George Hubka

I thought I was being a good person. I was saving the world and money by investing up front in CFL’s (aka Compact fluorescent lamp). These weird looking bulbs brag on the box of saving electricity and lasting longer then normal bulbs. Why one box I reciently bought brags a 8 year life that will save my over $50 in energy costs (with ********s of course).

Well, I bought and installed them and all was great. My energy bills went down…

But that is not where the story ends. One thing I hoped for was to not have to change my light bulbs as often, they are a real pain… Well, it seemed that I was still replacing bulbs a lot. I finally started marking the bulbs with the date of replacement and the fist to again die just did. The date of install was 5-27-2007.

WAIT that isn’t 2000 or 2001 or 2002 or 2003 or 2004 or 2005 or 2006. I didn’t even get a year of life from the thing. QUICK RUN TO THE INTERNET!

from the Wikipedia article on CFL’s

The life of a CFL lamp is significantly shorter if it is only turned on for a few minutes at a time: In case of a 5 minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be up to 85% shorter reducing its lifespan to the level of a normal lamp.

85% shorter I don’t see that on the box anywhere, wonder why???? And no I am not using a dimmer, timer, or photocells.

Yes, all those years of learning to turn off the light has now taken my overly expensive $4, murcery containing bulb(source wikipedia), and sent it to the landfill far too early. I betting I did not save the $50 in energy costs the box bragged in the 5 months the 8x as expensive bulb lasted.