CFL and LED bulb recommendations

[Andy]

I know that Feit CFLs are crap.

What about other brands of CFL, what has been your experience with their lifespan ?

What about the LEDs ?

How long have they lasted for you ?

Thanks a lot, Andy

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've had a couple decent brands of CFL but I'm changing over to LED. So far all I have is one Cree and ten Osram Daylight. To me, the Cree looks a bit dingy compared to the Osram. I've not had them long enough to say anything about life span as the oldest is less than a year.

[Art Todesco]

I put LED bulbs in 4 outside lamp posts and 1 LED flood. The flood light is on the subdivision sign. The flood fixture has 2 20 watt LEDs and looks much better than the 2 150 watt halogen tube fixtures it replaced and has been there just a bit over a year. 2 of the lamp post units have

2 mini candelabra bulbs in each. Originally they were 60 watt incandescent flame tip bulbs. They were replaced with 4 5 watt, frosted lamps from Lowe's (UtiliTech). They have been a dismal failure. While they look good, they only have lasted a few months. Lowe's made good on the 5 year warranty, however, they seemed have stopped selling them ... red flag??? They now only have the clear ones. So far, none of the clear ones have quit. So maybe they just had some bad bulbs. BTW, these fixtures are very large commercial looking units, so I don't think heat is a problem.

Also, I have 2 post lamps on my property, which each use one Edison base bulb. I replace these with the Utilitech (clear, Edison base, 5 watt) units and they've been ok for over a year. Another clue that the others may have had an inherent problem.

I've previously posted about changing out 2 utility room and 2 closet fixtures which had 2 circline fluorescent lamps each. They were burning out quite quickly and are pretty pricey to replace. I gutted the fixture and put in a quad Edison socket in 3 of the fixtures. I used 4 60 watt equivalent Crees in each. In one closet I left the Circlines because it's rarely used and has never burned out. In the utility room there are

2 fixtures ... a bit too bright for everyday use, however, nice if you need to do some close work. So, I put in a dimmer. In the other closet, the 4 60 watt equivalent Crees work very well, however in all of these, time will tell.

I also have a few other LED lamps scattered around the house, mostly Cree and even one 3 way. They are working quite well. BTW, my local power company (Duke) has a deal on up to 15 of the 40 or 60 watt equivalent Crees for about $3 each. I used 12 of the 60s for the above retrofits.

[Fred McKenzie]

Andy-

All CFLs seem to be a crap-shoot as to longevity. In theory, the fluorescent bulb lasts a long time. When they finally fail, the ends of the tube are black, just like the old cylindrical lamps

In practice, most of the CFLs I've had fail were due to electronics failures after a few months to a couple years of intermittent use. I have opened up several to see if they might be repairable. One had an obvious loose connection that was easily fixed. All the others had parts go bad, usually resulting in their fuse blowing. One was so incinerated that there was obviously a flame involved, although you could not tell from the outside.

LED lights should have longer life than CFL. I suspect their life will also be limited by their electronics. The few I have used are still working, but it is too soon to know how they will hold up. If there is less electrical stress involved, that could be a long time compared to CFL. Since none have failed, I have not taken any apart.

My only complaint about LED lights has been that some cause interference to radio reception. The dimmable lights seem to be worse than non-dimmable. If you have a radio that can be tuned to the aeronautical band (120 MHz AM), you can use it to compare lights.

Fred

[Frank]

My experience has been similar with cfl's. In addition, I've bought a few that emit an annoying squeal. Then there were 2 with a white light so annoying that they now reside outside where it does not matter. My cfl's, and I suspect led's, fail when turned on and off frequently such as in a bathroom.

[HerHusband]

I have replaced most of the bulbs in our house with CFL bulbs. The early CFL bulbs didn't last very long, but the ones in recent years seem to be much better. I'm not positive on the brand, but I think I have been getting the EcoSmart brand that comes in four packs at Home Depot (60W equivalent soft white). Some bulbs have lasted years, others die in a few months. You never really know which ones will last and which ones won't. I even use them in outdoor fixtures with no problems.

In the last year or two, I've started replacing the CFL bulbs with CREE brand LED's. So far none of them have stopped working. The glass bulb did come unglued from one of the CREE LED's in the kitchen (hangs upside down). It still worked, but I replaced it anyway.

I just installed a couple of 75W equivalent CREE LED's in our kitchen and it helped give off a bit more light.

I'm planning to replace all of our CFL's with the CREE LED's when the CFL's die off.

Unfortunately, I still need to use regular incandescent bulbs in our dimmers. I tried dimmable CFL's and the CREE LED's and neither works very well. They dim slightly to a point, then just shut off. I am not able to dim to the low level light needed in our living/TV room. They make dimmers specifically for CFL and LED lights, but so far I have not found one that is controllable by an infrared remote control.

Anthony Watson

[John Keiser]

Local hardware store had packs of 3 FEIT "60W" LEDs for $5. Big improvement over CFLs. Brighter, whiter. I bought 1 pack because I am not a FEIT fan; went back and bought 2 packs more after seeing the difference. No telling how long they will last.

[hrhofmann]

Good luck with the LED's from FEIT, maybe they will be longer lived than the FEIT CFLs which were garbage.

[Andy]

Thanks gentlemen for all the good info.

Andy