Who Makes The Best Compact Fluorescent?

Who makes the best compact fluorescent light bulb? A very common and interesting question. There are so many different brands to choose from. Do you go with a name brand product because of name recognition, or do you go with an inexpensive import? Which product is best? This article may help….

The compact fluorescent light bulb revolution nearly occurred back in the early 1990s. When CFLs first hit the market in force, consumers bought them in large numbers — but they hated them. The bulbs were too big for many fixtures, expensive (up to $25 each) and they threw a dim, antiseptic light that paled next to the warmth of good old-fashioned incandescent bulbs.
Now, a new CFL revolution is at hand. Retail giants are pushing hard for the bulbs — Wal-Mart hopes to sell 100 million CFLs by the end of the year. In California, a legislator recently proposed banning the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the state by 2012. All the old benefits of CFLs are still significant — more so, in fact. They can use less than one-third the electricity of incandescent bulbs of equivalent brightness and last up to nine years. The new bulbs are smaller and far cheaper (about $5 each) than their predecessors, and more powerful than ever. Top-end 24-watt bulbs promise brightness equivalent to that of a 150-watt incandescent.

Still, when it comes to illuminating your home, brightness isn’t everything. Can CFLs match the light quality of the energy-wasting incandescents we know and love?

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Earlier in my career I was a field technician in the lighting and electrical industry. My day-to-day job involved replacing light bulbs and ballasts at various retail accounts. Over about a 7 year period you can imagine how many light bulbs and ballasts I have seen fail or succeed.

When purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs a general rule of thumb was to stick with name brand products. At that time (about 8-10 years ago) the CFL screw-in (compact fluorescent) technology was fairly new. So using a GE, Sylvania, or Philips product made sense. Then came the import invasion!! It seemed as if everyone and their mother are making compact fluorescent light bulbs.You can buy CFL bulbs at the grocery store, dollar stores, discount warehouses, home and garden centers, departments stores, on the world-wide-web……you get the point. 

 Again the question arises which brand is best? My opinion is to stick with companies that have a history of making reliable products or a company that is known for specializing  in manufacturing a certain product.

Example: TCP (known as Technical Consumer Products) started out only making compact fluorescent bulbs. Today,TCP also manufactures other lighting products such as linear fluorescents and metal halide light bulbs. The point is that TCP compact fluorescent bulbs are widely used throughout the hotel and retail industries. TCP being a fairly new company in the lighting industry, has made a respected name for themselves because they make a superior product.Keep in mind I have no affiliation with any specific manufacturer, but  here are the top four “best bet” companies that I feel comfortable endorsing: GE, Philips, Sylvania, and TCP (no specific order or ranking system).

If you would like to independantly do some research on your own, here are a few tips that you might find useful:

A) Compare “life hours” between brands.

B) Consider the manufacturers warranty.

C) “Commercial grade” and “Retail grade” products are significantly different when it comes to quality.

D) Finally  “Test it” buy a “name brand and a generic brand” and see which one performs the best.

Hopefully, my input has made your decision a little easier. Remember that all compact fluorescent light bulbs are not made equal….

All for Now.

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Outdoor LED Lighting Fixtures

GE, one of the industry leaders in advanced lighting products does it again!!

GE Lighting Systems has debuted the first two of many upcoming outdoor LED lighting systems: the LED StreetDreams post-top fixture and an outdoor area light.

The company sees the addition of these systems as a major expansion of its product portfolio, although it’s not giving up on traditional systems, says Paul Morse, president, GE Lighting Systems, a part of GE Consumer & Industrial.

“Our strategy is always to give customers more choices,” notes Morse. “We’re still innovating and delivering for customers who value traditional systems. LED technology simply provides a path to meet growing market demand for greater energy efficiency and lower lifetime costs.”

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GE is well known for its superior product and state of the art technology.In my experience, their product is usually ”a cut above the competition”. GE has their product developement team make sure that when they develope a new product it is rigorously tested before it is introduced to the marketplace. Rest assured that this product may not be the most economical price point but it will be well tested and extremely well made.

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What is a light bulb?

What is a light bulb?  Why do you care? Both good questions. The modern light bulb as we know it was created in the early 1800s, inventors looked for ways to convert electricity into light. Sir Humphry Davy, an English physician, successfully passed an electric current through platinum strips in 1801. Unfortunately, the strips evaporated quickly and Davy was unable to create a light that lasted more than a few minutes.  Frederick De Moleyns put the first patent on an incandescent light bulb in 1841 & his creation used powdered charcoal, platinum wires, and encased in a vacumed bulb. Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison are usually given credit for the invention of the light bulb, but that isn’t the real truth. Both of these men worked off of previous inventions. Hacks???? No. Only improving someone else’s idea, making it usefull, and safe. Historians estimate that over twenty inventors worked toward the creation and design of the light bulb. Of these, Edison’s version was the most efficient.

What is it called? Its an “A” lamp. You often see part numbers like 100A19/CL or 40A15/FR. The vacumed shape bulb was the prototype and no one had a name for the shape. They simply called it an “A” lamp & that stood for arbitrary (because that is exactly what the shape was). And now……the rest of the story (R.I.P. Paul Harvey) 100A19/CL is 100 watts, “A” is the shape, 19 is the size (measured in 8th’s of an inch), CL is clear, and FR is frosted.  No need to tell you about the other one. You can apply deductive reasoning and figure out the mystery.

Since the early days, lighting has taken many turns for the better. It is a science that is often taken for granted. It is continuing to change every day. The incandescent light was the start, but it doesn’t look like it will see the finish line in the race. Chances are that our grandchildren will never know what an incandescent light bulb looks like unless they see it on the internet. Everything is changing and we must evolve along with the modern science of lighting. New sources and better technology is out there. A 23 watt compact fluorescent light bulb will produce  about the  same amount  of light as a 100 watt A lamp. It will last 10,000 hours vs 750. There are 8760 hours in a year. Do the math.

LED light ing is all the rage. A 100,000 hour LED vs a 10,000 hour compact fluorescent. Seems like a no brainer. Or does it. Has anyone tested a 100,000 hour LED? 100,000/8760= 11.42 years. Probably not. I would say it is a good guess at this point. No one knows how they are going to perform in the field, but they are being tested. I believe LED’s are the way of the future, but they are also in their infancy. Give junior time to grow up before you give him the keys to the car.

In the name of saving energy, science has the answers. A good rule of thumb is to watch what the industry leaders are doing. GE is a leader of lighting technology and science. When GE, Osram Sylvania, & Philips lighting come out with a product line of LED’s for general lighting applications, you will know that they are tried and true. So far, LED’s are applied in signage, display lighting, cove lighting, and indicators. I have seen general lighting applications but I also think they will be better a few years down the road. There are still a few unanswered questions. Do they really last 100,000 hours? Will they maintain their light levels? Color shifting? Will the manufacturer guarantee replacement? 100,000 hours is a long time between light bulb sales. I may need to find a new job.

I took a course a the GE Lighting Institute in Nela Park. One question that came up during a class was: Why doesn’t GE make a light bulb that lasts forever. The instructor looked over with disdain and answered: “We can, but then we would all be out of a job.”

No one knows what the future holds, but we have a good idea what direction we are headed.

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