I just now had my second “5 year bulb” burn out after about a year. I seem to remember a time when manufacturers were held to some standard of honesty about claims. These bulbs cost significantly more than the alternatives they replace. When I buy a product from an allegedly reputable manufacturer (like GE), I expect it to roughly meet the claims on its packaging. I can accept one bulb failing prematurely as an anomaly. Two (in one small household) in the span of a week tells me that this is a systemic issue. GE is lying.
Green lies are no better than any other lies.
Discuss
17 Comments . Leave a comment below.Sometimes, older fixtures seem to not work as efficiently with the newer lightbulbs.
I’ve had CFLs operating for five+ years in some of my fixtures. One set of fixtures, however, seems to burn through them like candy. Annoying, but I hate those fixtures anyway so I am looking forward to getting rid of them…
So far, so good on my LED replacements for my halogen bulbs in my kitchen, though the halogens are dropping like flies and replacing them with the LEDs is expensive enough that I only do it one at a time over months, so that’s a pain. But worth it. I’ve always felt guilty about installing three fixtures with 12 energy-hungry halogen bulbs…
The one that failed today is in a bathroom light strip, above the vanity, open on top. The other is a banker’s lamp (with the green shade) on my desk, open on the bottom.
Neither fixture should be any problem — if the CFLs are properly designed.
and you’re right, some percentage do not meet the claim.
I have a six bulb strip over the mirror in the bathroom and two are still burning four years later, but I replaced the other four at varying intervals (I think the first went at six months).
Considering how cheap normal bulbs are, it changes the math of the decision.
The claim, that I relied on, is that these bulbs last “five years”. That claim appears to be patently false, based on your experience and mine.
These lies, like the similar dishonesty rampant in “organic” labeling, are no more acceptable coming from allegedly “green” sources than from anywhere else.
Consumers need good information on which to make economic decisions.
It’s the role of the government to create the rules for the economy.
There are some common goals that people within the economy should be pointed at, both for their good, like nutrition, and the good of the country, like saving energy. Probably you could also make the case that people getting better nutrition is good the country and the country using less energy is good for the individual.
The challenge is to get regulations that get you there. So far the government has not gotten there on either of these examples (I think the Globe had something a few years back about how every electrical appliance is now an “energy saver.” Do companies get to put “5 year life” without proof? Is it like the old EPA mileage numbers that no one every achieved, meaning is it achieved only under laboratory conditions and makes no allowance for the real world?
Don’t get me started on food labels. Useful to a degree (I remember what I used to eat before nutrition labels!) but not nearly as useful as they should be.
We seem to be on the same page here.
for maximum life, don’t keep any record of when you put in the bulb.
I’m not going to say your bulbs died because of the fixture or anything else, but the standards have changed in the last five years.
Five years ago bulbs did not have any energy star standards to meet – now they do. In order to gain Energy Star rating they must start up quickly (no slow light gain), must maintain kelvin ratings for a set length of time, etc. I’ve written more about choosing bulbs here.
I’ve had some crappy CFL bulbs die in short order, including non-Energy Star rated bulbs purchased in the last few years. I was recently sent a suitcase full of bulbs I haven’t had a chance to install/test yet, but I’ll try to do that soon.
I’m pretty sure they were “Energy Star”, just like the picture in the thread-starter. I really would like to see some independent evidence to support the apparently extravagant claims made by the manufacturer.
but my understanding is that CFLs are most highly stressed during startup. If it’s in a location where you turn it off and on frequently, it can shorten the life of the device. If you can justify buying LED bulbs for those places, it would solve the problem; they don’t care about frequent on-off cycling.
If these bulbs aren’t suited for use in a bathroom or desklamp, then I think the packaging should say so. I guess LED bulbs are my next step. I was a fan of CFLs until I experienced these very high failure rates.
You have to beware of equivalency claims. The package may say it’s “Equivalent to a 60Watt incandescent,” but unless it’s making about 800 lumens,it isn’t.
I try to find color temperature as well.
I’m not asking for perfection, I get that we are demanding a great deal of these new technologies. I ask for honesty in the packaging and claims.
The Federal Trade Commision is in charge of lightbulb ratings, testing random bulbs and measuring their brightness and lifespan. There is a lawsuit against a bulb manufacturer for overstating the lumens of its LED bulbs.
Lumens are easier to rate than lifespan, it’s hard to test lifespan because you have to wait five years to rate it. And maybe the FTC was persuaded to overestimate the lifespan to increase CFL use.
From FTC website:
have you tried returning them to the retailer?
I’ve had a graveyard of dead CFL bulbs in my kitchen for years now, waiting for the five year rule to be up so I can just throw them out.
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