If EnergySmart light bulbs are better, why don't manufacturer's and retailers such as GE and Wal-Mart...

Question

just stop making the old conventional light bulbs or selling them?

Answer 1

CFLs have a place, but they simply can't replace incandescents. Forget using CFLs outdoors. I have a high dollar, high output flood lamp on my back porch. I only really use it when I give my dog food or water at night, take out trash/recycling, get something from the storage shed, etc. Unless it's a warm night, I may as well have a 25-watt incandescent in there, because that's how much light I'm putting out - it's probably drawing more than a 25W incandescent, too. And at the rate I use it, I'm going to have to put up with it for years unless I just decide to trash it for security purposes.

If you have dimmer circuits in your home, CFLs also perform poorly there, too.

I also find that the "faulty" rate is too high for the hefty price being paid for them - I've even had a couple fail right out of the package.

I'm looking forward to LEDs - better light quality/brightness, better reliability, better for the environment.

Those of you who DON'T think that there are powerful lobbyists pushing for these laws that benefit CFLs, you're out to lunch.

Answer 2

They are still being made because people like me still buy them.

I bought a 10 pack of the new CF bulbs. You can't read with the light from one. There is a 3-5 second delay between turning on the switch and getting light when you turn on the porch light to see who is there. They failed after just a few weeks of light duty service (less than 1/10 the service I get from a typical incandescent bulb). They were such crap that I put the remaining half of the pack in the trash can.

If the bulbs worked, consumer choice would eliminate manufacture of the old bulbs. The truth is that the new bulbs are crap. The only thing they are good for is a light you leave on all the time to find a key hole or a switch for another light. I would rather run around in the dark than use those worthless CF bulbs. I save energy by leaving my lights off when I'm not using them.

Yes, the design for the incandescent light bulb is old. So is soap. Old does not equal bad.

Answer 3

Since you are asking I think you should ask a sales clerk to point you in the correct direction and assist you in your purchase. Purchasing the correct bulb for the correct use and socket size is more difficult than many people realize. Make sure you get the brightness you want (wattage or equivalent wattage output in the new fluorescent type bulbs)If you can't find a sales person, go to the service counter and ask help or a manager.

Answer 4

Seveal truths here and a few inaccuracies:

CFLs do take a few seconds to come to complete brightness.

Quality control on CFLs is indeed poor and the failure rate is high

The light does flicker and in some areas this can be quite annoying (LEDs will flicker as well).

Now for the inaccuracies:

1) There are dimmable CFDs on the market. They cost about $10 each, but they do work.

2) While they do contain mercury, its in vapor form and the amount is very low. Conventional long tube flourecents contain much more and they have not been shown to create an environmental or health hazard.

Answer 5

They won't quit producing the conventional light bulbs until the cost difference is a moot point. In my area i can buy one of the EnergySmart bulbs for 6 dollars, and i can get four of the conventional bulbs for less than three bucks. i can light one room for 6 bucks, or four rooms for less than three.

There are probably other reasons, but this is a major one for me. Resistance to change is probably another one.

Answer 6

If you are referring to compact fluorescent bulbs, they do not operate well at temperatures below 50 degrees. There is a need for incandescent bulbs for refrigerator's, ovens and for use in very cold climates. If you put a compact fluorescent on a dimmer switch there is a risk of burning the house down, which generates substantially more CO2 than using a conventional bulb. There maybe other applications that the older technology maybe applicable for as well. Technology is a very complicated thing, socialists reforms always have negative impacts.

Answer 7

geez! I have wondered the same thing for SO long... but my conclusion has come to this: There are so many customers that are still using so many things from the past, their lifestyle wouldn't support the CFL in their home. Not to mention, many people don't know a darn thing about it, they look at the odd-shape, and it's unattractive to them, but honestly, if we were really concerned about the environment more than our Big Corporation profits, we would only sell CFLs. I was watching a video on Yahoo! not too long ago, and it says that the traditional Edison-era lightbulb (which many of us still use today) uses %95 of the energy it consumes for making heat, and less than %5 of it to produce light. That can be eliminated with the use of the CFL. Start a petition! Get the ball rolling! Get those supposed Green-Movement-Supporters to actually support it and only sell energy-efficient lightbulbs!

Answer 8

To be blunt about it, CFL lamps are HORRIBLE.
They flicker, the light emitted is very poor in quality and color, they do not last the reported years..I have yet to have one last more that 2 months, most die after about 40 days.
They have mercury in them, so if you don't dispose of them via hazmat, you are polluting the landfill with mercury which _is_ toxic, unlike some of the other things.
The bases do not compress, so they take up much more room in the landfill than do incandescent lamps (which compress to virutally nothing). The bases are housed in plastic with a half-life in the thousands of years. The bases of incandescent lamps are copper which will degrade in a few decades.

CFL lamps are all in all a very bad choice which is rapidly becoming a mandate and is being forced on us by the so-called 'green' movement (which isn't green at all).

Answer 9

Out here in California they are trying to mandate the new fluorocarbon bulbs and make illegal the conventional bulb. If everyone changed five (5) bulbs it would be like taking 500,000 cars off the road.

Answer 10

Because when they expire they do things like catch on fire. This happen to me twice. And they don't work well in the cold. The old light bulbs are still Superior.