Do You Prefer the Old Lightbulbs?

Christ, OP. Where the hell do you get those lightbulbs?

YES!

I hate it when [italic]they [/italic]get involved.

Dollar store bitch. Where else?

I certainly despise them. Makes my skin look palid. Plus I have to keep surgical gloves and a mask on hand if a bulb shatters.

But you're too good for the Dollar Store, right OP?

I prefer the "Old School" lightbulbs. The new ones (whatever they're called; I hate 'em) make me feel as if my home has been transported to a grocery store aisle.

I hate the OLD lightbulbs. They make everything look orange and gross. And they make my A/C bill higher because they give off so much heat.

The new lightbulbs are ridiculously expensive and state on the container that they will last from 5 to 10 years - even a saleswoman ringing up my sale laughed at that one.

They burn out quickly and they're basically expensive junk that we're forced to buy.

I recently came across a lot of the old style 100 watt lightbulbs at a Dollarama Store and bought them up quickly. Inexpensive and do the job great.

R8, you ever hear of something called a 'light switch"? It's pretty cool. It actually shuts off lights!

Older style lightbulb. Inexpensive and does the job.

I loathe the compact fluorescents with the white hot fury of a thousand 150-watt old fashioned bulbs.

Have had bad experiences with the once-trendy halogens. Burn out quickly, difficult to replace.

I still do use the regular old bulbs, but am replacing as I go in some fixtures with LEDs, which are coming down in price, give a good light and do seem to last a long long time.

The old incandescent are perfect for some kind of lamps, though. Please do t stop making them.

New coil lightbulb. Expensive, ugly, and don't last long. A rip off.

The new light bulbs contain mercury so you're supposed to take them to a Home Depot type store for proper recycling. No one does. They're thrown in the trash so all that mercury winds up in our water supply.

And gives out a crappy light

r10 did you even my post? Am I supposed to sit in the dark all night because the old bulbs give off heat? I live in the tropics. I don't need anything raising the temperature in my rooms, including those godforsaken old school light bulbs that are like little radiators. LED only.

New mercury lightbulbs may be hazardous to your health.

The new ones are crap. They have been selling us so many lies in recent years.

I ran for President on this one issue, and you bitches laughed at me and my gay husband!

Well, you were correct about the lightbulbs, Michelle.

There’s an old lady in my building who insists on using the old school bulbs. My dad being the nice guy that he is searches high and low for the old fashioned bulbs, to appease her. I thought she was an old loon but now I may be on board with her. Fuck those poisonous compact bulbs, if it was fine since Edison, why change. They make it sound like it’s better for the environment but it isn’t.

Try to remember that the new lightbulbs are for the good of the environment.

When I bought my place 13 years ago, I bought enough compact florescents for every light/lamp as well as one set of spares for each. I've never bought a light bulb since. I don't even know what's available now.

Hello dinosaurs. Compact fluorescents are not the "new bulb" they are the 15 year old bulb, now.

The new bulbs are LED and there are some good ones.

The problem is, I like the white light led bulbs much more than the warm light ones. But the white light ones are not great to have on later in the evening...

Also very very few of the LED have good color rendering. Filament bulbs were "warm" in temperature but lit ALL colors with 100% accuracy. The LEDS are usually only 80% on color rendering. So colors in your house can look off.

I feel that with all the energy I am saving with all my modern lightbulbs and super efficient appliances, well its going to backfire because the electric company will just up the rates, to keep getting the same income. If all the first world can afford LED bulbs and efficient appliances and well-insulated homes - does it really matter? The cities are lit up like Christmas trees, the US is air-conditioned to freezing temperatures, and the developing world is SUCKING energy like a black hole.

Does it really matter if rich me used an LED or filament, all things considered?

Forget the curlycue CFL bulbs. I personally love the newer LED light bulbs that have a soft-white look (2700K-3000k).

An incandescent bulb with the same comparable lumens as an LED bulb uses about 5 times as much energy.

If you only have one bulb, it's not significant. But multiply the energy savings times the number of light bulbs in the US, and you have a significant reduction of energy consumption across the country for the same amount of light.

LEDs will also make solar power more useful because the LEDs will burn longer with less solar power because they use less energy.

