Which CFL bulb is best?

[rilles]

A couple of years ago, the CFL's I bought had a 1/5 death rate within 6 months. Recently all I new ones I purchased have not died. I prefer the Noma's from CDN tire because they are instant on, instant bright. The HD lights take about a minute to reach full brightness.

[st7860]

phillips makes the best CFLs.

[mtl4]

The biggest issue for me on the CFL bulbs was color temperature. The higher the color temp the more blue the light will be and the lower the temp, the more red the light will appear. For me the best bulbs are either Osram Sylvania (which I have everywhere in my house) or Philips but I only use them in the 3000K light temp vs the far more common 2700K which are typically what you get from most other brands (Noma, Globe, GE, etc). I have tried the 4000K and 4100K temps but they make skin look pasty indoors and remind me more of a hospital. The 2700K light temp was way too orange for my taste and really didn't look like normal light to me at all.

I found the 3000K is best for my tastes and they seem to have a warmer feel (which is nice in winter) and tend to make people look healthier indoors. The light on the Sylvanias may have a slight pink color to it until the bulb has fully warmed up, then it looks very much like normal white light to me (maybe I've just gotten used to the light since we have it throughout the house except bathrooms and any switches with dimmers like the diningroom). Sylvania also makes an R30 version which works great in pot lights and I have 10 down in my 15 x 30 ft main room in my basement and let me tell you that is BRIGHT with them all on (it used to feel like a dungeon before with standard lights and used 4x the wattage. Some have mentioned they don't like the color and prefer the more orange 2700K but it's definately a subjective area to say the least since each person will percieve the color in a different way. I'd urge people to try both and see what works best for you since both Philips and Sylvania brands are good. If you want the Sylvanias, I get them at Home Hardware or at Lowes down in the US.

R30 size:
http://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Compa.../dp/B000KKSQC4

[JAC]

Philips green +1

Globe -1. Actually, anything by Globe sucks bollocks.

[TTony]

phillips

[itsyours]

I am not getting much product life out of the Luminus CFL bulbs that I bought at Costco. I bought the 13W=60W ones and I am only getting a year or so of use (about a half dozen have failed so far) before they stop working, not the 5 to 7 years promised. Is there a brand of CFL bulbs that others find to be more reliable?

As a side note, the new bulbs do not seem to be nearly as reliable as the older style Flurescent bulbs - got a couple going about 10 years or so now.

Yeah, I bought the Costco Luminus bulbs too. They died within a few month. I won't buy anything with that brand again.

[itsyours]

Btw, which store has good price on the Phillips daylight CFL bulbs? (Home depot?)
Thanks.

[kaitoe]

Daylight (rated lightbulbs) are at 6500K which is the colour temperature of actual daylight, meaning that 6500K lightbulbs produce actual neutral/white light.

[mtl4]

Daylight (rated lightbulbs) are at 6500K which is the colour temperature of actual daylight, meaning that 6500K lightbulbs produce actual neutral/white light.

While it may be the same color temp as daylight, it won't look like daylight because the CRI index is still only 82 for most CFL bulbs so don't expect it to look like actual daylight. I saw those bulbs on display in HD the other day and they were very blue IMHO.

[kaitoe]

While it may be the same color temp as daylight, it won't look like daylight because the CRI index is still only 82 for most CFL bulbs so don't expect it to look like actual daylight. I saw those bulbs on display in HD the other day and they were very blue IMHO.

Yes, that's true. But sometimes if your eyes are adjusted to a room that has incandescent lighting, the CFL at 6500K will look blue because the eyes think that the the colour the incandescent light produces is white light.

This happened to me in a room with pink light. My eyes adjusted to make the pink light look neutral, but I thought it was the light that turned a "neutral colour", and when I stepped out into daylight, it was all green.

[mtl4]

I was looking at them lit up in a Home Depot store so it was pretty well lit in general. White light is made up of a whole bunch of colors combined and daylight has certain peaks to it which give it the overall average color temp of 6500K but the problem is that the CFL bulb's color peaks and the natural daylight's color peaks are different and I guess my vision picks up on that. The other issue of natural light is the intensity of sunlight since you don't get to see the light at lower amplitudes as you would with a CFL.

These graphs might help people understand and compare the different light temps:




Daylight wavelength peaks:


Incandescent


You can see here why a "white" LED often looks blue to the eye:


I hope this is helpful and doesn't just loose people in the technical mumbo-jumbo.

[Black Rose]

Yeah, I bought the Costco Luminus bulbs too. They died within a few month. I won't buy anything with that brand again.

That is odd. I've had the opposite experience.

The Luminus bulbs I bought at Costco are still going strong almost 2 years later - I have 3 of them in outdoor lamps as well. The Noma brand ones I got at Canadian Tire are also very good.

The only duds are the ones I got at Ikea.

[1yellowdog]

Here's an interesting article I found, it's from an American publication though,
http://www.dominomag.com/resources/2...tbulbs?slide=1
Also, there is a new LED bulb called Suns Dusk that sounds interesting,
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-lig...ight-bulb.aspx

[CodecX81]

My vote goes to the Philips Marathon bulbs. Long lasting, virtually instant-on, and reasonably priced. Make sure you take advantage of these coupons: http://www.everykilowattcounts.com/H.../coupons.shtml.

One reason why your bulbs could be burning out too fast is that they are being turned on for very short durations. In any case, the Philips should last you longer (I've had both brands).

+1 For Phillips Marathon. When CFL's were introduced a few years back, I got as many as I needed and I bring them with me wherever I move. (I'm kinda cheap so I keep all of the original bulbs I found in the apartment and put them back afterwards...)

I dislike the yellow glow of regular lightbulbs, so when I seen the Phillips Daylight bulbs, those were the ones I went after.

They are amazing. Beware though, they will not cover any spots you missed cleaning in your kitchen or bathroom

Since I like really bright lighting, i purchased a lot of the bigger sized ones. (40watt? 100 watt regular replacements) and a few of the 15 watt? 60 watt replacements) for my smaller fixtures. Needless to say, it feels good to have decent lighting when its dark. I'd say that the way my kitchen is lit up at night vs how it looks in natural daylight.. its pretty close!