[Boatanchors] Replacing 866s with 3B28s thread drift to CFLs

[Glen Zook]

The concept of whether or not a person "lucked up" and got bad CFL bulbs is more indicative of the actual quality of the manufacture of the bulb.  I have noticed that certain brands of CFL bulbs definitely have a very short life whereas other brands have a much longer life.  The price paid is not, at least in my experience, indicative of the quality in that the bulbs that had the very short life span were considerably more expensive than those that last longer.

As for 120 volt bulbs:  If the ambient line voltage is 120 volts or less, then the life span of the 120 volt bulbs is going to be fine.  Unfortunately, the target line voltage of most major electric companies today is 125 volts +/- 2 volts with the "+" side being much more common than the "-" side.  This over voltage is what causes the failure of the incandescent bulbs when they are rated at 120 volts instead of 130 volts.

Although most of the light bulbs in my house are now CFL, I have a number of lights with 130 volt bulbs that have outlasted 2, 3, 4, and even 5 of the CFL bulbs.  My ambient live voltage is usually around 127 volts.

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com


--- On Fri, 12/31/10, sdaitch at kuw.ibb.gov <sdaitch at kuw.ibb.gov> wrote:

am I understanding your experience with the incandescent lamps are lasting 4 to 8 times the life of comparable CFLs?
 
I do understand the idea of using 130V bulbs on 120V power to increase the life, but I suppose you could eliminate bulb replacement by going to 220V bulbs.  They'd last nearly forever, but if you are like me, the light output is highly unsatisfactory.
 
Only kidding about the 220V bulbs on 120V, but I don't see incandescent lamps lasting four to eight times longer than CFLs.  That is not my experience, nor some other posters.
 
I can only gather you really got two bad CFLs.