Good CFL, bad CFL...user recommendations

[Celtic Blue]

Originally Posted by Boo

Shawn,

I bought a couple of these bulbs yesterday, and my initial impression of them is excellent.

Instant on, 23w, 1640 lumens, 12,000 hours, and they're tiny -- around 30% smaller than the next smallest equivalent CFL. And I think they've gotten smaller recently. The box they came in proclaims that they're "Now smaller than ever". And according to my measurements, they are -- 4.375" length and 2.0" width! They easily fit in my two lamps that needed CFLs about the size of incandescents.

They were not easy to find. Lowe's didn't have the 23w micro-mini in stock. The two Ace hardware stores I went to didn't have any of the Sylvania micro-minis. I ended up finding them at Kmart where they cost $16.49 for a two-pack , as opposed to the $10.99 charged by Lowe's stores and Ace Online.

Thanks for reporting back on these, I picked up two on your recommendation. They are really sweet bulbs for many of the more difficult fit applications and just saved me some headache. They truly are small and the base taper is ~45 degrees, so they should be able to fit into some recessed bases that no other CFL's seem to fit at present.

I can confirm they are instant on as well. The package isn't lying on this one. They aren't cheap though, $9 for a two-pack at present.

Lowe's website doesn't list any of the micro mini's, but they have three different wattages of them on the shelves in stores that I've been to. I was able to find the 100W equivalent (23W) on Lowe's site, but it didn't give the name (I could see "micro mini" on the image of the package, and it matches the one I bought.)

[Celtic Blue]

I've now tried the 60W Sylvania micro-mini @ $7.48/2-pack at Lowes. They do appear to be instant-on. They are truly tiny! Unlike the 75 and 100W variants the base is curved rather than at ~45 degree angle. They did fit in the restricted base of my fridge fixture, but not in the garage door opener. The garage door opener has really cheesy recessed plastic sockets and small metal tabs as contacts.

They seem to work about as well as the n:vision bulbs, but in an even smaller form. Unfortunately, they had a difficult task replacing fridge appliance bulbs. All CFL's would suffer from having a more diffuse and yellower light (although a "bright white variant might be a better match.) The cold temperature also reduces light output. Perhaps I should have tried the 100W equivalent micro-mini instead.

I just tested these as replacements for some miserable small GE enclosed reflector CFL's in track lighting. They clobber the GE's despite lacking the reflector enclosure. Rated lumens is 825 vs. 400 for the GE's (and the GE's start up at a small fraction of that.) So it looks like these fix one of the persistent problems I've had.

[Boo]

It would be great if Sylvania were to come out with a 23w/1600 lumens micro mini that could take a standard clip-on lamp shade.

[jayman]

The one area I refuse to use CFL's is for a reading lamp. CFL's cause me eyestrain, but a 60 watt light bulb works fine

[ronhowell]

Strange that no-one has mentioned FEIT Electric CFLs in this thread as far as I can tell.
I have been getting these from our local Costco from time-to-time, on sale when SCE offers a subsidy. Apart from the occasional bad batch which FEIT have replaced, I have been quite satisfied with them, both the shrouded and un-shrouded twisties. They are not instant-on, but so what! Being retired, I have time to wait!
I have replaced all of the formerly incandescent bulbs throughout the house and outside, except for those in areas that are only on occasionally, for short periods of time. The electric bill savings were dramatic, especially from replacing the external lights that burn throughout the night.

The new GE Energy Star rated refrigerator we recently bought has a bottom freezer with a double french door configuration. It has LED lighting at the top of the refrigerator section, and the lighting excellent! Very bright so you can see everything inside, even when full. I like it a lot.

[Celtic Blue]

Originally Posted by ronhowell

Strange that no-one has mentioned FEIT Electric CFLs in this thread as far as I can tell.
I have been getting these from our local Costco from time-to-time, on sale when SCE offers a subsidy. Apart from the occasional bad batch which FEIT have replaced, I have been quite satisfied with them, both the shrouded and un-shrouded twisties. They are not instant-on, but so what! Being retired, I have time to wait!

