GE Soft White Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) Bulb: It’s Now Easy to be Green!
Written: Mar 20 '07 (Updated Apr 19 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Energy efficient, long life, pleasant light color, reasonably priced
Cons: Takes up to a minute to achieve maximum brightness, contains small amount of mercury
The Bottom Line: At slightly more than twice the cost of an incandescent, it lasts 8 times as long and uses 75% less electricity. Anything to think about?
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| rudixeno's Full Review: GE Soft White Spiral T3 16254 |
Okay, it’s true. Rudi Xeno is green. Prudently green mind you, not out there on the lunatic fringe, but green nonetheless.
When I find a green alternative that fits nicely into my lifestyle, I jump at it. And so, when several years ago Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) started appearing on the market I bit. Back then (1990s) these bulbs were ghastly expensive, often costing as much as $10 a bulb. But hey, they were going to use a lot less electricity and last a very long time right? Wrong! They lasted not quite a weekend. Read on.
You see, I waited until the beautiful Mrs. Xeno and infant Jenna were making one of their weekend assaults on every infant department at the nearby Outlet Center. Once they were safely away from the house, I went about replacing every light bulb I could with a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb of similar light output. I’m going to guess it was somewhere in the area of 20 bulbs throughout the house. I was so proud of my handiwork. At an average savings of say 75 watts per bulb I had just slashed as much as 1500 watts off my electric bill. Of course not all the lights are on at the same time, but I assure you about half could be counted to be on. Still, a very nice savings, particularly if you overlook the fact that I had spent about $200 buying the bulbs. Yikes! Remember, I claimed to be green, not necessarily smart.
As the sun was setting, the lovely Veronica was pulled into the driveway, unloaded Jenna and countless packages and walked into our thoroughly modern marvel of a house. Only she didn’t look that good. Come to think of it neither did Jenna. They had an almost ghostly greenish white look to them. It was back before the days we thought of bio-terrorism, so I worried they may have eaten some bad tuna at the food court.
But nope, it was the new bulbs. Early CFLs gave off a very cold blue/green white light.
“Rudi! What the heck have you done!” So, I told her and she wouldn’t even wait for the morning. I was changing bulbs in minutes. Goodbye savings, goodbye green, goodbye $200!
That Was Then, This is Now
CFLs have come an awful long way in the last decade. So far in fact that the Australian government has decided to ban the use of incandescent bulbs in three years time.
CFLs are now available that cast a light indistinguishable from that of common light bulbs and while they are still more expensive to purchase than even premium incandescent bulbs, they are a fraction of the cost they were 10 years ago.
GE Soft White CFL 100
About a year ago I started reading about the newer warmer color CFLs available from companies such as GE and decided to give it another go. This time I decided to go at a little slower pace.
Before we look at the application, let’s discuss the feature of the bulbs. As you can see in the graphic for this product in the upper left these bulbs are a spiral that approximate the size of the incandescent bulbs they are meant to replace.
The GE Soft White CFL 100 consumes 26 watts and produces the equivalent light of a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Rated to last 8,000 hours, they are 8 times longer lasting than premium incandescent bulbs. The color of the light they produce is virtually indistinguishable from a regular Soft White bulb. They are intended for use in lamps and enclosed fixtures that are either on or off. They cannot be used with dimming switches.
My Experience
So, once I decided to try them I picked up a 6 bulb package at our local Sam’s Club. Priced at $13.86 for the package they were only slightly more than twice the price of a long life incandescent.
Not wanting to raise the ire of the beautiful Veronica, I replaced a couple of the end table lamp bulbs in our family room with the GE CFLs. Having another four bulbs left I couldn’t resist replacing the 100 watt bulbs in our outdoor carriage lanterns that seem always to be switched on in the evenings. So, with only one bulb left I replaced the bulb in my lamp at the side of the bed.
Okay, so I turned them on and off several times and I couldn’t see a discernible difference. But, would the Mrs.?
Well, the answer is nope. In fact I allowed about 10 days to go by before I told her I had made the switch. Not a peep out of her. (Gee, I hope she’s not having an affair!) Well it doesn’t take a genius to figure out my course of action does it?
I have since replaced all the bulbs in suitable lamps with GE Soft White CFLs of varying wattages.
Suitable Lamps
The most suitable lamps for bulb replacement are those that are turned on and left on for prolonged periods. From a savings point of view this sounds obvious of course. But there is another reason. CFLs take a minute or two to warm up and give off their brightest light. This particular bulb is reasonably quick (30 seconds or so), but CFL floodlights (oh yes, I’ve gone that far) have a longer warm up (latency)
period.
But in general we find that the CFLs are perfect replacements for most of our general lighting needs. Where necessary I have replaced unnecessary dimmer switches when possible. Although the bulbs can be placed in sockets controlled by dimmers, they will not dim and their life will be reduced substantially.
News on the CFL Front
The pace of new product development within the CFL product family is startling. As I mentioned above, GE and several other manufacturers are also producing flood lamps for use in high hat lamps. This is a very common means of lighting here in South Florida. The newest versions can be used in concert with dimmers and I intend to purchase the dimmable bulbs shortly. Also, 3-way bulbs are now available in 50, 100, 150 watt equivalents.
Disposal Issues
CFLs contain a very small amount of Mercury. GE claims that disposal of single bulbs can be handled safely in your regular garbage collection, but cautions consumers to contact local recycling facilities for guidance in disposing of larger number of CFL bulbs.
Summing Up
For me it’s a no brainer. I reduce my sizable utility bill while at the same time I reduce the collective demand for electricity from Florida Power & Light. As we speak, there are only a relative handful of incandescent lights remaining in the Xeno household. Once I pick up the dimmable floods I ordered and as smaller accent lighting bulbs come on the market, these remaining bulbs too will be replaced.
See, it really is easy to be green.
Regards,
Rudi
© Rudi Xeno 2007
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