hybrid halogen CFL bulbs / bulb lifespans

[darkoshi]

One of my CFL light-bulbs has been acting odd. When I turn the light switch on, the bulb comes on. But after about 30 seconds, it goes dark. I tried swapping its position with a different bulb, and it did the same thing in the new position.

I found this stackexchange page: Why would a CFL bulb dim by itself after 60 seconds? which suggests the bulb may be a hybrid halogen/CFL.

These bulbs have a halogen bulb inside the CFL swirl. The theory is that the halogen is used when the light is first turned on, providing instant light. The waste heat from the halogen bulb helps to warm the CFL, allowing it to reach full brightness quicker. The halogen is turned off after the CFL has warmed up...
once the CFL fails, you'll have a bulb that lights for a minute, then turns out on its own.

I don't remember buying any hybrid halogen CFLs, and that is something I think I'd remember. But sure enough, when I turn the bulb on, it gets bright in the middle, and you can see the darker shadows of the CFL swirl around the center brightness. The 2nd of this set (I originally bought a pair) still works normally, and I can see its CFL swirl brighten whereas the broken one's doesn't.

This article on the bulbs includes a photo of the packaging: GE Lighting to promote halogen-CFL hybrid bulb with Target.
The packaging (the front side, at least) doesn't mention anything about the bulb being a hybrid or containing a halogen bulb in addition to the CFL. So at least I wasn't inobservant when I bought these. I remember being drawn to them due to their having a smooth glass capsule around the CFL, similar to incandescents.

.

This article mentions something interesting that I hadn't heard before: Burned Out on CFLs? We Address the Real Issues and Solutions

projected CFL lifespans are based on a three-hour run time per start. In other words, during CFL testing, bulbs are cycled on for three hours and off for 20 minutes until half the samples have failed. If you turn them on frequently for less than three hours at a time — as I do in my bathroom — you’re in for a surprise.

"Incandescents are somewhat immune to the number of times you switch them on and off," Leslie says, "but the electrodes inside a CFL are stressed with each burst of starting voltage, and will eventually degrade and fail. With a CFL, the number of starts is the primary factor for determining how long it will last; the number of burning hours is secondary. A CFL rated at 10,000 hours in the three-hour-on standard test might last only 4,000 hours if left on for only 15 minutes per start."

So that may explain why in my experience too, CFL bulbs seem to have a much shorter life span than advertised.

My hybrid bulb that stopped working can't be older than 5 years, as it wasn't even available until Spring 2011. It may have even burned out a year or more ago, as I remember seeing it going out before, but as it kept "working" again, I thought it was just a bad connection or something.

LED light bulbs are also advertised as having long lifespans. I wonder if frequently turning them on and off reduces their lifespans too.

Comments

[marahmarie]

I'm using an LED in our living room and it has none of the dimming with short-time-on problems you report with the CFL-hybrid. It also gives a warm and inviting light much like incandescent bulbs do, and according to its packaging it costs less than $1 a year to run. It's the only LED bulb in the house so far because it was an experiment, a compromise between me and other person, who wants fluorescent and halogens and CFLs everywhere to save money (and I hate them all: incandescent, FTW).

Now that I see how nice this bulb is - and how cheap; at Walmart the standard lamp-size bulb only runs like around $4 dollars each - I'm going to convert the five fluorescents in the kitchen (which are the landlord's, not ours) and the bathroom bulbs (which are a mix of the landlord's and ours) and the rest of our living room and bedroom bulbs.

I might even switch the lights on the front and back porches.

Our electric bill is hideous, mostly thanks to a bedroom that seems to also function as a greenhouse - it has its own environment completely cut off from the rest of the place; no insulation in the ceiling while the sun beats down on it in the afternoon, and thanks to how hot it is we have to keep the A/C four degrees cooler than is needed downstairs to get it cool enough upstairs to sleep, which adds about $100 more to our utility bill each month than if we could just keep the air four degrees warmer or at least cut it off once in a while.

The downstairs cools very easily and stays cool without the air running for hours at a time. Upstairs? The exact opposite.

But anyway, yeah (I got off on a bit of a tangent there, didn't I?) I would definitely say LEDs could be a good thing for you to try.

[darkoshi]

It's not that the hybrid had a problem with dimness. It is simply that the CFL part of it is completely burnt out, but that fact wasn't immediately apparent to me, due to the hithertofore unknown-to-me halogen bulb which it also contains.

We have several LED bulbs too, and I agree they are nice. As you describe them as "warm and inviting light", I imagine you prefer the soft white/warm white bulbs, whereas I actually prefer the more bluish "daylight" bulbs - regardless if they are CFLs or LEDs.

[marahmarie]

Yes, I prefer a soft/golden glow (I won't go as far as Mariah Carey and claim fluorescent and overhead lighting in general is "abusive", but she's not wrong; it's harsh, unflattering, hard on the eyes, and it can even damage skin, which can make you look older).

I have a very blue fluorescent over the kitchen window above our sink (the landlord's bulb). It would save money to use it while washing the dishes instead of running the four bulbs in the kitchen ceiling but I can't stand that amount of blue around me. Then, of the four in the ceiling (also fluorescent, they're very long bulbs) two are more golden, while two are a bit less harsh blue than the one that's over the sink. The landlord has offered to swap out the ones I don't like but keeps forgetting to actually do it.

I think the LEDs might cost less down the road so the plan right now is for us to buy LEDs to replace those bulbs, too.

[darkoshi]

I hadn't heard about the skin damage issue before; that's good to know.

I finally gave up and googled it...

[marahmarie]

Because I did not know what this CFL/halogen hybrid thingy was, nor could I imagine how it looked nor worked, not even after reading your descriptions of it in action or burning out. Now I sort of get it...http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2011/12/hybrid-bulb-combines-pros-and-cons-of-halogens-and-cfls/index.htm

It's funny because back in the early 90s halogens were a thing, everyone had to have them (we didn't, never did, if I recall correctly). To this day I wouldn't know a halogen lit space from a hole in the wall. Now LEDs seem to be taking over and I'm thinking I prefer them, and starting to think they might be better than any other form of lighting technology we currently have.