If you don't like LEDs now, you will in the future because they keep improving them. The incentive to improve them is to get everyone to participate in the potentially huge energy consumption reduction.

The changes they've made to LEDs in the last five years are incredible. You don't have to be bathed in the blue light of an old-style LED any longer.

No, use the old ones. They are better.

"If we talk about quality of lights, incandescent bulb wins"

Interesting, r24. I have been transitioning to LED in part for efficiency but appreciate that there is a difference. Are the "old" bulbs something we should be stocking up on, or will they always be available, do you think?

Also, my impression is that LED bulbs don't work well with dimmer switches. Is there a fix for that?

[quote]Hello dinosaurs. Compact fluorescents are not the "new bulb" they are the 15 year old bulb, now.

Well, 15 years ago was when the world started going to hell. Everyone knows this.

"Dinosaurs" says the clown about throwing away a perfectly good product for junk. Worship anything that is sold to you. Do you line up for the new iphones?

The fix is throw them out. Get the old ones while you can.

I don't bother with light bulbs at all.

I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

r29 - In Europe there are 2 varieties of LED right now - dimmable or not. Dimmable versions are more expensive and not in all the ranges. The technology is advancing rapidly. But there isn't much progress on the color rendering to reach 100%. You can buy high 95% rendering bulbs but they are VERY expensive and ugly. I think it will be a few more years.

If you like incandescent, you should stock up. The USA is a not a country that will easily ban the incandescent. It couldn't even move to metric. HOWEVER, you never know In many Western European countries, the incandescent is history and forbidden. One cannot buy it. Once cannot even legally import it but nobody is watching that closely, yet. The only incandescents one can buy are those deemed "decorative" or for theatrical lighting. Here in Switzerland you cannot buy an incandescent chandelier bulb, for example.

There is still a small selection of halogen bulbs but they will disappear as well.

Finally - my opinion is we are all being RIPPPED off in this process because the bulbs DO last a long time. I threw out dozens of flourescent compacts when I went to LED. Kept some however because they actually have off nice light at very low wattage. Then a few years later, I have been throwing out WORKING led bulbs, that were expensive, replacing them with better LED bulbs.

Its a racket.

And yes they are filled with poison. Though the compact fluorescent were the dangerous ones for breaking. LED do not release poison if the class shatters. But the electronics in the socket are a biohazard.

I have a stock of incandescence.

Incandescent stocks are increasing in value. People with beautiful lamps need and want incandescent bulbs.

There is a very old factory of high quality incandescent bulbs in Switzerland that is NOT allowed to sell their product here, but can sell it to trains, theaters, galleries, and Edison bulb markets abroad.

I love LED bulbs and use them in all my fixtures. I'm surprised queens everywhere aren't doing the same.

With their low operating temperature, I've gone crazy with materials - industrial felt, foil, top hats, trilbies, paper-mache tulips, globes. When I get bored of them, I can repurpose the mechanical bits and make something else.

LED all the way. They last forever, they've come way down in price, particularly if you buy a multi-pack at Costco, and you have several choices as to the color experience.

R35, Come . . . and the 'Tiaras,' Dear?

Great info, R34. I knew they were a racket.

R35, Come on, and the "Tiaras, Caftan, Earrings, and Wigs"?

People don't understand the difference between color temperature and color rendering. Temperature is just the tone of the light put out. CRI is the ability of the light to render the colors that it strikes.

Incandescent is 100%. Doesn't matter the tone is warm. It renders like the sun, which is 100%, because a filament is fire.

Very few LED will render colors very well. This is the vague uneasiness they can create in a space.

My art is DANGEROUS, R39! and energy efficient.

here, if you want to know more.

people sense this without being able to put their finger on what is off. Photographers, decorators, restaurant owners, artists, will see the difference easily.

WE ALL LIKE THE OLD LIGHT BULBS!

Most supermarkets now know to put their produce under very special bulbs to make all the colours pop. Didn't you ever notice how succulent something looks in your car in the produce aisle and then in the cleaning supply aisle your fruits and veggies look boring again.

in your cart.

shops are struggling with getting this right. I think this is a Zara shop, no? It was easy with the old halogen spots, but they threw off so much heat.

R40 = Sir Ridley Scott - The master of the use of light.

Yeah, R44. Then you find out there is mold on the grapes.

