In Defense of the CFL: A Retrospective

Maybe I'm reading the room incorrectly, but a lot of people don't seem to appreciate these wonderful little pieces of lighting history. They certainly had flaws (one I overlooked here was that larger wattage equivalents required the lamp itself to be physically larger) but so does any stepping-stone technology. I want to clarify regarding the flaws fixed by their successors that LEDs can still be prone to premature failure, but it seems more often than not that happens thanks to a manufacturing defect. If you buy a whole bunch of the same lamp perhaps after a few months some will have failed, but the rest will likely stay in operation for years. Look up the bathtub curve if you're interested in that phenomenon. And, somehow, I missed perhaps the most important thing about them. Compared to incandescent lamps, they used 1/4 the energy! LEDs are routinely besting that today, but being able to cut lighting costs by 75% made a big difference. And when you found a sweet-spot application for a CFL, you probably didn't need to replace that lamp for years. So stop hatin' on them!

TIMESTAMPS: 0:05 1 CFL bulb on set 1:08 2 CFL bulbs on set 5:04 4 CFL bulbs on set 5:39 6 CFL bulbs on set 5:51 8 CFL bulbs on set 6:24 10 CFL bulbs on set 7:15 12 CFL bulbs on set 7:54 13 CFL bulbs on set 9:26 15 CFL bulbs on set 10:06 17 CFL bulbs on set 10:37 19 CFL bulbs on set 12:19 20 CFL bulbs on set 12:48 21 CFL bulbs on set 14:12 23 CFL bulbs on set 14:53 24 CFL bulbs on set 15:00 26 CFL bulbs on set 15:54 27 CFL bulbs on set 17:43 30 CFL bulbs on set 18:21 32 CFL bulbs on set 19:02 34 CFL bulbs on set 20:19 37 CFL bulbs on set 20:45 39 CFL bulbs on set 21:18 41 CFL bulbs on set

I'm from a poor country. My first job was near a lamp hardware store (it sold bulbs and fixtures). Every paycheck I got there and bought one or two CFLs to replace the incandescent bulbs we had at home. The change in the electric bill was measurable and it was among the first things I did to improve my parents home.

The best use for slow starting CFLs is in the bathroom when you get up and are tired and your eyes hurt and you start your bulb and it takes 2 minutes to get bright and your eyes can adapt to that better than 0,01 sec. LED.

I remember growing up and feeling so excited when i could replace a normal bulb with the "fancy ones" that were better. Felt like a milestone to me or something

The most admirable thing about CFLs was the circuitry, which managed to keep running an electrically horrible load while being baked to the point of turning brown.

I love how, over time, more and more CFLs remain on his table.

When I was a kid we had an entire storage shelf in our garage dedicated to spare lightbulbs, that was how commonly they had to be replaced. With CFLs (which my light engineer family was a very early adopter of) we only kept a few spares on hand and our lightbulb shelf was no more, it was merely a spare lightbulb spot on the shelf. These days we don't even keep spare bulbs, we just go out and buy an LED bulb whenever we actually need one, which is almost never. I miss the lightbulb shelf sometimes.

I actually preferred the slow turn on, it gave my eyes time to adjust. And that swirl shape I personally think looks awesome.

What astounds me is we had filament bulbs 'forever' and when CFLs hit, i replaced all my filament bulbs with those as they died. But by the time my CFLs started to die off, LED bulbs were here.

You're proof that any subject can be interesting or even downright entertaining given a passionate teacher

I have a 2 bulbs ceiling lamp in my living room and used CFL bulbs, a blue and a red, from 2002 to 2022. I've only used 4 bulbs in that 20 years period; each pair of bulbs lasted 10 years each. That lamp is lit roughly 6 hours a day in average (about 8 hours, during half the fall/winter/half the spring, and about 4 hours, during other half of spring/summer/other half of fall), so each bulb lasted 21 900 hours. The bulbs were operating fully exposed to ambient airflow. These bulbs provided a nice ambient lighting without being too strong, and fulfilled all my needs for lighting in the living room for all that time. A fun fact; when the CFLs blew out, they did it within a few days gap! Incandescent bulbs, in comparison, were lasting only one year, with a total of 2190 hours. They were cheaper than CFL, but considering durability and energy saving, CFLs were definitely a better deal. Someday, a little "green" girl tried to teach me a lesson about the terrible threat about these CFLs because of the mercury inside. Well, 2 bulbs used every ten years having only a fume of mercury inside... No one had been harmed, but she was somehow right. The factories manufacturing these bulbs must have some great stock of mercury in the yard; as long as they handle it safe, there's no problem, but as soon someone makes a mistake and spill all that mercury in the nature, that could be a disaster. Last year, my CFLs blew out, and they were no longer available on the shelves, so I bought 2 LED bulbs instead, having the same colors. The lighting is a tiny bit clearer that the CFL version, but nothing shocking. I've noticed there's a split second delay after turning the switch on before the light come, but again, nothing shocking there, it only clashed my little habits for a while. I have no doubt about their energy saving qualities, which are better than CFLs; let's see now if they will match CFLs in durability, but it will take a while...

In 1994 I installed an at the time more modern stick style cfl in a hallway. It's still working just fine 30 years later! I've never seen one of the newer ones do that.

gotta love the fact that, as the video progresses the desk fills up with CF-lamps

I like how the bulbs on the desk keep multiplying like Tribbles during the video. 🙂

The thing about color temp tracks with my experience. I worked in a lighting store for a hot minute, and showing people the Lighting Facts label blew peoples mind. They just never looked at it. Had no concept that a CFL could be warm or that there were different temperatures. There was just "incandescent and fluorescent." Also during this era, I'd have roommates who'd buy a CFL because it was the cheapest and looked at no other metrics. Chance would have it that this was often a cold light and they'd curse this "gas station bathroom lightbulb." No Dan, you just bought a cold bulb.

When I moved into this house over a decade ago, one of the first things I did was replace all the light bulbs I expected to use often with CFL versions, since LEDs weren't common yet, to save electricity. They weren't very reliable as porch lights, but inside, they did their job well. When LEDs became common, I figured I'd replace the CFLs as they burned out. So far, I've replaced one, the one that stays on at all times day and night. These things just won't crap out on me.

The warm-up time was considered a feature in my previous apartment. The bulb was located in a bathroom that was most frequently used at night, and the slow start allowed us to gently habituate our eyes to the light.

I like how he's gone from having 2 bulbs on his desk in the beginning to having, like, a bajillion at the end. Good stuff.

I had a CFL in my ceiling fan fixture that I never turn on. The bulb in my night stand just burnt out and I decided to move the CFL to my nightstand lamp. It is so dim when it’s cold which might seem like a bad thing, but if I turn it on in the morning, it won’t immediately blind me. It’ll slowly warm up and get brighter which is more pleasant. Also, I tend to leave that lamp on for hours at a time so a CFL is perfect for it