sent me a replacement. The batch number on the bulb container gives the necessary information ( date of manufacture and I believe the retailers info).
A local grain and feed store uses CFL bulbs in their feed storage warehouse and their experience with the bulbs in cold weather is that they do not last for them. I talked to the sales rep for the bulb that I had replaced and he said that his bulbs are rated for below zero weather. I don't know the brand that the grain folks use.

[Tom Veatch]

I have a couple of CFL floods on the outside of my workshop on a photocell so they are on all night, every night. When using Tungsten floods, seems like they were burning out at least once a month or so. These two have been in place for somewhere around 4 years now and are still going strong. They've been there so long, I really don't remember when I installed them. Don't know exactly how many hours but 12*365*4 = 17,000+ is a reasonable estimate.

I'll be satisfied with their performance if I walk out tomorrow and they are both dead.

[Scott T Smith]

I use CFL's all over the farm, and in general they have exceeded my expectations.

They don't do well on dimmer or motion detectors, and I've seen a trend of early burn-outs when I used to install them in those applications.

The primary failures that I've had were all bulbs from the same batch / low cost manufacturer. An internet search at the time revealed that many others were having problems with that same brand.

One pair of bulbs burns all night - ever night - and has for six years w/o replacement.

The candelabra style lights on the front and back porches of my house used to go through bulbs every 4 months or so. I put CFL's in them two years ago, and last week had to replace the first one (out of 12 bulbs originally installed).

Overall, I highly recommend them.

[Matt Meiser]

The only ones I've had trouble with are the flood lamp style, which of course are the most expensive. We've got 7 in our kitchen and I've replaced 2 in 2 years.

I've got very small standard shape one installed in an restored gas pump by my shop and 3 candelabra base ones in our front lamp post which are both on dusk-dawn every day and they've been holding up great.

[Howard Garner]

They get dimmer. The only problem that I see is they do not maintain their brightness over time. The output can drop off by half and still keep working.

Howard Ganer

[Tom Godley]

I use them all over the place inside and outside - my observations

When using the floodlight style outside you must get the ones that look like heavy incandescent outside floodlights not just bulbs that say "suitable" for use outside. The former are "weather resistant" and have a low temp ballast -- the later only have the ballast and are designed for outside recessed down lighting. I bought a bunch of these a few years ago and had a lot of failures -- I also called -- and to the companies credit sent me replacements. They told me that even the heaver ones are not designed to be used for uplighting. Bright Effects was the brand - code on bulb

Most of the newer standard bulbs will start in cold temps -- but they take a long time to get bright so they only work where you have them on a timer. I use them outside but only in closed fixtures using lower wattage bulbs -- they have been great. If you use a 23w bulb in a small closed fixture it will get too hot for the bulb and fry the ballast and shorten the life.

Inside I have them in a lot of fixtures throughout on timers -- they last forever in situations like this. But these are just room lights not reading lights. I have tried the three way bulbs and have found that they do not last as long and I do not like them for reading.

The bulbs are improving all the time. I use the Ott lite color corrected bulbs in my office lights -- these previously were quite expensive but are now quite reasonable. They last forever in an office situation where they run for 10 hours.

Unless they specifically say -- you can not use any of these with dimmers or a photo-control that uses electronic switching.

[Russ Filtz]

Fluorescents do not like cold weather or being switched on/off a lot. They should only be used where lights are turned on and kept on for longer periods. Otherwise you are creating hazardous waste for nothing. Yes, even the newer CFLs still contain mercury.

[tim walker]

Mine are on the front porch and in cans. One is doing fine, the other burnerd out in a few months. They are on 24/7. They are also the ones made for outdoor useage. The coldest we have seen in Houston is 18.

Will call manufacture when I take it down.

[Myk Rian]

I had small incandescent flood type lights in my shop track lighting. Was replacing one every month. The CFLs have been great. Might take a minute to get to full brightness, but they're lasting a long time. We have CLFs in almost every light socket in the house.

[Lee Schierer]

I don't believe you will find any warranty on the 10,000 hours. It is an average life expectancy and that means that some lamps are going to fail sooner than that and some will last longer. Many things affect lamp life and I've never seen a manufacturer warrant that life with any sort of replacement. That doesn't mean that some won't replace their product. I've just never encountered one that would. CFL's do get dimmer with age so the lumen output is probably the maximum you will observe not the end of life level.

[Tom Godley]

Lee: the ones I am speaking of were guaranteed for two years -- of normal use. I believe they told me normal was 4-hr a day.

I had them in for about 8 months.

They asked for the bulb code (on each bulb!) and sent me a box of twelve.

[Jim Becker]

All of the lighting fixtures in and around our home that are not on a dimmer and/or low voltage are CFL technology, including the outdoor floods. I did have a couple of the outdoor units go bad quickly, but most have been working for several years now. I suspect there were just a few that were "bad" from the get-go. They are all on photo switches and come on automatically at dusk and off at dawn. I'm very pleased with the performance and the light quality.

[Paul Steiner]

I bought a pack of 10 cfls at lowes on sale on black friday. They were name brand even though I got poor performance out of about 3 or 4. Early burn outs. I like CFLs I wish the govt and industry would push smart lights. Lights that sense motion and turn off automatically. I have seen them in offices and schools and they work well not a nuisance at all. These would be great in homes, especially the home I share with my wife.

[James Rambo]

Some CFL's have a position they must operate in. Base down (table lamps), base up (ceiling lights, recessed can lights), or horizontal (yard lights).

[John Coloccia]

I haven't had much luck keeping CFLs going. I haven't noticed that I replace them any less than any other light in my house. I really can't think of anything at all nice to say about them, actually. I'm hoping that LED lighting really takes off soon. With any luck, CFLs will be the laser disc of the lighting world, and will quickly be replaced by LEDs.

[Matt Meiser]

John we are looking at LED under cabinet lighting for our kitchen. Its going to be expensive to start, but the life expectancy is something like 20 years and the power consumption for all the undercabinet lighting would be <28W. They claim a 2-1/2 year payback.

The ones we looked at today were by Kichler and have a really pleasing color--not blue like some early ones I've seen.

[Dan Mages]

CFLs still have the issue of Mercury in the bulb and should be recycled. I have recently invested in LED bulbs and I am happy with them. I have a 3 watt bulb in the baby's room for a night light and above the garage using 5 watt floods from Costco. While they are expensive upfront, they do very well long term. I would not be surprised to see the price drop in the next few years. I also saw LED based replacements for MR halogen bulbs at the BORG. I might look into these for the kitchen whenever we rebuild it.