Al Gore never made me buy any curly-cue lightbulbs, weirdo.

Did he make you buy some?

What do you mean, they don't work? I've been using them for 20 years (yes, even before Al Gore told me to) and I haven't been running into any more walls than I used to.

"Ha?"

What's wrong with people?

they did spread the chance of mercury poisoning far and wide, though

IronTom: they did spread the chance of mercury poisoning far and wide, though

Yeah, they upped it to, what, .00000095%?

A year ago, I bought a bunch of 3-packs for $1.50 each pack. They had some promotion outside Albertson's grocery store. I still have plenty left. They work really well for me. No problems.

cameroncrazy1984: IronTom: they did spread the chance of mercury poisoning far and wide, though

Yeah, they upped it to, what, .00000095%?

that depends, real easy if the cfl is cracked open on a hot stove and someone huffs it, I suppose.

Seems to work OK for me.....

To submitter and Gawker: Saying Al Gore made people buy them makes you sound like a farking idiot.

I use those bulbs because they're energy efficient, last many times longer than incandescent bulbs, and pay for themselves several times over in saved electricity costs. They've also been available in soft white bulbs for a long time and look fine.

You don't care about the environmental benefits of saving energy, subby? Fine. STFU and save money on your electric bill instead. It's win-win. Why do you hate saving money?

Since when have CFLs been "very expensive" let alone $30?

A 15W (60W replacement) is $6. And that's the current generation "instant on" type too.

I've noticed they don't live very long in the hood over my kitchen stove. It's too bad because that's the light I usually leave on to find my way to the fridge in a drunken stupor.

I replaced all the bulbs in every room on my first floor last year. Biggest mistake I ever made. The light was so poor, after a few months I couldn't take it anymore and replaced them all with traditional bulbs.

I sit here in my living room and can see 6 floodlights in my kitchen. One of them is florescent. I can easily tell which one it is because the light coming from it just sucks compared to all the others.

DeCypher44: A year ago, I bought a bunch of 3-packs for $1.50 each pack. They had some promotion outside Albertson's grocery store. I still have plenty left. They work really well for me. No problems.

Same here, only I got them at Menards. How exactly are they supposed to not be working?

I suppose it might depend on the light you're putting them in, but they work in my cheap-ass $9 desk lamp no problem. Bonus is, they're less hot, so it's easier to move the lamp around.

Main advantage for me is they last longer, so I don't have to go buy more bulbs. Anything that makes me not have to shop as often is a win.

/hate shopping

Drathus
A 15W (60W replacement) is $6. And that's the current generation "instant on" type too.

Yep, they're easily worth it. I wish the hall light fixtures in my house were a kind that would look okay and have room for CFLs. They take a bunch of those damn 25 watt, very spherical shaped little bulbs and they're forever burning out. Those lights and the canister lights on a dimmer switch in the master bedroom are the only ones I haven't switched to CFLs yet.

sullyman
I sit here in my living room and can see 6 floodlights in my kitchen. One of them is florescent. I can easily tell which one it is because the light coming from it just sucks compared to all the others.

Get some that don't suck? I don't know... mine are fine and provide plenty of light.

waiting for LEDs, you can get them in a long format that replaces long florescent lights

Subby must be Welsh.

Dude's probably just pissed that he has to pay a nickel for paper bags at the local supermarket and is projecting that anger on anything convenient.

Either that or his wife works the incandescent line at Philips.

I like them I don't use them in every room, but I use them in the basement,garage, closets and halls. they never seem to wear out, the cost less to run, and they give enough light. whats the problem?

Really? I bought them because they don't blow out very often, and save me some money on my electric bill. Al Gore had nothing to do with it.

I'm switching-out out what I can to CFL's. I live in Houston, so it cuts down on the A/C usage as well as using less energy per-se.
That said, the dimmer - capable ones don't dim all that much and there can't replace 3-way bulbs in mt three-way lights.

We're getting rid of those technologically obsolescent incandescent bulbs. Get over it. Or are you still pissed that you can't ride your horse to work? Because, honestly, I wish I could still ride a horse everywhere.

You farking idiots obviously didn't RTFA. It says so right there that they "DON'T WORK." Not sure how you guys missed that with all of your pointless blathering about real-life experiences with the damn things.

patrick767: Those lights and the canister lights on a dimmer switch in the master bedroom are the only ones I haven't switched to CFLs yet.

