So I started writing a comparison/death match between LED’s and CFL lamps and I realized it is a terrible comparison. The more I learn about lighting the more I understand that lighting fixtures are like women - they come in all shape and sizes and the best one depends on the correct application. This post I’ll focus on CFL’s. One important thing to do is likes and dislikes about CFL’s. Recently I was in a class and we did a survey about this topic exactly The following is what we came up with.

Dislikes:
Hard to dispose (they have mercury in them)
Long warm up period
Flickering
Humming
Color
Dimming
Initial Cost
Position sensitive
Temp sensitive
High Lumen Depreciation
Limited
Unattractive
Flat
Non focal ability
Storage challenges

Benefits
Wide range of color
Wide range of size and shape
Cool to the touch
Efficacy
Life Cycle
Long Lamp Life
Rebates
Good Color Rendering Index
Good lumen maintenance

At first glance it looks like CFL’s have more negatives, but the more you learn about CFL’s and when to use them these negatives quickly turn to positives.. The first big point is that CFL’s are intended to light a space not an object (repeat: space not object). An example is if you want to light up a painting CFL’s are not the best choice, BUT if you want to light an entire room with even lighting CFL’s are an excellent, outstanding, or even fantastic choice. Next important fact is CFL’s produce a very natural light that is much closer to the outside or true daylight than incandescent and they also have wide range of color choices. So they are great in class rooms, living rooms, hallways, kitchens or anyplace where you don’t want shadows.

Next I must defunct some common dislikes. With the new ballast the flickering and humming are not noticeable (actually it is impossible for the human eye or ear to detect). Back in the first version of CFL’s this was a great argument, but it’s a mute point now. CLF’s now dim you just have to make sure you buy the ones with the dimming feature and make sure they have an electronic balast. You shouldn’t even see the CFL if you install it properly.. The light isn’t flat it’s just very even and has several different color combinations – something that cannot be said about incandescent. They only operate at that yellow color/temperature we are farmiliar with. The problem is that familiarity issue – we just need to get used to the fact that CFL’s have more color choices and often resemble the colors we are naturally used to seeing in outdoor environments.

It’s pretty clear when/where to use CFL’s so stop hating and start using in the right application. At some point I will go into the whole mercury thing, but that’s another blog. So check back and I’ll tell you why that’s not as big of an issue as advertised. Hope you enjoyed

– The EBS Team