I have not seen any writer mention the basic problem that I have with all CFLs: they take a long time to reach full illumination. I have several in my kitchen and they are very dim when they first come on, maybe 25% of full output. After 5-10 minutes they are fully bright. I have both name-brand (Philips, GE) and off-brand models and they all do the same thing.

Not sure why this happens, but this is a major problem for task lighting that needs to be bright right away.

I've noticed this too. I thought I just had bad wiring.

I've also heard that CFLs won't work with dimmer switches. Is this true?

Certain CFLs are designed for use with dimmer switches.

fitz:

I have experienced about 1 minute for them (Nu-Vison) to reach an acceptable brightness and another minute the squiggle lines disappear inside the globe. I have them throughout my household with the exception of dimmer and threeways. Hell of an electrical saving (+10%) which I can justify by being patient. The garage ones take a tad longer if the weather is cold.

My home is 15 years old and has newer wiring in it. The fixtures are relatively up to date also. Maybe that is an issue? Perhaps the ballast in an older fixture? Some older fluorescent (tubular) fixtures have an igniter in them also. You may wish to change that out. The older the fluorescent, the longer it takes to reach brightness and they do get dimmer with age,

Have you read the "Popular Mechanics" report on them?

Thanks for the feedback. Our house is 9 years old, with original wiring. The lag time occurs only for CFLs, so fixture ballast does not come into play.

I'm curious about the 3-way situation - do CFLs not work with 3-way switches?

Haven't seen PM; maybe I'll look that up.

Fitz:

They do have 3-ways; but, they can be finicky dependent upon the lamp socket. Newer lamps will accomodate them better. I find for the one I have a 3-way in, I have to jiggle the switch at the first level of light (50 watt equivalent) to get it to come on and the other two levels are fine. I get the impression these are still developmental and the lamp sockets important.

Ah, now I get it. I thought you meant 3-way switch circuits, with 2 switches that control the same light. Now I see that you mean 3-way bulbs, with 3 different wattages.

I havethe old bulbs gradually switched over to CFLs, as light bulbs burnt out, I replaced them with a CFL. It has worked out for the most part, and I have noticed a bit of a reduction on my electric bill. But I have switched a few lamps back to the old style bulbs where I read, do paper work or work on my hobbies. General lighting is OK, but my eyes need more when I'm reading or doing close up work. Am I going to be able to get some old bulbs in the future, or do I need to stock up?

tjcerveza:

Buy the Natural Light CFLs. They are far brighter and are the same as noon sunlight which is certainly bright enough. I suggest you read this:

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This article should help you understand and select.

Have you bought one lately? I had some bulbs in an old apartment, purchased in '01, that had this problem. Bulbs with current designs are instant-on, indistinguishable from incandescents.

Dimmablge CFLs exist.

That's exactly why I like my CFLs in the kitchen. I use 2 slow to warm up CFLs that start out dim in the morning when I go in to make coffee. They take about 20 minutes to brighten up - just about the time I'm ready to go get my 2nd cup of joe.

The new bulbs are more environmentally detrimental when disposed of by a factor of a hundred.

They last five to ten times longer and use 1/4 the electricity per lumen. But they don't make up for their environmental impact.

Same with many of the dumber than dirt things the eco-scum of the New World Order's Goon Squads are forcing on us. If the incandescent was such a bain, the market would weed itout eventually.

Myself, I put incandescents in closets where lights are needed instantly and are not turned on, much. I use the compact florescents in areas where they are turned on to stay on, hallways, porches, kitchen, overheads, some lamps.

I think it is easier to read by compacts if they are shaded toward yellow.

Outlawing incandescents, though reminds me of the supposed eco-friendly move to bio-deisel (as if we dont eat eough french fries) and gasohol. Right, for every gallon of gasohol you produce and market, it costs you two gallons of good old Pennsylvania crude refined to regional speciications.

I saw where some dipwad ski resort is lauded for switching over to bio-diesel. If 3% of the diesels went to biodiesel, there wouldn't be enough cooking oil in the country to fry an egg over easy. Do you know how much diesel my local lawyer's pet yacht burns in one hour at economic cruising speed? Like 20 gallons per mile. Do you know how much diesel it takes to lift a bunch of spoiled brats in to the air by 747 to 40 thousand feet so they can go to ultra bright casinos in Vegas or Saint Louis? Like, a gallon a foot, maybe?

Want to save fuel? Run off the foreigners. That takes 30 million vehicles off the street right now and stops urban flight so people can live where they work, again and be safe from the Mexican Mafia and the Red Chinese Triad. It will take a frantic housing indiustry building oversized, superfalous framed houses with driven foreign labor and put them to work on infrastructure, refineries, power plants and stacking liberal heads in a wall between USA and Mexico so we never get stupid enough to allow foreigners in again in such numbers.

The best thing we could do for the American ecology is deport everyone who came here under the Third World Immigration Preference and Resettlement Act of 1965 along with their offspring to their point of origin. Then we could set to work raising to the gorund everything that has been built in the last 40 years. We could recycle America and sell it to the foreigners. All we gotta do with our 180 million people is stay ahead in star wars, seize and depopulate Canada, seal the borders, obliterate the Mohammedan states and be a little more ruthless than we have been about keeping our foot on the necks of all the wild-assed razoos out there that constantly nip at our ankles..

Dd

Yes, I bought both name-brand (Philips & GE) and off-brand bulbs as recently as last fall, 2007.

I have not found the instant-on bulbs that you mention; could you share some manufacturers and models?

Thanks!

Sounds good for the morning, but if I need light in the evening, I want it on when I'm ready to cook or clean.