The difference in pictures. This is why LED lighting makes everything look washed out.

*Shrug* For most of us, this just doesn't matter. For those where it does, go for the 90+ CRI LED lights.

It doesn't matter if you live in a dull beige apartment with no interest in the colours of your decor, clothes, food, objects, skin, etc. I agree. Many people really don't care.

If this elder gay wants to respect his divoon colour taste in the evening entertaining hours, he will do well to pay attention.

I can't believe any modern gay man would prefer "soft white" lighting, instead of "daylight" or bright white bulbs in his home. You guys shock and me everyday. Soft white lighting is for elderly people, and grandma's house. Your rooms will look like they had a face lift just by switching to "daylight" bulbs.

Agreed, R52. But, as I said, the downside is you better have some dim bulbs and good lamp shades after 9 pm or your Circadian rhythm will notice. Just like having the night shift on your computer and smart phone.

Here's R51.

[quote] I can't believe any modern gay man would prefer "soft white" lighting, instead of "daylight" or bright white bulbs in his home.

Don't assume that this thread is authored solely by "modern gay men." A lot of us are strictly informed by the lighting aesthetics of Blanche DuBois.

Look how unattractively they are dressed at R54 as well as being zombies.

No matter the bulb, my Tiffany Lamp will create a nice ambiance.

We need to see the vibrant colors in that table cloth.

What colors are that wall and carpet?

Here:

The "New Age" light bulbs mess up your neurotransmitters.

Keep up, gramps, at R61. CFL are a dead tech. So 2005.

I have to admit I have stuck with incandescent since I hate fluorescent light and the LED seem to put out a too white artificial light, The old bulbs are still plentiful and dirt cheap in the US. I couldn’t care less about the supposed electric bill savings.

A colleague of my partner has an apartment in Rome he lets friends stay in and just before the European ban he only asked that guests would go out and buy a supply of incandescent bulbs so they would have them for the future when they would no longer be available

my nerdy gay father in law bought 1200 incandesent bulbs off alibaba and gave each of his 3 children 300 and kept the other 300 for himself. dude thinks ahead. we'll have lightbulbs for awhile. (oh and he tends to buy parboiled rice in large bags and make sure we store that too.)

i've 160 kgs (16 bags ) of parboiled rice here. lol and they keep coming.

I just hate the light on LED. I have florescent and they do not last as long as they claim. I burn through them. The light is ok, better than LED.

Incandescent is the best.

Give me the warm,inviting glow of incandescent light bulbs now into eternity...I DESPISE LED light. I spent enough time in the hospital with my dad's illnesses under the cold, clinical light of those fuckin' things that I'd rather use candles than have my house look like the ICU. BAD memories. Also, I have no desire to have my home feel like a Motel 6.

Also can't stand LED Christmas lights. They cast a dull, dead pall over any holiday setting. I want my lights to TWINKLE goddamit!

That's why I stocked up on enough incandescents to last for 50 years before they went away for good.

This is why we'll never be fallout shelter buddies. Half you queens hoard bizarre shit that would ruin the aesthetic of the place.

I am amused by all the posters referring to the antiquated 20th century CFL bulbs as the "new" lighting. Can you even still buy those awful things? I assume yes, but why the hell would you?

I have all led lighting in my house now, and I'm not fully happy with it. The tech is not yet able to match the comfortable glow of the old incandescents, but the energy savings are very real, not "supposed," as r63 needed to add to help justify his choice.

But the pricey LEDs I bought boasted an average 22 year life span, and I've replaced seven of them in their very first year of operation. I didn't expect or want to get 22 years out of them, but for that many to fail so quickly leaves me very skeptical of the rest.

R69 planned obsolescence

I use Philips HUE bulbs now; they can do warm or cold light.

cool*

I am fine with the florescent bulbs. I cant say I've noticed that much of a difference in the kind of light they put out, compared to incandescent. I use the "warm" bulbs and the color of the light in the room depends more on the lampshades than the bulb itself. I've always preferred soft lighting in the evening to harsh bright lights, so the modern florescents work fine. The earlier ones sucked because they took a while to achieve maximum intensity. And the electric bill saving IS substantial. As for the mercury, keep in mind that eating fish once or twice a month will put more mercury in your body than a bulb will.

I've heard LED isn't good for your eyes...?