Both are problems I had heard about with FEIT CFL's, so I have not tried them and likely never will. I am using two sets of their LED's despite their incredibly uninformative packaging and non-existent website information (good luck determining the LED's wattage.)

Instant on is mostly an annoyance, but "random on" also unnecessarily gives fixtures a "cheap" appearance. Why buy such a bulb when there are better alternatives that are not objectionable? (And the n:visions tend to be some of the least expensive and best fitting out there.) If we as consumers reject the non-instant on bulbs, then we will get better CFLs. Reward the folks with better mousetraps. When the anti-CFL knuckle draggers no longer have the slow-start excuse for condemning CFL's, then CFL conversion will occur even more quickly. For that reason I won't suggest bulbs that immediately give the new user a bad first impression.

A bigger problem with all of the enclosed/shrouded types I've seen is the extremely low initial brightness. So far this appears to be independent of the manufacturer/brand--which is unfortunate. A bulb that is slow to reach even 50% brightness is impractical in many applications. (Who wants one in the toilet area or bathroom vanity...or garage...or storage areas...or anywhere when you want to be able to see within the first minute or two of hitting the switch?)

P.S. One of my GE's that I moved to the range hood because it is so godawful slow to start seems to be getting worse. It takes nearly 3 full seconds to come on now (stopwatch)--so long that I keep thinking it has died even though I expect a long delay from it.

[Rae Vynn]

We picked up a pair of LED flood lights, and a cheap fixture, and have now replaced our porch light with incredibly low wattage, cool LED lights! Yay!!

[Celtic Blue]

I picked up a package of the Home Depot "ecosmart" 60W equivalent soft-white CFL's today from Home Depot. They appear to be identical to the previous "n:vision" and prior to that "Consumer Electric" bulbs from Home Depot . The bulbs have the same model number EDXO-14, same 9 yr warranty, 10,000 hours, 14W, 900 lumens. The package does state "Up to 70% less mercury than standard CFL bulbs" which is new. Performance so far is identical to the other Home Depot store brand standard CFL's: true instant on, full intensity. Same price: ~$6 for a 4-pack.

I bought these as part of an upgrade to the shower/toilet area which had a single can fixture. The enclosed CFL's I had tried came up at very low luminosity, so this was a real problem. Therefore I went to a flush mount ceiling fixture that will take two bulbs and removed the can. Probably should have only put 40W equivalents in the new fixture since the two 60W equivalents are putting out about 4 times as much effective light as the 60W enclosed spiral in a can would even after it was warmed up.

[hobbit]

