Real tired of my halogen ceiling lights. Replace them with what?

[deckeda]

I like the newer instant-on CFLs too. GE has some now, and Sylvania has had some for a while too. Probably others no doubt.

Regarding soft-whites, I think the cheaper brands are often 2700K which for me might as well not even be turned on they're so yellow. Today I picked up some new soft whites that are 3000K I'm gonna try.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

This page has a nice selection of reflector bulbs. The biggest problem you might have is getting them to fit in deep floodlight fixtures.
http://www.1000bulbs.com/23-Watt-R40-Com...ght-Bulbs/

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We have had Sylvania or Phillips PAR20 halogens in ceiling pots for about 3 years. All are on dimmers. They are in use daily but none has burned out yet.

CFLs take several minutes to come up to full output, aren't dimmable, have generally ugly spectral characteristics, and have terrible color rendition indexes.

[Racer X]

"CFLs take several minutes to come up to full output, aren't dimmable, have generally ugly spectral characteristics, and have terrible color rendition indexes."

some CFLs are dimmable, and you can purchase "full spectrum" (but not continuous spectrum) CFLs with high CRI. Just not at Home Depot or Lowe's.

high CRI and full spectrum

[RAMd®d]

Racer, thanks for the link!

And I would *not* put "100W" CFLs in 99% of the track lighting cans/fixtures. They don't get has hot as halogens, but they can got hot enough to cool their delicate electronics, especially if they are somewhat or completely inverted.

[OWC Jamie]

I have dimmable indoor flood CFLs

One or two of them buzz , not unlike an incandescant filament rattles - just louder, when dimmed low.
I have found CFLs, LED and many halogens don't like being in an enclosed can, nor very tight clearances cans or housings. Without a lot of test equipment I can only assume it's heat.

I haven't seen a CFL that "took minutes" to ramp up to full brightness in 25 years.
I have some twist bulbs that are getting on towards 5, 6 years old that now take a fraction of a second to turn on and maybe 5 seconds to ramp up that LAST 5%.



45 - 50 degrees is awful cold for a basement. That's almost colder than the earth surrounding it (if there is any). Air -infiltration-leaky Garage under ?

[Robert M]

Racer,

I was looking at some dimmable (as well as three way) flourescents at the lighting store from whom I'm purchasing the lighting in my apartment. The owner said to stay away from them because the tech in the bulbs is still immature. He predicted the next generation of bulbs will be worth considering. Funny, the rep from one of the companies that made dimmable and three way flourescents confirmed the information.

Robert

[olnacl]

I put dimmable 23W twist CFLs in the "can" lighting in my ceiling, using a Lutron remote dimming switch and they work fine throughout the spectrum from full bright to min. I have the same bulbs in the kitchen which flicker at the lowest setting using a Leviton dimmer.

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billb wrote:
I haven't seen a CFL that "took minutes" to ramp up to full brightness in 25 years.

Strange. I just purchased a pack of 4 Philips "mini twister" 27W CFLs (5000 K) from Home Depot and used two of them in kitchen ceiling fixtures. Both take close to 5 minutes to come up to full brightness (supposedly 100W equivalent--1620 lumens).

Maybe they take that much time to come up to full brightness because they're inverted. Possible?

[MikeF]

Sams Club here (So Cal) has LED bulbs. I think one of the variants they had was for the size mentioned here (but not sure)...