R74 looking directly at them burns your retinas

Yes, I've heard that the amazing LED lights mimic the free and potent power of the sun, so looking right at them will make you go blind, obviously.

That’s hilarious, r64.

There are LED's available that rival the light from incandescent bulbs. And which incandescent bulbs are you talking about, anyway? Clear glass? Those are certainly harsh. Soft white? The LED's do just as well. I suspect some of you ridiculous queens when you hit 40 put the GE soft pink bulbs everywhere in your homes. (And you should have gone for the yellow bug lights.)

The savings in your bill and in the amount of energy required is considerable. Do the environment a favor, girls. Just get the LED's.

Flattering recessed lighting and gilt. So easy to distract the eye. You sure have nailed us, R78, you sly puss.

I prefer the new LED bulbs over the old incandescents.

Incandescents waste energy and are the cause of the phrase "burn the lights."

Those bulbs got HOT!

One of my earliest memories is my middle brother getting into trouble for shooting his water gun at burning lightbulbs around our old house.

Of course they shattered. He thought it was hilarious; my parents not so much. I thought it was great when he got a spanking!

R80, the first time I tried to do a DIY home fix was when I was about ten years old, and went to remove and replace the light bulb on my bedroom nightstand. The bad bulb was still very hot, having burned out about a minute before.

I burned my fingers and learned to respect light bulbs. Are you saying that future generations of children will not have to respect the power and heat of the light bulb?

"Burning lights," hot lightbulbs, and "dialing" telephones are going the way of Horizontal, Vertical, Color, and Hue controls on televisions.

Kids today have no idea where these colloquialisms come form.

LED lamps use much less energy than other lamp tpes, offer a longer life of up to 50,000 hours and don't emit UV rays or throw out heat. Welcome to 2017.

Over the course of a year, I save enough money using LED bulbs to purchase some fine hobo dick.

Plus, the lamp art gives my place a certain Depression-era optimism that's so kind to my aging skin.

Step into my boudoir.

Yeah all soft white CFL and LED bulbs in this house.

"All things introduced to this world after 1980, people included, are bad"

Oh, come on r87. The flat-screen TV, satellite car radio and Datalounge, at least, are great post-1980 innovations.

But there is still a threshold of quality lighting that LED is not quite achieving

Oww, all my bulbs are still the old ones, except for one. I don’t like the delay when I turn that one on. But if I’m saving the environment for my niece & nephews, so be it.

My LED bulbs don't do a delay when turned on. Not sure about CFL twisted bulbs.

But CFLs are going the way of incandescent bulbs. In 2016, for example, GE announced that it was going to phase out the manufacturing of CFL light bulbs in favor of producing LEDs.

Notice how some LED manufacturers are trying to fake out holdouts by making a bulb that looks exactly like an incandescent bulb.

The OP hates the new screwy kind because they present him with "less of a challenge."

R90, it's not just about faking out holdouts. No one is deceived. But there are 100 million lamps and shades out there which depend on that design.

[quote]But there are 100 million lamps and shades out there which depend on that design.

My point is that I've been buying LEDs for about five years. Lots of those LED bulbs fit the lamps and lampshades perfectly fine, but they looked drastically different from the old incandescent light bulb. (See Philips' bulb at link). Today I saw a package of GE LED light bulbs that looked EXACTLY like incandescent bulbs. Not just "almost like." Exactly like.

Since most bulbs are covered in lampshades, creating a light bulb that looks EXACTLY like an incandescent bulb really doesn't have to do with function. It's catering to a consumer preference for the old bulb, since the bulb design is actually hidden by a lampshade and seen only when you purchase it.

And the design of the lampshades already in service.

[quote]But there is still a threshold of quality lighting that LED is not quite achieving.

Example?

I hate the new lightbulbs and I hate the low flush toilets.

LED lighting with a controller is obviously the best option for household lighting. If you don't agree with that, you're a luddite or afraid of change.

Or cheap.

R93, I believe that R92 was referring to the kind of lampshades that attach directly onto the bulb with a clip installed in the shade. These kind of shades require a bulb shape the same as or very similar to the old incandescents.

As society continues its march toward social detachment, sterile technology and the demise of the individual the cool, clinical look of LED will serve as the perfect emblem and metaphor.

