Jonathan said:
I very much am reading this for good, measured experiences. I see
Osram mentioned and I haven't tried theirs. I may have to search for
them and see. But Philips is not on my 'good' list, right now. At
least, not those Marathon units sold through Costco.
Jon
I've gotten excellent service from most brands of CFL, which I've
relied on nearly exclusively for the past many (8-9?) years. Mine are
mostly ceiling-mounted, down-facing, without enclosures (thus avoiding
early death by self-heating).
Some brands, frequently cycled, failed very prematurely. Others have
lasted me years and years of daily use even in the bathroom, where the
light's constantly going on and off.
For me, the bulbs are flat out cheaper to buy, even costing 5x,
because they outlast incandescents by a greater factor. On top of
that, using, for example, a 13W CFL in place of a 75W incandescent
saves roughly 62W x 5,000 hours = 310KWh of electricity over the life
of the bulb, which would've cost me 310KWh x 12.8 cents, or about $40.
CFLs are much cheaper to operate.
Locally, the CFLs are now subsidized by the power company[*], and are
available to the consumer for $1.
Other benefits are: time saved in replacing bulbs, fewer trips to the
store, etc. I count saved time heavily--replacing bulbs isn't
painful, but it's not my mission in life. Oh yes--let's not forget
cute inverters/free electronic parts from the expended bulbs!
Drawbacks: slow ignition time in certain brands (I avoid those, but
have one in service), and concerns about the environmental impact of
using a disposable product that contains mercury.
[*] Which of course really means they're subsidized *very
inefficiently* by the customers and taxpayers, after a huge load of
bureaucratic nonsense, making CFLs cost MORE, not less.
Best,
James Arthur