[aprssig] TAPR Dayton Solar Talk

[Herb Gerhardt]

I have not been impressed by the CFL bulbs.  I do use them in most of my
indoor applications but have not found them to last like advertized.  I have
had some burn out in as little as a week or two but most last a year or two
but still not as long as the old fashioned incandescent bulbs!  I think
there is a lot of marketing hype on these bulbs especially since you will
not be able to buy the old reliable incandescent bulbs in a few more years.
BTW, in our area the places that sell CFL bulbs do not take the burned out
bulbs back.  You are supposed to take them to a hazardous waste drop off
location to dispose of them and some of those places charge you to drop them
off, so I am sure lots of them wind up in the landfill which is bad for the
environment.....  My local Public Utility does take them for disposal for
free.....

I have also tried the LED bulbs which cost a lot more and claim to last more
than 100,000 hours.  Well ALL of mine have burned out in as little as a few
weeks to as long as 6 months.  I agree that the LED's will last 100,000
hours, however, they have micro electronics inside the base and those
components are the ones that fail in way too short of a time span......
Hopefully, they will develop some decent LED bulbs in the near future which
will not only be of high enough lumens to be useful but also reasonably
priced and last a long time....  I do use 12 V LED bulbs in my travel
trailer and they work great!  Lots of light on the newer type bulbs and they
draw only a fraction of the current as the old style bulbs which is
important in hunting camp since I do not take a generator along.  Just can't
stand the noise of a generator in the woods.....


Herb, KB7UVC
NW APRS Group, West Sound Coordinator
Our WEB Site:  http://www.nwaprs.info 



> -----Original Message-----
> From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf
Of
> Bob Bruninga
> Sent: Monday, May 30, 2011 8:23 AM
> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List; earl.kd5xb at gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] TAPR Dayton Solar Talk
> 
> > Used to have one outside, first winter
> > it ran about two days in the cold and done.
> 
> I installed CFL's in all my outside lamps maybe 3 to 5 years ago, and have
not had
> to change one once.  (Winter temps down to 10 and 20F)...
>