Is There A Spiral Light Bulb In Your Future?

The Federal Government has threatened to take away our beloved incandescent light bulbs, and I have, like a good citizen, resisted that.  My resistance, so far, has been limited to hording enough 40, 60, and 100 watt light bulbs to last me 5 plus years.  Prices on the old fashioned bulbs have fallen to an all time low :  $2.95 today for 16 each, 60 watt, Phillips brand, bulbs at Home Depot (HD).

But I am also experimenting to see if I can find a way to like the new spiral bulbs. I have purchased 4 different brands, wattage's, and so forth, and have read a good bit about them.  So far, I have found a few applications where they make sense – in hard-to-change-locations where quality of light doesn’t matter.  Such as the side door (exterior) fixture at my home.  After warming up, the 60 watt spiral in there (upside down) seems to put out very good light.

Consumer Reports, my bible for some purchasing decisions, has the resources to test many brands of the new light bulbs, and the current issue has a good bit of useful information and ratings on spiral (and other) bulbs.

Today I ventured into Home Depot to buy the second best bulb on their list, at $1.50 each , which is a 60 watt, warm white bulb, 775 lumens, by EcoSmart.  This bulb was next to the best in the ratings, and the best was by GE, priced at $40 each bulb.  However, my purchase plans were changed at the point-of-sale.

First off, EcoSmart has improved the bulb in the past few weeks, so the Consumer Reports article’s 775 lumens rating is now 900 lumens. That is even better than the GE. And it comes in 4 different wave lengths of light.  Fortunately they have a sampling box. You can stick your hand in and see what it looks like under all 4 wave lengths of light.  Very clever.  That swayed me away from ‘warm white” to what they call “bright white”.  Which is not as cutting edge as “daylight”, or as glaring as “fluorescent”.  The yellowish look of  “warm white” seemed too yellow to me. My choice of bright white was a compromise.

The semi-helpful HD salesman said “the way to know which sells best is to see how many we display – the slotting space”.  Sure enough, the “daylight” bulb had the most space, and is thus the best seller, he said.  

The bad news is, “bright white” is more expensive than “warm white”.  Go figure? “Bright white” was $2.00 a bulb.  Lasts 10,000 hours.  Uses only 14 watts to create 60 watts of light by the old 60 watt bulb standard (900 lumens). Expected life = 9 years.

Your comments and experience would be welcome here.  I will report on my satisfaction with “bright white” in a future Blog Post.