Instant ON CFL bulbs

[brunes]

Environment Canada used to just say to tie it in a plastic bag and throw it in the trash, like any other light bulb. Their site seems to have changed a bit now though.

People make too much of the mercury in a CFL. How do you dispose of a watch battery, do you drive down to the recycling centre for that too? It has 5 times more mercury in it than a CFL bulb. Higher-end bulbs with low mercury have even less, more like 15 times less than a watch battery. And if you have watches like mine you probably burn out watch batteries twice as often ans you change CFLs (2 years or so)

You're probably being less green bruning all the gas to go to the recyling centre than you are for putting a tiny amount of mercury (which at the end of the day is a natural element found everywhere in all soil in trace amounts) in a landfill.

[majesus]

Phillips daylight CFL are instant.

[mrcantrell]

Sylvania has just released a true instant on bulb (full lumen output instantly) called the Micromini. I've just outfitted a whole bunch of fixtures in my home with them and love them.

[majesus]

Sylvania has just released a true instant on bulb (full lumen output instantly) called the Micromini. I've just outfitted a whole bunch of fixtures in my home with them and love them.

Just curious, what does that mean?

I haven't really notice any of the CFLs in the house not being instantly on...
At least not able to tell with the naked eye . Is this a major problem for people? CFLs not coming on instantly?

[napalmfrog]

Depending on the brand (and especially the temperature), there might be a little bit of a lag. However, I think the bigger problem is that when you first turn them on, they are rather dim, and can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to warm up to the right light amount.

[mrcantrell]

Just curious, what does that mean?

I haven't really notice any of the CFLs in the house not being instantly on...
At least not able to tell with the naked eye . Is this a major problem for people? CFLs not coming on instantly?

Long story short, light output is rated in lumens, not watts. A watt is a measure of heat, not light output.

Most Compact Fluorescent bulbs will take some time to come to full lumen output (ie, 100% capacity of light output) and this can manifest in a few different ways. One is to have 0 lumens (no light output) at start up and take some time to give off any light at all, and another is to have some lumen output and brighten as the bulb warms up. Yet another is to have some lumen output and not have full colour temperature (ie the light will look yellow and get whiter as it warms up).

The new MicroMini has full lumen output at startup. It's also smaller than any other CF on the market.

Depending on the brand (and especially the temperature), there might be a little bit of a lag. However, I think the bigger problem is that when you first turn them on, they are rather dim, and can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to warm up to the right light amount.

Colour temperature shouldn't have anything to do with the warm up. It's all in the technology of the bulb. A cheaper (read lower quality) bulb will generally take longer to warm up.

[spaceman spiff]

I made the mistake of not checking the RFD forum before I bought some CFLs for my bathroom. I finally found some vanity CFLs and bought a pack. I totally forgot about the delay that's involved in most CFLs. I regret buying them.

Brand: Globe from Rona.

They're not that bad, but they do take ~20 secs to warm up.

[CodecX81]

We should have a thread or list of CFL's that are instant on. I replaced mine with instant one ones a while back. I posted the few models I had tried a while back, I don't remember which one was instant on ... probably Philips.

+1 for Philips Daytime! They're instant on, and bright!

[majesus]

Long story short, light output is rated in lumens, not watts. A watt is a measure of heat, not light output.

Watts is Not a measurement of heat, Watts is a measurement of Power.
Temperature is a measurement of heat.

[Blakers]

I just wanted to add my results after reading this thread and trying some bulbs.

Globe 23W cool white = longer warm up time, maybe 2 minutes
Sylvania 13W soft white marked "Instant On" = quick to fully illuminate
Philips 23W Daylight (cool) = Almost as fast as Sylvania's and better than Globe's.

There as a good review at Canadian Tire about a Noma bulb that warmed up quickly, but I didn't get to try it.

And just to remind readers, keep your reciept & packaging so that if/when the bulb dies before the warranty period ends, you can get a free replacement.

[redgrandam]

I just wanted to add my results after reading this thread and trying some bulbs.

Globe 23W cool white = longer warm up time, maybe 2 minutes
Sylvania 13W soft white marked "Instant On" = quick to fully illuminate
Philips 23W Daylight (cool) = Almost as fast as Sylvania's and better than Globe's.

There as a good review at Canadian Tire about a Noma bulb that warmed up quickly, but I didn't get to try it.

And just to remind readers, keep your reciept & packaging so that if/when the bulb dies before the warranty period ends, you can get a free replacement.

I found (at least the older ones) that NOMA ones didn't last all that long. I've hardly had any burn out over the years. The only ones that HAVE burned out I think are Noma ones, and some vanity bulbs (by sylvania?? I think), but their regular ones seem to be good...


Luminous ones from costco seem to last a long time and come on pretty quick and pretty bright (except for their spotlights)

[MacGyver]

FYI, Philips has recently changed their entire line of CFL bulbs (the new white packaging instead of the old black) so if you weren't impressed with their bulbs before, give the new ones a try.

[jason9945]

I just use regular light bulbs! They come on instantly

[benintor]

Is here anyone willing to switch to LED high power Bulbs?