Has anyone else noticed... or is it just me?

[K_W]

Regular light bulbs are not lasting as long as usual these last few years?

I have many various indoor, 3 outdoor lights using 60w bulbs, and 4 in the basement using 75w bulbs. I mark my bulbs when they are put in with month and year... ever since the curly fry bulbs showed up en mass, I have been replacing the regulars about twice as fast as before.

I bet I already know the answer... I can't find any non-premium blubs not made in China.

 

[CX1]

Probably due to the fact that regular bulbs under 100w were planned to be phased out. So many places stopped producing them and/or spent previous maintenance budgets on acquiring machinery to produce the new types. Quality of incandescent bulbs then suffered.
I believe it was South Carolina that had a large manufacturer of incandescent bulbs that tried at one point to still be allowed to keep making them if they agreed to not export them out of state.
Personally I've not purchased an incandescent household sized bulb in years but even back then they seemed to always be blowing out in my house.

 

[hooky]

I'm not sure that any incandescent bulbs are made in the US anymore. I believe that GE (?) was the last manufacturer and got out. Can't say I've ever seen a CFL made in the US either.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Part of the problem is that energy efficiency and longevity work in inverse proportion. I recall reading that the Vanderbilt mansion (Biltmore) has light bulbs still functioning which are original to the house (approximately a century old). If you were to take a good look at those light bulbs, you would find that the filaments look like bar stock compared with anything you are accustomed to seeing.

 

[handgun]

There is a few reasons for this.

The countries where they are coming have lower industry standards that here in the us.

They are usually not great at refining metals for industrial use at the levela they need to be.

Also, i have noticed more energy spikes and dips in the electricity in the last few years. Which is bad on all electrical things screwed in pluged in hard wired etc.

Turning on and off light bulbs are bad for them.

Cfls have never been very reliable let alone or last as long as they say. One those are lab tests, in controlled environments, with a "pure" electrical supply..

Dont buy they hype.. just get led bulbs 100k+ hours and leave the damn things on.. expecially in rooms like the kitchen, outside walk ways garage basement etc..they should last more than 10yrs. If left on all the time.. and for what its worth... do the math.. it wont cost much to leave them on.. expecially when compaired to a regular 60w bulb.

 

[BuddieReigns]

They could make them last forever, but they make sure they at most have a certain average lifespan, so you have to buy more. That's what one of my teachers told me.

 

[hornadylnl]

The condo I rented in Florida had cfl bulbs everywhere and they reminded me why I hate them. Took forever for them to come up to full light.

 

[pfinley82]

They are phasing out the normal incadescent, but they are not phasing out the rough service bulb. Incadescent and longer life. A little more money but well worth it.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

When I first heard of the phaseout, I started buying double life bulbs in 100s and 60s when Lowe's would run a deal. I don't think I've had to replace one of those yet, so I probably have a lifetime supply. I have a bunch of director bulbs (sort of halfway between spot and flood, perfect for the height) for the recessed lights in the kitchen, figured 64 of them would last a while, but they're dropping like flies, and that's even on dimmers, which should soft start them. That's one place where this LED bulb I have works well.

 

[shibumiseeker]

The condo I rented in Florida had cfl bulbs everywhere and they reminded me why I hate them. Took forever for them to come up to full light.

Depends on the cfl, some of them have more than 90% of their rated output upon start, others come up more slowly. I use that to my advantage. The main light in the bathroom comes up slowly so when I flip it on in the middle of the night I'm not instantly blinded, same as some of the other room lights.

Regular incandescents are only rated for 500-750 hours and it really doesn't take that much time to wear them out. 5 hours a day is only 3-6 months.

My inverter eats cheaper cfls, but even so I am surprised when one burns out.

I have a true sine wave inverter that I am slowly moving lighting circuits onto and the cfls are lasting much longer. Even so I maybe replace 1 a year between the house and the shop.

 

[powerstrokin]

They could make them last forever, but they make sure they at most have a certain average lifespan, so you have to buy more. That's what one of my teachers told me.

Ding ding ding!

There's a video titled something like "The Lightbulb Conspiracy: Planned Obsolescense"

Should be able to find it pretty easily. It's about an hour long, though.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Planned obsolescence is built into every manufacturing process now. It's a consequence of greed, and it works because greed is universal.

 

[printcraft]

The only place I prefer a CFL over a standard bulb is in my drop light in the garage.

I have "dropped" it countless times with the CFL bulb in it and it keeps burning bright.

I've gone through 3 standard bulbs in a project before.
Nothing finer than putting in a new bulb and bumping your light within 1 minute of crawling beneath a car and have it go out.

 

[powerstrokin]

Planned obsolescence is built into every manufacturing process now. It's a consequence of greed, and it works because greed is universal.

I understand that, and agree. The premise of the video I referred to is that the ol' light bulb was basically where it all started. The video does explain it a lot better than I want to get into here and does at least give some facts about how this all started. I recommend watching it!