20 recess ceiling light bulbs

[sekker]

I have CFLs in cans in two floors of my house - they work great. I have not had to replace any of them (installed last August). The current price is $3-$5 per bulb for CFLs; many utilities have rebates, too.

The new CFLs have better color options - like soft white - making them hard to tell from regular bulbs.

There are new, dimmable CFLs - but I have not used them personally.

I am surprised at the posts against CFLs - this post must have the unluckiest people on the planet. I have done 4 houses in their entirety now (2 my own, 2 family houses). The only CFLs that did not last were older ones in the bathroom. I replaced them with a different model, and they were fine. I left my house last year, all CFL for at least 5 years, I had 6 total broken bulbs (>200 installs).

Halogens are going to be HOTTER than regular bulbs - don't put them ANYWHERE except in a heat lamp-style housing!

There are some LED options, but they are pricey. 100bulbs.com has many listings.

For a forum of savvy shoppers, I am shocked at the attitude regarding CFLs and LEDs - they DO save you money, they are better for the environment (a CFL may have mercury in it, but the amount of electricity saved means less mercury in the atmosphere from burning coal; CFLs can be recycled, too!), and they last longer (=less work to maintain).

[OWC Jamie]

[quote Article Accelerator]

Those things aren't true for CFLs. CFLs are also much more of an environmental hazard.



CFLs? Bah!
Cutting down on the tons of mercury emmisions (into the environment) at the power company's generator smoke stacks by cutting power usage by 75% doesn't make much sense, does it.

[davester]

[quote Article Accelerator]CFLs are also much more of an environmental hazard. Um, no they're not. the only environmental hazard associated with them is mercury emissions if you break them. Each CFL contains such small amounts that the extra emissions from coal-fired plants to generate the excess electricity used by a halogen/incandescent far exceed CFL mercury levels (and mercury in CFLs can be recycled too). The mercury present in regular tube fluorescents and mercury vapor lamps (duh) is present in much greater amounts per unit of light output than CFLs.

[quote Article Accelerator]If you dim PAR20s, the energy consumption advantage of CFLs is largely negated (depending on the dimming level, of course).
Not even close. You would be basically unable to see if you dimmed an incandescent/halogen down to the energy consumption level of a CFL. The degree of dimming does not correspond directly to energy use. At full power, an incandescent/halogen uses roughly 4 times the energy of a CFL. But, when you dim an incandescent/halogen to 1/4 power, you get much less than 1/4 the light output.

That said, CFLs are problematic in small-sized recessed fixtures since 1) many of them won't fit; 2) the overheating issues mentioned above; 3) the dimmable ones especially are often only available in bulky sizes that won't fit the fixtures.

[blusubaru]

[quote GGD][quote blusubaru]If you're referring to my post, I was talking about LED not CFL. CFL bulbs get warm, but not hot. You can still take a CFL bulb out of a fixture with your bare hands if it's been on.
Don't LED's use even less power than CFLs and therefor even less heat? I'm having trouble understanding the source heat problems related to very low wattage devices.
Yes, they lose less power. But the electronic components just aren't there yet. The capacitors in most of mine failed. Search the forum for my LED lighting experiments. You'll find several posts on several different types of LED light bulbs as well as CFL's.

For all the CFL doubters, I HIGHLY suggest you spend $2.00 and get yourself one of the n:vision warm white CFL bulbs from Home Depot. I bought enough for the whole house I loved them so much.

[kap]

Here is the info I got from a light bulb itself: 75 W 120 V Flood Sylvania

[Article Accelerator]

[quote davester]At full power, an incandescent/halogen uses roughly 4 times the energy of a CFL. But, when you dim an incandescent/halogen to 1/4 power, you get much less than 1/4 the light output.
It's more linear than you think:

http://www.lutron.com/product_technical/...#OLE_LINK2

[luckytiff02]

Hi guys, honestly i have similar problem with my ceiling lights. Very thanks for your information. It helps me a lot.