Eight years ago I published some data I had taken on the life of light bulbs. I recorded the lifetimes of bulbs in my kitchen ceiling. Everyone was so excited and thought it was the most interesting blog I had ever posted — NOT!
Anyway, despite the lack of enthusiasm, here’s a brief update.
Back in 2006 I had concluded that fluorescent (CFL) bulbs really did last a lot longer than incandescent bulbs. I have to now include LED bulbs in that statement too; promising, but too little data to draw any conclusions except that they are definitely better than incandescents and look better than fluorescents.
Back in the olden days, I had to replace each incandescent bulb about once a year, so with 7 bulbs there were on average 7 replacements per year. Now, it has been 2 1/2 years since I replaced any bulbs vs. an expected 17 (~2.5 x 7), so I have saved the cost of about 17 light bulbs (plus savings on the cost of electricity, of course).
In each of 2010, 2011, and 2012 I had to replace a single fluorescent bulb. I have never had to replace any LED bulbs, though I only have 3 in that ceiling.
So there you have it. Based on my data, CFLs really do last longer than incandescents, and LEDs are very promising.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Donna // Jun 22, 2014 at 9:14 am
The next time I buy bulbs, I’m going to start getting LEDs.
2 Richard // Jun 22, 2014 at 1:36 pm
Of course I have a little different situation, but I have no incandescents left. I have a couple CFL’s, but in all those places where we use the light a lot I have LED’s. I won’t buy anything else from now on.
3 Daryl // Jun 22, 2014 at 5:41 pm
Donna — you have fluorescent tubes in the kitchen, don’t you? Those will be hard to replace with anything else. But they are pretty efficient anyway.
4 Don // Jun 22, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Didn’t we already know this from the tests the light bulb folks did?
Oh oh, sorry. Thank you for the great experiment that has taught us so much about light bulbs.
Heh heh. I don’t like the light from a fluorescent as much as an LED or even incandescent but I do like the energy savings.
5 Donna // Jun 23, 2014 at 9:36 am
Yes, my kitchen lights are florescents, which I replace about every 3-4 years.
6 Daryl // Jun 23, 2014 at 10:15 am
My original intent was to compare brands of light bulbs, and I found that Philips incandescents did not last nearly as long as GE or Feit.
After a few years I began to convert to fluorescents, and then later to LEDs, but continued the experiment anyway. It will probably take too many years to be able to compare lifetimes of these newer technology bulbs, but I’ll keep going for the fun of it.
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