As long as we're resurrecting this thread, I've got more input
for it. I used my huge-ass TCPi 68W units for an event or two
and they were great, even in rain. I've got another one coming
up and need to throw together more lighting, so I wanted to try a
couple of different avenues and one of the options I stumbled across
was the "bright effects" line from Feit Electric, sold by Lowes.
What a piece of crap. Another fine example of how offs(w)horing
is killing our industry potential. By comparison to the TCPi
ones [available at the Orange Box, as noted] it's a night and day
difference [and especially in this case, "night" because the bulb I
bought didn't even work] This is the essence of what I sent off to
Feit's supposed customer-service department, also posted over
at CleanMPG:
________________
.
I recently bought one of your large spiral compact-fluorescent lamps,
the "bright effects" model L65TN, to try as part of a low-budget
area lighting solution I'm working on. I was sorely disappointed.
.
Apparently some shipping or in-store damage had happened because the
unit didn't work, or at least flickered briefly and unsuccessfully
*tried* to work when the base was gently tapped. When shaken,
something in the ballast base was obviously loose and felt about
the weight and sound I'd expect from one of the small transformers
typically used in these ballasts rattling around. Other lamps in
the same case I checked in the store were also like this, so perhaps
the whole pallet fell off the truck and they decided to try and sell
them anyway -- who knows, but what I noticed while examining all
this were some much more serious issues.
.
Compare the two units in this picture:
.
http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/pix/misc/bigCFs.jpg
.
The one on the left is from your competition at TCPi, and here are
several reasons I'm going to continue buying *their* CFLs instead
of yours:
.
Your ballast is much larger, indicating some poor engineering
choices regarding how to pack the electronics into the base. From
the damage that the units I looked at seem to have sustained, your
engineering staff apparently doesn't see any point in good physical
restraint of some of the heavier parts, leaving them to bash around
and come detached with a relatively mild impact. I figure if the
glass didn't break, NOTHING else should have happened to these as
I'd expect the electronics to be much more robust than the tube.
.
Your housing doesn't even make a pretense of being weather-resistant,
since it has ample ventilation holes in the top, sides, and bottom.
Neither unit is claimed to be completely weatherproof like a true
outdoor unit, but the TCPi ballast is completely sealed, listed as
weather-resistant, and I *have* used them at wet outdoor events
already with no problem at all.
.
Look at the top surface of the TCPi ballast: it's a sheet of
aluminum, used to couple what minimal heat is lost in the ballast
to the outside air without ventilation holes. Using a heat sink
like that eliminates the need for the holes and probably allows
for a more compact arrangement of parts underneath. The TCPi
ballast is *very* efficient, producing almost no heat of its
own and sending all the power used to the lamp tube.
.
The tube area of the TCPi unit is larger, yielding more light-
emitting surface overall.
.
The TCPi lamps come in a nice form-fit clamshell plastic inner
packing sleeve that snaps apart, easily re-usable as protective
storage when moving the lamps around. Your cardboard packaging
leaves a lot to be desired, and wouldn't last long in damp storage
environments as where one might commonly find special-event
equipment spending a lot of time.
.
With all these disadvantages, your units are about $2 MORE expensive,
and apparently sold on some exclusive basis through Lowes where a
choice in large-format CFLs is not offered to the consumer at the
shelves so they feel locked into solely buying these.
.
In short, I would warn all potential buyers of large-format CFLs to
100% avoid your product line until some major rework is done. Right
now you are not competing in the market, you are losing and simply
lowering everyone's overall expectations and standards. Don't do
that, especially with a relatively new product type. You have every
motivation to not only fix this problem TODAY, but to also revisit
similar design issues in your lines of lower-wattage lamps as well.
.
Escalate this up the chain until something is done about it.
.
The unit in question has already been returned, so I don't expect
any particular response to this, other than perhaps going into
a Lowes a few months from now and either see greatly improved
product on the shelves, or just continuing to find the same old
disappointment. But while you're in there reworking some designs,
how about something truly innovative to go your competition one
better? How about a 100W native unit that can produce a 500W or so
incandescent-equivalent, and maybe with an improved spectrum at the
same time?? That could put a nice ding in the halogen-worklight
market, which from the standpoint of energy-inefficiency needs
to die anyway, and be a desireable part of various large-area
lighting solutions.
.
_H*

[Celtic Blue]

Hobbit, I've been continuing to post to this thread as a resource and encourage others to do the same.

Thanks for the report on the Bright Effects and the comparison to the ones at Home Depot. Now I know which ones to replace mine with if/when they eventually fail. I think I'll update the first page with the essence of your comments.

My monster Bright Effects have worked well enough in the garage (look identical to yours that was defective.) They are a little dim on start up but are instant on. I'll try to roughly quantify that with a luxmeter later.

The several types of Bright Effects I have all appear to be FEC (Feit Electric Co.) I rank them little better than GE CFL's, and most of them are no longer in service. I tried to sell some B.E.'s I don't need at a garage sale and didn't succeed even at about 1/3 price.

I've been replacing some old builder-standard fixtures again and this has prompted a few more CFL purchases (as in some old GE's didn't fit...and I needed dimmer bulbs for some new doubles replacing singles.) The Ecosmart 100W and 40W equivalents are the same model as the n:vision/Commercial Electric. Same size, same instant on performance. And at $8/four-pack the 100's are priced well.