Comments on: Free Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs on Earth Day http://probargainhunter.com/2007/04/17/free-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-on-earth-day/ News, Tips and Resources for Online Bargain Hunters Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:54:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Yan http://probargainhunter.com/2007/04/17/free-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-on-earth-day/#comment-15917 Yan Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:49:30 +0000 http://probargainhunter.com/2007/04/17/free-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-on-earth-day/#comment-15917 That's right. CFL's have a lot of drawbacks. These would probably make a blog post on its own. Will just note one, in addition to what you pointed out. CFL's perform terribly at low temperatures. I made a mistake when I used a CFL in our unheated garage. It was taking a few minutes for the light to come to normal brightness in cold weather. :-( Nevertheless they work fine in many cases and they do save electricity. Just need to know where to use them and where not. That’s right. CFL’s have a lot of drawbacks. These would probably make a blog post on its own. Will just note one, in addition to what you pointed out. CFL’s perform terribly at low temperatures. I made a mistake when I used a CFL in our unheated garage. It was taking a few minutes for the light to come to normal brightness in cold weather. :-(

Nevertheless they work fine in many cases and they do save electricity. Just need to know where to use them and where not.

]]> By: XynamaX http://probargainhunter.com/2007/04/17/free-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-on-earth-day/#comment-15912 XynamaX Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:46:42 +0000 http://probargainhunter.com/2007/04/17/free-compact-fluorescent-lightbulbs-on-earth-day/#comment-15912 While CFL's are "good" for saving energy, the have some pretty annoying downfalls: They can cause infrared interference (IR) for some devices including televisions, stereos, and just about anything that uses a remote control. If you are using any IR repeaters/receivers, they must be CFL friendly ($$$). They have a slow "warm-up" time. When you turn on your room on a bulb that's been off, it might take a minute to reach full brightness. Not all of them are dimmable, if you use a non-dimmable CFL on a dimmer, it will most likely fry the CFL bulb or the dimmer, or even worse. The dimmable ones are a bit more expensive, and as you lower the brightness, the bulb begins to flicker more making your room a dance hall (strobe lights!@#) While CFL’s are “good” for saving energy, the have some pretty annoying downfalls:

They can cause infrared interference (IR) for some devices including televisions, stereos, and just about anything that uses a remote control. If you are using any IR repeaters/receivers, they must be CFL friendly ($$$).

They have a slow “warm-up” time. When you turn on your room on a bulb that’s been off, it might take a minute to reach full brightness.

Not all of them are dimmable, if you use a non-dimmable CFL on a dimmer, it will most likely fry the CFL bulb or the dimmer, or even worse.

The dimmable ones are a bit more expensive, and as you lower the brightness, the bulb begins to flicker more making your room a dance hall (strobe lights!@#)

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