Is anyone else disgusted with all these new and expensive light bulbs?

Ruth n Jersey

Ruth n Jersey

Well-known Member
Location
Northern New Jersey
I know they are suppose to be more energy efficient and good for the environment but I don't care, I just want the good old light bulbs back. Two years ago I bought a new ceiling fan and light for my kitchen. I never looked at the type of bulbs it required. It only would take the equivalent of a 40 watt bulb. I needed 5. I found some 13 watt bulbs with 800 lumens each. I had no idea what a lumen was but it had to do with the brightness and they worked well.. I needed new ones and they don't make them any more, to make matters worse they have a candelabra base.I have a very large kitchen and now I can't even read the newspaper comfortably at the kitchen table. Some things should be left alone.
 

In Canada they are phasing out 100 volt incandescent bulbs. 60 and 40 are the norm now.

The LED bulbs are becoming more affordable and I suppose that's what we are supposed to buy to conserve energy.

You probably can get the bulbs you want on line.
 
I'm love the LEDs. I changed all mine over. I'm looking forward to not having to replace bulbs.
 

Ruth n Jersey said:
I just want the good old light bulbs back.
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I must have thrown away at least 50 of the old incandescent ones a couple of months ago. I tried to give them away but noone wanted them. About a year ago I changed almost all the bulbs in my house and went to LED's. I love them. Now the CFL ones I never liked at all. But I think the LED's are great.
 
The CFL were not a good buy, IMO. They never lasted as long as was claimed. Plus, they had mercury in them, so they were a health hazard if they broke, and they had to be disposed of specially.

I waited years for LED lights with the medium E26 base, and for prices to come down.

The LEDs are reasonably priced now, I've got some in service, will see how they do.
 
jujube said:
I stocked up on the old light bulbs when they started phasing them out. One of these days, I'm going to run out. I hate the CFL bulbs, absolutely hate them. I haven't tried the LED ones yet....maybe I'll like them when the time comes.
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I emptied the shelves at Walmart stocking up on the old bulbs once I saw how much I hated the spiral CFLs, eyesight dimming enough without a bulb that starts extremely dim and then warms up to dim. :rolleyes: I still have my lifetime's worth of the old 60 watt bulbs in the basement.

I do like the new LEDs though, replaced a round bulb with one in a three bulb fixture in the kitchen, daylight style, it's so bright and nice I've been waiting for the other two to burn out....they were always burning out....BUT, not that I want them to, they keep going, and going, and going. Replaced by long fluorescent bulbs in my basement with LEDs and I looove them, so nice and bright down there and they should last around 13 years or something. https://www.seniorforums.com/showthread.php/25038-I-See-The-Light!-Fluorescent-Tube-Bulbs-to-LED
 
HiDesertHal said:
You mean 100 WATT bulbs.

All bulbs are rated at 120 volts. It's the WATTAGE that determines the brightness.

hdh
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Nope. Wattage is the power used, it is lumens that tell how much light it puts out. What is confusing you is they use the term "equivalent wattage" because us older folks use the incandescent lights as our standard for brightness. Here's the deal; a 9 watt LED bulb puts out roughly the same amount of lumens (that's the light output) as a 15 watt fluorescent bulb or a 60 watt incandescent bulb does. That shows the power savings. There is also a corresponding savings in the heat they generate.
 
dpwspringer said:
Nope. Wattage is the power used, it is lumens that tell how much light it puts out. What is confusing you is they use the term "equivalent wattage" because us older folks use the incandescent lights as our standard for brightness. Here's the deal; a 9 watt LED bulb puts out roughly the same amount of lumens (that's the light output) as a 15 watt fluorescent bulb or a 60 watt incandescent bulb does. That shows the power savings. There is also a corresponding savings in the heat they generate.
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Do they last longer than an incandescent? The promises for the previous ones didn't work out.
 
I really like them. They last a really long time. The only thing I don't like about them is you can't dim the regular ones and the ones that allegedly can be dimmed are very expensive. We shop at Costco so we get them at a decent price. I have the old fashioned ones only for lamps and ceiling fan lights that have dimmers on them. I find they burn out so much quicker.
 
One thing I've had to get used to is that when you turn on the new kind, they start out pretty dim, then gradually gain in brightness. Seems strange when you're not used to it.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I really like them. They last a really long time. The only thing I don't like about them is you can't dim the regular ones and the ones that allegedly can be dimmed are very expensive. We shop at Costco so we get them at a decent price. I have the old fashioned ones only for lamps and ceiling fan lights that have dimmers on them. I find they burn out so much quicker.
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I was wondering about that. Can you change the dimmer switches to accomodate the new bulbs?
 
tnthomas said:
The CFL were not a good buy, IMO. They never lasted as long as was claimed. Plus, they had mercury in them, so they were a health hazard if they broke, and they had to be disposed of specially.
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Not to mention they were butt ugly, looked like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone, didn't put out as much light as they were advertised to, and the light they did put out was dingy yellow and half the time they were too long to fit in your light fixtures unless you paid twice as much for the shorter ones. Have I missed anything?
 
We love the newer LED bulbs. Much better than incandescent, a beautiful white light. Not cheap, no, but worth it. So much less heat generated and tremendous electrical savings.

We remodeled our Master bdrm and took out 2 ceiling fixtures. 5 incandescents, 60w each. Wimpy, weak, insufficient light - the room is very big, 18x24. Only good thing was they were each on their own switches, independent of one another.

Replaced it with two Juno mini-tracks, each in an "L" configuration to cover the room better. 20 lights, each holding a 50w equivalent LED. That's 1,000w of equivalent lighting when both tracks are on! Each LED bulb draws a mere 10w of power so that's a stingy 200w of electricity usage.

We also replaced five older, large-can recessed lights in the kitchen with LED flood bulbs. Interestingly, I ended up with 2 different brands. We tested them and one was MUCH, MUCH better than the other. Despite the LEDs being less wattage-equivalent - 60w for the LED, 75w for the old incandescent floods - the lumen total was equivalent and again, the quality of that pure white light is much more pleasing, plus cooler/cheaper to run.

I still have some CFL bulbs - and like the LEDs, there are major differences in brands and quality - in a few closets and hallways.
 
Sunny said:
One thing I've had to get used to is that when you turn on the new kind, they start out pretty dim, then gradually gain in brightness. Seems strange when you're not used to it.
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The fluorescent lights do that but I don't think the LED ones do and they are the newest of the new kinds.

On other folks comments. You have a choice of the type of light output that is expressed in temperature or color of the light and it makes a big difference. They correspond to "warm white" or "soft white," and "bright white." Bright is white like daylight and warm is a yellowish tinge. I think "warm white" is just a carry over for how the older incandescent lights were. FWIW, it seems that the older florescent lights had a yellow/green tint if my memory is correct on how we had to make adjustments when using those lights in photography. (We had different filters to use on film cameras and the early digital cameras had specific settings for those different types of indoor lighting.) My old eyes seem to do a lot better seeing details with the "bright white" (that is in the 5000K range when color temperature is used. The "warm white" is in the low 2000k temperature range.).
 

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