lower sales volume would directly translate into lower price. However, if this discourages other manufacturers from entering the 150w bulb market, then the price would go back up.
Bulbs currently are way overpriced and hardly last past 6 months where I live.
What do you mean by justification? That's the way the manufacturing and market system works, economies of scale.
If they were trying to gouge us, wouldn't they gouge us on the smaller sizes that people buy most of the time? Instead of on the ones we almost never buy.
Especially now with Polish and Hungarian and Chinese lightbulbs on the market. Is anyone trying to compete with US made 150 and if so, what percentage of their 100W bulb price do they charge for 150?
Nope. that was Sherwin Williams. Edison invented the microscope. Later improved by the Wright brothers.
Caution about flourescent bulbs. Most fluorescent bulbs are not dimmable. (Most of the light switches in my house are dimmers.) Even the ones that are dimmable often make a very annoying buzz when they are turned down low. I suggest you try a single bulb before committing to filling your house with them.
I haven't checked prices here (> sherw> Right you are. Wrong inventor, but the idea is the same. I realize > that
Hi, One reason I mix different kind bulbs/lamps depending on where they are.
One thing I have learned about this problem. Don't compose postings in the wee hours of the morning, or people will jump all over you.
My kitchen fixture can accept only one bulb. 150 is the optimum brightness, as anything higher is not appropriate for the wiring limitations.
I don't think this problem is just with 150's, but anything larger. Special very low wattage bulbs are another exception. It's just strange that the cut off point is 150 watts. It's also strange that I have checked over one dozen different stores, and they all have the same pricing structure, even Wal Mart and they usually undercut everyone else.
Let me draw an analogy with potatoe chips. Jays is well known in my area and they mostly make regular and flavored chips. They make very limited quantites of a 'no salt added' variety, which I buy often. The price of that item is no more than the other chips, yet Jays finds it economical to sell it at prices comparable to their other brands. I understand they fire up one line periodically to produce the requirements needed. Can't General Electric do the same? I cannot see anything in the design of these larger bulbs to make them more expensive. Obviously, GE and others feel that they can get their asking price, and so far there is no competition to force them to lower it.
Sherwin D.
Edison invented the Courtship of Eddie's Father.
See the PBS doc, for info about the problems between Wright and Curtis. Apparently Curtis had connections and it took the Wrights decades to get their fair acknowledgement. Sort of a shame that they named an air force base, Curtis-Wright.
You may be an exception to the rule, equipping all your wall switches with dimmers. At $15 or so a switch that certainly adds up over a whole house.
The discussion about price of light bulbs did not involve dimmers until YOU brought that up.
The original author wanted a 150W bulb and was dismayed at the price difference between 75W-100W bulbs and the 150W bulb. I checked at Walmart and yes the 150W bulb is much more expensive than a 75W or
100W. 4 packs of each of these are only a bit more than the price of a SINGLE 150W bulb.A single CF rated for 2600 lumens (150W equiv) with color temp of 5000 Kelvin for accurate color fidelity only uses 40W of electricity, is rated for 10,000 hour life, is 6.7 inches long and 2.68 inches wide (fits most lamps) and costs about $10. As I recall the 150W bulb at Walmart was about $2.75, and you will replace it 5 or more times in the life of a similar lamp equipped with this bulb.
The issue here is HEAT. Incandescent lamps generate ENORMOUS amounts of HEAT.
Yes, you can insert ANY CF that will fit the fixture.
According to the US Department of Energy
Replacing a 100W incandescent with a 30w CF will save at least $30 in electricity costs over the life of the lamp.
In some households, replacing all the incandescent bulbs with CFs will even cut the cooling costs in summer time (going from 3000 to 5000 or more watts of heat from lamps to 300 to 500 watts of heat from CFs)
Sherwin,
You mention that the bulbs look the same, that you don't see any difference in the bulbs. The size of the glass portion of the bulb is slightly larger in the 150W than the 100W. (The bulbs are designed and measured in 1/8ths of an inch diameter)
Also, the filament is slightly different as well.
Although minor differences, they can't just change the line for a few lamps.
However, as mentioned earlier that is just a portion of the extra cost, then the packaging, handling, etc. etc. all add a little to the cost all the way to the shelf price.
