After one year, a 40 Watt flourecent energy bulb went bad and would not fully light up. I think the manufacturer specified a 8 year lifetime. It was in a fairly tightly enclosed kitched fixture. Ordinary incadecent bulbs have lasted longer than that. Are these energy efficient bulbs more susceptible to overheating and failure than the old style incadecent bulbs? Also, the rated illumination of these bulbs seems to be overrated and they don't produce the light they are supposed to. Should I give up on this energy saving approach for this kind of fixture?
Not in my experience. I have a number of them working in very warm enclosed fixtures (shared by an incandescent lamp) and the florescent lamps are lasting longer, in face I have not had one of the fail.
All types of lamps can fail prematurely and not all lamps are of the same quality.
Andy writes; I agree with Joe. And I'd like to add that much of the variation in the lifetimes is dependent on the use and the location of the. Vibration, temperature rise, circulating air currents, high or low line voltage, line surges...... all of these affect the operation and lifetimes of the lamps. If lamps in a particular fixture tend to fail more often than those lamps at other locations, there is more to it than the lamp lifetime.
Vibration has always been the big bug-a-boo of incandescents, so in those areas I always use "rough service" bulbs..... And that isn't always enough...
I buy Sylvania, and they seem to last darned near forever. I have two that operate all night long, every night of the year, and I think they're about five years old. One's in an enclosed postlamp & subject to temperature extremes.
If you're using those cheapie 60-watt equivalent units, well, they don't put out a whole lot of light. I use the 100-watt equivalent units in places where I need the light, and they do the job just fine.
I've used some 'LOA' that were just junk.
sherw> After one year, a 40 Watt flourecent energy bulb went bad and would not fully
If you still have the receipt, I would take it back to your retailer for exchange; most would be happy to provide you with a replacement, no questions asked. (I stick mine in an envelope I have taped to a cupboard door.)
While this is personal opinion (and please consider it as such), I've had excellent luck with Philips, Osram Sylvania and GE products, and of these three, Philips has proven to be the longevity champ. You may pay a little more upfront, but in my experience it's worth it.
That said, any 40-watt CFL in a tightly enclosed fixture is not likely to be long for this world. Basically, you have four options: 1) reduce wattage to no more than 25-watts (100-watt equivalent); 2) improve ventilation, if possible, 3) replace this fixture with something more "CFL friendly" or 4) revert back to using incandescent lamps.
If you decide to keep this fixture and want to try another CFL, the Philips Marathon Universal is approved for operating temperatures as high as 60C (140F) and the 25-watt version has a rated life of 15,000 hours (less in totally enclosed fixtures). If there is any one CFL that is likely to provide long service life in this type of environment, this is it.
See:
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If you have an indoor/outdoor thermometer kicking about, I might suggest sticking the outdoor probe inside the fixture and monitoring the temperature over the course of two to three hours. If you're getting into the 130 to 140F range, you're really pushing the envelope. Drilling ventilation holes might help (if that's possible); otherwise, you might consider one of the other options mentioned above.
That was my experience with the older compact jobs, but not most of the current models. The current ones seem to be much better. They start better, even when cold, they come to full brightness very quickly and last a long long time. I have some in my garage door openers and the newer ones are working well way below 0º F.
i would not put them in enclosed units yet. my bulbs are in spot light type fixtures. they are 26 watt 6400k and very white bright. i can not stand yellow light. i believe my turning them off and on has a bad effect on their longevity.
That is true, but then there are some that have no such problem. The old ones seemed to have more of a problem and the ones I use now don't have that warning and I have several in an enclosed fixture, even some sharing the fixture with a incandescent.
To put it simply, some CF bulbs are crap (as are some incandescent bulbs). I've had some multi-packed Chinese-made bulbs from the big box stores with five year warranty periods die within a year. Not just one bulb but all four in the package. And not just one package but two. Not surprisingly they make obtaining a warranty replacement as difficult as possible and the replacements have no warranty at all.
On the other hand I have some European-made CFs (Philips I believe) that have been going well for something approaching ten years having made the move from Alaska with me. This might be one of those circumstances where you do get what you pay for.
As you point out, the illumination from CF bulbs seems to fall short of their supposed incandescent equivalents. Where the claim is "same light output as a 100W incandescent" my eyes tell me that 75W might be pushing the claim and that 60W might be closer to the truth. I really need to drag out my old foot-candle meter and do a test to see if my eyes are telling me the truth.
I use them everywhere. As with most electrical items, there is a initial failure period, lost 2 i think in my new addition, 2 years ago. None since
I also have at least 2 that I took with me from my old house left over
10 years ago, and they were not new, one on my garage door opener and one on the living room. I think 2 others of those died in the last few years. Some were ~15 years old
Really? I bought an 8 pack and half didn't even last a year. I knocked off a quick email to the company and they were happy to ship me out a 12pack to replace it.
There must be a better way to measure light output of a bulb than to go by supposed wattage.
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