I have no dimmable lights in my house, but FWIW last time I was at Menards I saw they now apparently sell dimmable CFLs. I know nothing about them but you might try googling around.

They even have "black light" (the ultra-purple) version of the CFLs, you can get a "party package" that has a few of each color plus the "black light" ones, for parties. I got some red ones to put in an old pole lamp with 3 directable lamps in it, for a darkroom I have. Works great so far. Again it's nice they don't heat up so much.

Saving energy on the red bulbs, using tons of energy on the super-high-power work lamp that is used to UV-expose all the stuff I set up under the red lamps :)

But they're ribbed for my pleasure

IronTom
waiting for LEDs, you can get them in a long format that replaces long florescent lights

I really hope the technology reaches a point where those are practical as standard bulbs. On the site you linked, you can get a 45W equivalent bulb that doesn't look too terrible. It's $26. For 45W. That's not going to do it. At least the flood light hits all of 80W, but at a $50 price tag.

My dad commented a couple weeks ago that light bulbs are going to be like your furniture soon. You take them all with you when you move. With prices like that, hell yes I'd take them with me.

If you are paying thirty bucks a bulb, subby, you are being robbed.

Today I read a two page article about how to decontaminate your home after breaking one of these bulbs. I got a kick out of it, because in my high school "home chemistry" phase I had a pound of mercury, plus several compounds of the stuff, and by all rights I should be dead, or senile or -- what was I saying?


IronTom

waiting for LEDs

I don't know about those things. I have some Xenon under-counter lights that are really nice and bright, plus a desk lamp. I have some LED flashlights that are so bright I'm afraid to use them near airports.

I think Al Gore is the biggest putz on the face of the earth. Mine work fine. I didn't by them because anyone told me to, I bought them because they take a long time to burn out compared with an incandesent bulb. My porch light is a yellow bulb and it has been on continuously for years.

If only it will match this (new window) regular bulb I will be happy.

itazurakko
I have no dimmable lights in my house, but FWIW last time I was at Menards I saw they now apparently sell dimmable CFLs. I know nothing about them but you might try googling around.

Cool, I hadn't heard that. When the canisters start burning out in the bedroom I'll have to look into it. I already put fluorescent bulbs in my great room canister lights and they work fine, but those aren't on a dimmer.

The most important thing is that mr_bunny approves of them

oldebayer: I had a pound of mercury, plus several compounds of the stuff, and by all rights I should be dead, or senile or -- what was I saying?

Yeah, I used to love to play with it as a kid, neat heavy liquid metal stuff, and you can make female terminators out of it.

oldebayer: in my high school "home chemistry" phase I had a pound of mercury, plus several compounds of the stuff, and by all rights I should be dead, or senile or -- what was I saying?

I loved to buy thermometers and break them just so I could roll the mercury into my hand, and play with it. For hours.

feckingmorons
If only it will match this (new window) regular bulb I will be happy.

heh... nice, a 4 watt bulb that's been burning for 108 years.

From their website:
Visiting: You can visit the bulb depending on the availability of the Firemen on hand. Go to the rear of the station and ring the bell. If they are in someone will answer the door. Otherwise you can see the bulb if you look through the window up on the top of the wall to your left.

Worst. Field trip. Ever.

oldebayer: Today I read a two page article about how to decontaminate your home after breaking one of these bulbs. I got a kick out of it, because in my high school "home chemistry" phase I had a pound of mercury, plus several compounds of the stuff, and by all rights I should be dead, or senile or -- what was I saying?

Yeah. I remember as a kid a friend broke a thermometer (by accident) and we gathered the mercury, didn't touch it with bare hands (we knew it wasn't cool to do that) and put it on his desk, where we had fun moving it around with 3x5 cards.

Later in high school, in chemistry class we made a barometer by the whole class, had a rice-bowl full of mercury and a standing pipette in it, there open. Also in that bowl the teacher showed us how you can float a 100 yen coin (roughly the size/weight of a US quarter). That IS pretty damn cool to see, just because it's so counter-intuitive to see such a coin float.

