# Compact Fluorescent Bulbs--Good Price.



## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

I have been looking at Sam's Club listings as a new store is going in near my brother and I wanted to tell him of a few things he might wish to look at IF he should buy a membership.

After that I happened to notice a listing for Alternative Energy. Looked there, etc. 

Anyway I found that Sam's Club has a good selection of compact fluorescent light bulbs. Some are in-store purchase only while others are on-line purchase only.

I have several applications where I use the smaller wattage CFs and noticed that Sam's Club offers 9 watt bulbs in a 10 pack for $16.18. CFs at $1.62 is about the cheapest I've seen them. http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=7087

Naturally it wouldn't pay to buy a membership just to purchase bulbs. If you already have a membership then it might pay to look at the selection available.


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## Drizler (Jun 16, 2002)

You do mean the ones in the big red blister pack right. A couple months ago I got a pack of those in 40 watt so I could use one to fix my fish tank and have a couple others to scatter around the house. Extremely powerful and instantaneous start to full illumination. I put one in one of my outdoor fixtures to see how fast it lights and how well to what temp extreme. At that price I can run em in the cold and toss them when they are shot. CFL's have come a long way even in the last few years. I had a few of em 7 or so years back till now and the early ones sucked badly. Pretty soon cfl's will be all I have except for outdoors in the dead of winter. :dance: FWIW I didn't see the ones I have on the web page. Mine are Sylvania and came on a big red blister flat pack of 9.


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## mdharris68 (Sep 28, 2006)

This is from another thread in the alt energy forum, thought you might be interested. 
"We were just down at Costco, and they are doing a $13.50 immediate rebate on their $18 6 packs of CFL spotlight bulbs. Works out to 73 cents a bulb.
These spots are the type usually used in the recessed can type fixtures.
What a deal 

Gary"


Mark


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## Drizler (Jun 16, 2002)

Heck I am damned glad to have a Sams club. I have 3 of their 25 watt outdoor spotlights which are cfl's in a floodlight cover. They do alright so far but do take about 25 seconds to get to full output. Not any good for automatic sensors but good to light the back deck cheap. Funny how the tiny 40 watt sylvanias pop to full intensity instantly and seem to give nearly as much light.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

These drawbacks are in a letter to the editor in yesterday's The Tennessean:

To achieve the advertised usage:

- They need to burn continuously as turning them off and on greatly shortens their lives.

- They should not be put on a dimmer switch as somehow the switch reduces life even if seldom used.

- Due to the mercury in them, they are essentially hazardous waste when they have burned out. The Tennessee in the next day's paper recommended they be sealed in a plastic baggie, then it sealed in another baggie, then put out with other trash or taken to a household hazardous waste collection site.

I only tried them twice in an outdoor light (left constantly on). They didn't seem to last any long then ordinary bulbs.


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

As mentioned in many of the recent threads on CFLs, regular incandescent bulbs need to be properly recylced, too , as the solder in the bases contains lead. It's no big deal to properly recycle CFLs in most parts of the country, and the reduction in mercuryput into the atmosphere by the coal burning power plant due to less power needed for CFLs vs incandescents is a real advantage. Better to have some mercury in recylcable CFL bulbs and much less in the atmosphere, than to have it all in the atmosphere.

Every package of CFLs tells you not to use them on dimmers, except the newest cold cathode CFLs, which come on faster, can be dimmed, cost more, and use a little more electricity.

Turning any kind of bulb off and on frequently shortens their life.


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## SolarGary (Sep 8, 2005)

Ken Scharabok said:


> These drawbacks are in a letter to the editor in yesterday's The Tennessean:
> 
> To achieve the advertised usage:
> 
> ...



Hi,
I think The Tennessean is a bit confused.

We have CFs that get turned off and on multiple times per day that we got when we moved in in 2000 -- still going strong.

If you replace a 100 watt bulb with a 20 watt CF, and you pay 10 cents a KWH, and you burn it 2 hours a day, and you paid a buck fifty for it, it saves 1.6 cents a day in electricity, so you pay for the bulb in 3 months on the electricity saving.

CFs are a no-brainer.

Gary


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## Kevingr (Mar 10, 2006)

The Tennessean is a little correct. When manufacturers rate their bulbs for life expectancy it's based on never being turned off. That doesn't mean a bulb won't last 10,000 hours like they say, but it does have the potential to reduce it's life. That goes for all bulbs, not just the CFL's.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Hmm, I bought some at HomeDepot not too long ago, 'Lights of America' or something like that. They hum a little too much for me, (but maybe thats because of my super-cheap temporary inverter). The newer chinese ones seem very cheaply made. Maybe one day WE can start producing more quality products right here in the good ol USA.


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