Reading some of the complaints about CFL turn-on brightness got my curiosity going so I retrieved my old lumens meter (about 40-50 years old) and checked some of my many CFLs. All figures rounded to nearest whole number. Basement-80% of full output upon energizing. Cool area. Outdoor-68% of full output upon energizing. 22 degrees F. Kitchen-90%, Master Bath 92%, Desk Lamp 92%, Family Room fans w/5 CFLs each 90%, Garage 85%. Time to full output less than 60 seconds in interior, 75 in garage, about 100 in basement and 200-250 outdoor. Other similar locations seem to be about equal to the tested areas. Seems as if many of the complaints about CFL brightness may be misperceived.
Same in bathroom. Plus frequent turning on and off of the cfl's for these brief uses shortens their lives considerably negating any cost or energy savings.
92% of full brightness and 100% in less than 60 seconds is more than adequate for bathroom. I have 10 over vanity and 4 general use in bathroom. Switched probably 8-10 tomes per day. One failure in 7 years.
It's wonderful that you enjoy them. I also enjoy them in selected locations, for selected purposes. In general I don't like having them forced upon me. There are just some instances where I prefer an old fashioned 100 watt incandescent lamp. Next you'll be telling us that the unpleasant light emitted from CF's is also a misperception.
But at 92%, if you can't find your shirt you have other problems. See an opthomologist.
That 15 second complaint is not a valid excuse, it is just a way of being stubborn about something different. If you had to wait 60 seconds for any light at all, I'd agree and I'd never use the CFL, but the fact is, you get enough light to function.
Both our bathrooms have CFLs. When I get up during the night to pee, there is an LED night light and that is all I need. Don't tell me you'd miss the toilet at 92% output if you turned on a CFL.
My point is that I don't need you to tell me what I like, or I need, or what's enough for me. Thank you, but I like to make these decisions for myself.
For certain things, I love halogen bulbs. We've been using 75 watt R-30 halogens in kitchen recessed lighting jobs. Beautiful bright, white light. It's great for a kitchen, but in my opinion, too bright for living room lighting, where I prefer a standard 100 watt incandescent reflector flood, which are no longer being made. Other types of halogen lamps are great too, but IMO too many issues with overheating and burning out sockets. I'd really love a rough service halogen lamp for my drop light.
This reminded me of my first vacation trip on a cruise ship in 1986. Small carnival ship. With my ham radio and ship FCC license experience I make my way up to the radio room. I look in. Man at desk flipping out morse code, another watching. Fairly small room, no fancy equipment. I look up at the flashing lightbulb. It is attached to the outgoing transmission line. I felt safe we had a good communication link!!!
I find different issues all the time. I installed bathroom ceiling light fixtures only finding out they used bayonet twist lamps costing more, of course. I changed the sockets, bought new lamps. The first time I turned them on, they were very dim, then brightened up. After the first start up, they came on with much more brightness. Must be something with the gas or something.
GE-Made in China- Best response time by slim margin. Sylvania-Made in China-Most consistant color. Bright Star-Made in China-Very cheap. I use in basement and all 3 garages. Watt Saver-Made in China-Only have two. Were promotion.
I agree with your RBM. I have seen a lot of CFLs and I have yet to see one that has light quality even close to an incandewscent. Maybe some people perceive the light quality differently, but I can tell you of the people I know and interact with personally, all say that CFL light quality is inferior. I'd take a blind test anytime to pick the cfl light out of an assortment of cfl and incandescents.
And again, not saying they aren't good for many applications. But for reading, in my kitchen, for certain decorative fixtures, CFLs have inferior light and are not acceptable.
That experience is similar to mine. The few that have lasted a long time have been the open spiral type. But I just had one of those go in the garage. It lasted about 3 years. I've had incandscents that lasted many times that.
Overall you simply don't know what you're getting. It's a crap shoot. I haven't found any consistency where I could say one brand lasted and another didn't. Or that one brand got to high output a lo faster than another.
As for the reported 80 or 90% of full output of light instantly when they are turned on, I don't have a meter here to measure, but if I did I would. Either 80-90% isn't what you would think it is, or I haven't run across one of those yet. The worst ones I have you can't even see enough for the first 45secs or so to do what you need to do. The others would appear to me to give out about half output within 30 secs or so.
For me the bottom line isn't what the meter says, it's what I can use and put up with. I think it would be very useful if the OP would tell us which specific bulbs got to 80 and 90% at turn on. Next time I go to buy one, I'd try it. That has been one of my main complaints all along. There is no consistency and no rating system to tell you how they perform. There should be a rating where they state the time to get to say 80% of output. And the ones that are dimmable should clearly state to what equiv wattage they are dimmable. Otherwise we are buying a pig in a poke.
"Maybe some folks find 60 seconds too long when it only takes you 15 seconds to find the shirt you want in your closet "
Now maybe your experience has been different, but I've had lots of situations where waiting for the CFLs to put out enough light is an inconvenience. An inconvenience that at least some of us would rather not put up with.
As an example, I have CFLs in my garage. In cool weather, it takes them a good minute to put out close to full output. In the cold of winter, it's even worse. Am I sure it's exactly a min? No. Does it matter? No. Whatever the time is, like RBM, I find it unaccepatble for many applications.
Now, do you really think I've been annoyed by those 4 bulbs in my garage for the last 6 years or so only because I have a bug up my ass about CFLs? Or do you think I have consistently found this to be a real problem? Like when I go into the garage to find a tool under the workbench, for example? Do I put up with it? Yes. But do I like it, is it equal to an incandescent? Hell no. The only reason I have them in there is because sometimes I forget to turn them off and I could have 4 150W bulbs burning for 2 days. With a CFL, at least the energy used is a lot less.
Now the CFL proponents would say the newer bulbs are better. But I've bought some in the last year that have been slow to light up too. Others have been faster. I'm not alone here. CL reported similar experiences. Now, what would you champions of CFLs fit all have me do. Go out and keep buying different ones until I find the best I can? How cost effective is that? Wouldn't it be better for some honesty? Honesty on the part of the manufacturers by putting a spec on the box that says how long it takes to reach 80% of output. Honesty on the part of proponents by recognizing that they do have significant drawbacks and are not the best solution for all applications?
If you mean buy one that is a flood light, that's gonna be hard to put into my front door light. And the problem of outdoor performance is in cold temperatures, which I believe is an inherent problem with the technology which has to excite mercury vapor. It would seem to me that doing that is always going to be more difficult in cold temps. The CFLs I've seen for outdoor use did nothing to improve the time to full brightness, which is what's being discussed.
I use GE spiral. Rating=1,400 lumens. Start-up=1,250-1,300 lumens average (10 spiral CFLs). After 10 minutes=1,440-1,510 lumens. Possibly due to mfg. tolerances?
Also have found that Sylvania CFL bug lights work great. Rating=14W.
3000K. I use them in post lights. Slowest up to brightness was when temp was -18F. Probably 5 minutes or so.
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