I miss the awesome, sun-like light from 1990s-era 500-watt torchiere lamps.

Yeah, they were fire hazards & threw off more heat than some actual HEATERS, but damn, the way they lit up the room was incredible.

I wish someone would make a LED torchiere-style lamp with 150+ literal watts of CRI 98+ Yuji "VTC" LEDs (throwing off as much light as a 500-watt halogen bulb).

I hate the way both manufacturers & government lie about LED watt-equivalence. Put a non-energy-optimized 20th-century cheap 100-watt incandescent bulb next to a "100-watt equivalent" LED bulb, and it'll be BLATANTLY obvious which one is brighter -- the incandescent bulb.

A high-CRI (with 90+ "R9") LED bulb can be made that IS totally equivalent to a 100-watt incandescent bulb... but it'll burn 40-50 watts, not 20-25 watts (you have to reinforce the "white" LEDs with discrete red, cyan, and spectral violet LEDs to compensate for the deficiencies of "white" LEDs).

Most LED Christmas lights suck and die prematurely because they just wire enough LEDs in series to soak up 120v or 220v from their individual voltage drops.

Fundamental problems with this design:

* Each LED is off literally half the time, and has voltage ramping from 0v to ~3.5v to 0v over the span of 1/120th or 1/100th of a second. So you get visible 60hz or 50hz flicker.

* The voltage that fully-illuminates the LED is only slightly less than the voltage that will FRY the LED. So if you're in Florida & the power surges to 150v for a second or two some toasty December afternoon when it's 92 degrees & FPL jacks up the voltage in response to a local voltage sag (say, if the air conditioners of almost everyone in your area all kick in within a few seconds of each other), bye-bye LED Christmas lights.

Some LED Christmas lights suck slightly less & add a diode bridge (so the lights flicker 120 (or 100) times per second, instead of flickering 60 (or 50) times per second (and spending half that time "off" outright), but they still suck compared to incandescent Christmas lights... they just don't suck as much as cheap LED Christmas lights.

Ideally, you COULD make a string of LED lights & feed them nice, clean, constant-voltage regulated DC. But then, a string of lights would cost $50 (or alternatively, as much as cheap strings do now (except, wired in parallel rather than in series), but needing a single $60-100 power supply shared by all of the lights on the tree.

I personally built my own RGB Christmas LED system using WS2811 strings with an Arduino-based controller. It rocks. I finally got to have lights that twinkle independently. One thing I learned... only twinkle a few lights at a time, and fade them slowly. Otherwise, your tree will look like analog-TV static noise & just be too overwhelming to look at.

Is this serious that you are not supposed to go somewhere to dispose the new bulbs? I just have been putting them in the regular garbage.

R102? 102 posts into this thread and you haven't noticed that in addition to the standard incandescent bulbs, we now have compact fluorescents (CFL) and light emitting diodes (LED) and that they are different technologies? One of them can be tossed in your home recycling, just like any other piece of plastic or metal you discard each week. The other needs to be taken to a qualified recycling facility that can safely handle it.

Go google it to find out which is which.

My problem is when one bulb goes out in a chandelier or bathroom vanity I get to the store and have trouble matching with the ones that still work. It used to be so easy to just by a 25W, 40W, 60W or 100W. Now you read the box and it says this one is 28W but it is the equivalent of a 40W of old, etc etc.

Poor R100. The days of arc lights on 200 foot light poles lighting the city would have been heaven for you.

BTW, you can still burn your eyes with halogen bulbs so all is not lost.

Not to mention the house. They use halogen for stoves, doll.

I replaced all of the light bulbs in my house with LED bulbs and immediately my electric bill dropped to $20/month. (Except in the summer when the air conditioner makes it much higher.) Three years later all the bulbs are still working fine.

Best place to buy LED bulbs is IKEA. Much lower prices. And if there's no IKEA near you, just order them from ikea.com.

Ive got a light bulb in my master bedroom closet as well as one by my back door that are going on 12 years oldand have never been replaced. They get daily use . Yet every goddamn lamp and overhead bulb in my entire house except for those Ive replaced over and over,and some of those are rarely lit. I loathe led light and I could give a flip about the future !

Wrong R107 the best place to buy LED bulbs is Home Depot. They have a house brand and come in affordable multipacks.