Good Bad Bulbs – Fluorescent Lighting & LED Lighting
Including energy efficient LED light bulbs, CFL bulbs, and future technologies.
CFL Lighting, LED Lighting, LED Flashlights, and Future Technologies

The OttLite is a brand I’d not seen, and decided to try a bright white CFL. I’ve had some requests for reviews of whiter color bulbs or daylight bulbs.

Overall – it’s very white and looks to be a 100 watt replacement. It claims to be instant on, and is. It claims to use 25 watts, and on my killawatt, it reads 22 watts. Package claims 8000 hrs. Box indicates a 1-year warranty.

Good Bulb for your office or reading chair, but not the living room or dining room.

The light reminds me of the new LED Christmas lights. During the day, it’s fine, at night, it’s kind of odd – like a huge LCD computer screen light.

Good Color, Good Size, Good Bulb

The Bright Effects 60 watt globe CFL is marked as a G25 bulb. It’s marked as having soft white light, but you have to look for it carefully. It has the Energy Star marking, and says it lasts for 7 years. The fine print says it’s warranty is for 2 years. Wattage is marked at 12 watts. My measurement indicates 8 watts.

The fine print says not to directly expose to the weather, and the usual about not using it with timers and dimmers. No mention of use in an enclosed fixture. The bulb itself says that if exposed to water, install it base up/ bulb down. The unit looks to be sealed.

I installed one in the exposed globe fixture in the bathroom, and – drum roll – my wife didn’t notice.

Good Bulb, Good Color, Dimmer Compatible, but not Dimmable

The Sylvania Dimmable CFL is marked as ’soft white’ and says 2700K on the package.

The color is a replacement for an incandescent bulb, and is rated as a 100 watt replacement, with a 7 year life. It says it uses 24 watts, and puts out 1500 lumens. Using a Kill-A-Watt, it is using 18 watts.

The dimmer function is not a dimmer, it just cuts out. There may be certain switches that work better than others. When I get a chance, I’ll buy a set of different switches, and see what happens.

Some notes from inside the package – don’t use it on a timer or photocell, don’t totally enclose it, don’t use it outside where not protected. A note I have not seen: “light output has more than 5% decrease when lamp is used in base down position”.  If you’ve got suggestions on what that means, post a comment.  The wattage with bulb up, and bulb down appears to be the same.

Bulb Color – Harsh OK. Dimmable CFL – Bad. Heat – Good.

Update 12/23/08
The color is acceptable, but now that it’s been in use for a while, the bulb takes a few minutes to brighten up. It will only light up with the dimmer fully ‘on’, and even just a bit off, and it’s dark. I think a better term is ‘dimmer compatible’ as opposed to dimmable.

Reviewing the ecosmart 16 watt dimmable flood. Costs about two dollars more than more than an incandescent R30, so I have high hopes. Label says it is soft white 2700K. 75 watt equivalent. 750 lumens.

It is marked as good for ceiling cans, as well as flood fixtures. It is also marked as good for wet weather if the base is up (light shining down). It is about half an inch longer than the R30 incandescents, and looks the same in the ceiling can.

The dimmer we have is current technology (2 years old), and is driving just the one bulb. The bulb drops out early when the dimming starts.

The color starts out very good, and after several minutes takes on the classic CFL Death Pall.