I have two wall sconces in two rooms. Same sconce. Use a halogen bulb
120V 150W type T.
Room 1 I always have the sconce on. Room 2 the occupant likes to keep it dimmed half way. That room always need replacement bulbs sooner. In fact, I replaced them at the same time, and I have since replaced room 2's bulb twice without having to replace room 1's. Funny thing is, room 1 have the light turned on much longer period of time, it should burn out much sooner and it's not. The only difference is - room 2's light is always dimmed.
Sure, that is the way halogens work. Buy a low wattage halogen for room two and get rid of the dimmer. It will also cost less to run with the same amount of light.
Likely the bulbs you were replacing on the dimmed fixture were noticably blackened. The envelope must be kept very hot to keep tungsten vapor from depositing on it. Which is why the bulbs are very small so they are close to the filament and get hot. A regular glass bulb must be a minimal size for a given wattage to keep from melting. Since a halogen bulb must stay very hot to work properly it's small and is made of blown quartz instead of glass, hence one of the old names was quartz-iodide.
I think halogens generally produce "whiter" light, though. My wife has a brown sweater that looks green under fluorescents.
Each has its place. I use fluorescent and compact-fluorescent for general lighting, regular incandescent most places where dimming is important (e.g. bedrooms), and halogen (also on dimmers) for work-area lighting. There are also some flashlights and a "Tensor" lamp in the mix, and even a smattering of neon. :-)
... or just continue to use the dimmer and get on with life. Sure, they'll fail more quickly, but they're still a good product. And I suspect that, as long as you use them at least _sometimes_ at full brightness, they'll be able to work their magic.
The "old tech" Cool White fluorescents caused complains with teir color rendering index of only 62.
"Old tech" Warm White had a color that looked like it should be OK, but its color rendering index was/is only 53. One bad color distortion that one does is making skin tones more greenish-yellowish-pale than they appear under incandescent, halogen or sunlight.
After that came "broad spectrum" fluorescents. They had color rendering index as high as close to 90, but at the expense of about 30-33% less light. Although their color distortions were much less, they were in the same direction - making skin tones less pinkish and making most reds and greens darker and duller, and blues violetish.
Now, we have compact fluorescents as well as triphosphor linear fluorescents in two grades.
Compact fluorescents (excepting mainly most dollar store models, "full spectrum" ones from pet/aquarium shops and the rare, largely obsolete FUL tyes) and the upper grade of linear triphosphor fluorescents have color rendering index 82 (sometimes a bit more for larger linear ones), and their color distortions are in a more pleasing direction - skin tones are slightly excessively pinkish, and greens and reds are more vivid and brighter than "proper". These are not perfect - bright pure reds come up slightly orangish, and some blues under the warmer color ones of these lamps still come up slightly violetish. But an earth tone sweater will probably not be made greenish!
The "upper" grade linear triphosphor fluorescents have color code SPXxx if by GE, D8xx if by Sylvania, and 8xx if by anyone else. xx is the
2-digit abbreviated color temperature:
27 - incandescent-like or close (most compact fluorescents)
30 - "warm white color" - slightly whiter or pinkish-whiter than incandescent
35 - "whitish warm white" - I find that one really pleasant!
41 - "cool white"
50 - an icy cold pure white that sometimes looks slightly bluish
In most home use, 35 or less is recommended. 41 or higher can cause a "dreary gray" effect unless lighting level is "office-bright" or "classroom bright" (near or over 100 footandles / 1100 lux).
Keep in mind that in home centers, the T8 (1 inch diameter) triphosphors will be the lower grade - 7 instead of 8, or SP instead of SPX if by GE. The lower grade, although better than "old tech" (halophosphate phosphor), has a color rendering index in the upper 70's rather than low-mid 80's, and is not quite as good as "upper grade" in pleasantness of any color distortions.
The offending fluorescents in my case were CFs purchased only a few months ago. In the future I'll watch for the indicators you suggest, but I suspect these are premium bulbs you're talking about.
Put the light characteristics aside for a moment. I'd buy what I want for living areas regardless of cost as comfort is what I'm after.
OTOH, there are some areas that just need some light (stairwell, shed, etc.) and color temperature is not important. What is the difference between two lights on the shelf at the hardware store, one is 99¢, the other is $8.99? Both have the same information as to lumens and life span.
CFs now and for the past at least couple years usually are "The Good Stuff" if they were not dollar store items. They have some tendency to make greenish things more so, although my experience is that most brownish things are rendered a bit more orangish by these lamps as opposed to greenish.
Then again, I like to buy my sweaters in places where they look good under warm/warmish color triphosphor fluorescent light. Then-then-again, such a sweater and my face could look a bit greenish at the office party if the lighting there is old-tech "halophosphor" fluorescent. If you need to wear clothes that have just the right color in specific lighting situations, then try the clothes out under such lights, and buy such clothes from places where the return policy is good enough to allow refund if the clothes looked ugly under your workplace lighting.
Could you tell me what brands/models in the same store have same life and lumens when one costs 99 cents and the other costs $8.99? Also, any additional specifications supplied by either - such as watts consumed, life expectancy, color temperature, color code on the bulb, and (less likely) a specification of color rendering index?
(I find CRI in the 82-86 range usually better than even 88-91, since most fluorescent lamps with CRI 82-86 have full light output and most with higher CRI have 30-33% less light output. Also, the color distortions of triphosphor fluorescent lamps with CRI 82-86, including most compacts, are mostly in a favorable way while the color distortions of most other fluorescent lamps are in an unfavorable direction - even if the CRI is above 86, as well as if in the low 70's or less.)
It's possible that you touched the bulb when you replaced it, causing it to burn out prematurely so you had to replace it again. Did you touch it this time?
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