By the way, have you checked out the availability of a compact fluorescent to accomplish the same result as a 150W? They last far longer and use approximately 1/4 of the electricity.
Hi, Rated 10,000 but I saw some of them go in couple months. Guaranteed yes, rated no, LOL
YMMV of course. I have some CFs in my house that have had daily use for over 10 years without a single replacement. Yes some do not last that long, but even the short life ones are YEARS before they need replacing. Few of the CFs in my house are the short spiral, we bought a pack of 6 of them 3 years ago to replace twin tubes that were starting to fail after 8-10 years of service.
There are only 3 incandescent lamps now in the house, installed in reflector floods, they get very little or no useage at all.
I can actually measure the lifespan of some of my CFLs in decades (the
7 and 9 watt Philips PL models I bought back in 1984) and others literally minutes -- in the case, all Lights of America.I bought six Philips SLS20 CFLs back in the 1997 and five of the six are still going strong (the other one was dropped). They're noticeably dimmer now and you can clearly see how the phosphorous coating has blackened and become pitted, but even after 15,000 or more hours of use, they continue to run.
If you stick with Philips, Osram Sylvania or GE, you shouldn't be disappointed.
Cheers, Paul
Darn right. Jumping on posters is the only exercise I get. I think I'm losing weight.
That may be the way they express it, but based on a moderate amount of reading I've done on just this sort of thing (but other food than chips) I think they use the same line, and change the recipe of the chips occasionally. At the same time, they change the bags that are fed into the bagging part of the line. That is, I think they don't need any additional production facilities.
I don't know how light bulb production lines work well enough to compare them.
Are you accusing them of price fixing? :) But seriously, I wish I knew what constitutes illegal price-fixing and what doesn't. If GE overpriced 150's compared to their other bulbs, based on true costs including everything, and the other companies also overpriced the same product, I think that would look like price fixing. Whether people from each maker have to discuss it or not was iirc right on the borderline == it was the critical issue in one case -- and I don't remember if actual discussion was necessary, or if one company could just note where the other company priced something and then price it the same way, whether that was ok or not.
Maybe there is some other ng that knows more about this, a marketing or business or lightbulb newsgroup?
I would LOVE to replace the ( 100 watt ) bulb in the kitchen.
It's in an open fixture over the kitchen table, It's on continuously throughout the day/evening.
Problem is; the CF I tried looks like crap, and the light it gives off makes the kitchen look like a morgue. ????
You guys are doing much better than me. I rarely have one last more than a couple years.
I use them because they do last longer than incandescents & save a few KWh of electricity.
The downsides; Won't fit inside some glass covers. Some are noisy. Some don't give full light for a few minutes. They are expensive- even if the electrical savings are calcuted at face value.
Jim
Hi Jim,
I wonder if this ties back to my earlier comment regarding brand. I've had exceptionally good luck with Philips and Osram Sylvania and an absolutely disastrous experience with Lights of America (I don't know if they're any better today, as I stopped buying their products some fifteen years ago).
It seems the technology continues to improve, year by year, and with the introduction of the new "mini-twist" CFLs, some of these lamps are now actually physically smaller than the incandescent bulbs they replace. And I believe any products that are "Energy Star" certified must meet specific standards in terms of energy efficiency, operating performance and service life. But, generally speaking, electronic ballasts should eliminate any issues with flicker and ballast noise, and CFLs that employ amalgam technology work much better over a wide range of temperatures and reach full brightness in much less time.
Lastly, the cost of CFLs has fallen dramatically over time and this trend, if it should continue, combined with steadily rising power rates, should make CFLs increasingly more popular.
Cheers, Paul
Garden variety CF do that, its the typical fluorescent light look.
2700K light is just not that appealing.Ordering online thru one of the merchants you find when doing a Google search for Compact Fluorescent OR selecting the new models at Walmart that advertise a more natural color will do fine.
4100K color temp or higher. 100W equivalents are 23W or 26W and are available in color temps from 2700K to 6400K. The higher you go in color temp, the more pleasant the light will be.I have a fixture that has 3 foot lamps in them. two of these lamps are
3000K the other two are 4100K. The difference is STRIKING. Light output from all 4 lamps is roughly the same at about 2000 lumens. The 4100K are whiter and subjectively brighter and colors in the kitchen are more natural with the whiter lightr.
I second the comment on Lights of America. It is crap. MG
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