The year after I had that class, someone spilled the mercury and it was a big problem they had to clean it up so closed off that classroom for a while, I remember the cleanup needed sulphur so it really smelled horrid for a while.

patrick767: light bulbs are going to be like your furniture soon.

yeah, like if you cover your whole wall in LEDs, you could have a quintillion pixels, and change your wallpaper ever microsecond, as well as provide light

IronTom: yeah, like if you cover your whole wall in LEDs, you could have a quintillion pixels, and change your wallpaper ever microsecond, as well as provide light

100% serious, when I was painting some rooms in my house a few years ago and generally complaining and whining about how much of a pain in the ass it was, I was thinking wouldn't it be great to have a wall you can just type in the hex colors and it changes to that color, all done?

Not sure if the shining of LEDs would be so great, but EVENTUALLY, surely...

itazurakko: it be great to have a wall you can just type in the hex colors and it changes to that color, all done?

probably nothing stopping you except power requirements, manufacturing, memory drivers, I/O, and money.

The important thing here is that you can use several CFLs to grow pot plants and not drive up your electric bill. You can't do that with incandescents.

IronTom: probably nothing stopping you except power requirements, manufacturing, memory drivers, I/O, and money.

Be far easier to wait for large scale full color ePaper.

I fully imagine once a true color ePaper material is out and can be mass produced that we'll see wall art frames of it like LCD picture frames currently, and then maybe within a decade or two start to see full wall coverings of it.

IronTom: probably nothing stopping you except power requirements, manufacturing, memory drivers, I/O, and money.

Plus my old house (90 degrees corners? No) but yeah, it's probably definitely doable in a new building.

It'd be pretty neat to have a "window" in my office that had a webcam always feeding it but at live size, too...

Drathus: Be far easier to wait for large scale full color ePaper.

makes sense, but how will you light it? Like, at nighttime?

Buy the 23 watt soft white. Then stop complaining.

itazurakko: It'd be pretty neat to have a "window" in my office that had a webcam always feeding it but at live size, too...

Bet Bill gates has one. Jack Welch, GE CEO, had one at the Epcot Center Horizons building, in a special room. It was tied to a remote controlled camera on the roof that could look around Epcot Center. He took the cool out of GE when he left. Hope they can get it back, they would be a good manufacturer for LED walls.

IronTom: makes sense, but how will you light it? Like, at nighttime?

Well, were it ePaper you wouldn't. It'd just be a reflective surface like walls are currently.

So you could change colors, put pictures or wallpaper patterns up, or even (if the refresh gets fast enough) watch a picture on it, but that would require an external light to see it.

IronTom: Bet Bill gates has one. Jack Welch, GE CEO, had one at the Epcot Center Horizons building, in a special room. It was tied to a remote controlled camera on the roof that could look around Epcot Center. He took the cool out of GE when he left. Hope they can get it back, they would be a good manufacturer for LED walls.

That would rock. I work in a cinderblock room (but hey, it's not a cube!) and would love to just see the outside, but the potential to pretend my office is elsewhere would also be cool.

I do have a giant monitor (the standard thing that came with the iMac) and scour flickr for cool desktop images, I find I can get some that have a nice depth of field and a "normal boring" image, to make me think of outside and have enough "far" to rest my eyes, kinda.

My whole house is a curly-cue from them.

patrick767: Drathus
A 15W (60W replacement) is $6. And that's the current generation "instant on" type too.

Yep, they're easily worth it. I wish the hall light fixtures in my house were a kind that would look okay and have room for CFLs. They take a bunch of those damn 25 watt, very spherical shaped little bulbs and they're forever burning out. Those lights and the canister lights on a dimmer switch in the master bedroom are the only ones I haven't switched to CFLs yet.

If you're talking about the ones with the screw base that's about the size of the tip of a pinky finger, Ikea, of all places sells them; I bought some for the bathroom. They only use about 7 watts apiece, and if anything, I prefer the light they give off compared to the clear glass incandescent bulbs they replaced, it's whiter and the globes around them are frosted with some sort of soft textured plastic so they don't glare as much in the mirror.

Cost $30? Uh what? Sickly pale glow? WTF?

Maybe they should've waited for the Moe-cue bulbs or even the Larry-cue bulbs.

The Shemp-cue bulbs, not so much.

CERTAINLY NOT THE CURLY JOE DeRITA-CUE BULBS.

They aren't 30 dollars either. SUBMITTARD.