Rubbish fluorescent tubes: Eterna Lighting (UK), GE (US)

[EC8010]

I foolishly thought I'd install proper lighting in our loft. After struggling in heat and semi-darkness, I managed to neatly fit a pair of twin 58W fluorescent fittings branded Eterna Lighting UK (but made in China) and sold by B&Q. In all, there were four 5' fluorescent tubes. At switch-on, out of the four, one lit correctly and another glowed at one end. I swapped the working tube into a new position. No dice. Something's wrong inside. I leave you, gentle reader, to draw your own conclusions about my opinion of Eterna Lighting...

I fitted four GE energy saving fluorescent light bulbs in wall lights two weeks ago and all was well. Last night, I noticed that one of the lights was very dim and distinctly green...

[bembel]

Hi,
My experience is the same with IKEA (china made, different models) fluorescent light bulbs, 50% are doing AF vibrations (very annoying) or dim !
next time I'll spend more money...

[rturja]

We changed whole lighting at our home into energysavers couple of years ago and since then not a single "bulb" have expired. Bought the more expensive models then though. At least Airam and Philips brands have been good and still going strong even with quite heavy usage hours (the sun is up in the sky about 2 hours at heart of the winter in here...)

-Reko

[DigitalJunkie]

Huh..the GE bulbs on this side of the pond seem to work fine?
I havn't heard of the other guys,so I dunno..

One thing about CFL's,they dont' like being upside down!
The heat from the bulb cooks the ballast,and the capacitor overheats and splits the vent on the top..
I've had several cases of this,with identical bulbs,bought on the same day.. The upside-down bulbs die within a couple months,yet the right-side-up bulbs are STILL going,a couple years later.

Anybody else notice they're replacing the CFL's in the upside-down sockets more frequently?

[rturja]

Almost all of the bulbs at our house are upside down and no problem - might be that some companies plan theirs with the hanging position in mind?

-Reko

[EC8010]

An update: I switched the wall lights on a moment ago. There was a nasty popping crackling noise and the green tinged energy-saving bulb (horizontally mounted) died completely. There was a nasty burnt electronics smell...

I now have three out of the four fluorescents on the Eterna fittings working. One worked to begin with. One turned out to be a faulty starter. Another turned out to be a duff connection to the starter. I'm going to have to take the fitting down to find the fault on the fourth fluorescent...

[pinkmouse]

Hmm, this is pushing the boundaries of the "Tube" forum a little!

[Wavebourn]

Originally posted by DigitalJunkie
Huh..the GE bulbs on this side of the pond seem to work fine?

GE has 120V in own outlets...

[Sherman]

Originally posted by DigitalJunkie
...
Anybody else notice they're replacing the CFL's in the upside-down sockets more frequently?

I decided to replace all the exterior lights on my house with CFL's. There are two by the front door, two by the garage, two by the patio door and one by the back door so 7 lights and the energy savings could be good. All the fixtures have the bulbs upside down.

I bought some nice Phillips bulbs and put them in. They all burned out, every single one of them, in about 1/2 the time of standard filament bulbs! I replaced them once more with another brand (forget which one, got them at the local big box home store). Some of these lasted almost as long as a regular filament bulb.

Currently all my outside lights are filament bulbs. I n my experience CFL's don't like being upside down.

[whatsnext]

Originally posted by Sherman



I decided to replace all the exterior lights on my house with CFL's. There are two by the front door, two by the garage, two by the patio door and one by the back door so 7 lights and the energy savings could be good. All the fixtures have the bulbs upside down.

I bought some nice Phillips bulbs and put them in. They all burned out, every single one of them, in about 1/2 the time of standard filament bulbs! I replaced them once more with another brand (forget which one, got them at the local big box home store). Some of these lasted almost as long as a regular filament bulb.

Currently all my outside lights are filament bulbs. I n my experience CFL's don't like being upside down.

I've had super good luck with both Phillips and GE bulbs, zero failures in 20+ bulbs over four year time frame, and most of them are upside down. My porch light has been on 24/7 for about four years and it's a cheapy LOA twister. If I had this many failures I'd be checking my AC supply especially looking for DC offset. Do any of your other electric items show poor lifespans? I've heard of filament bulbs lasting 20 years though so it's hard to figure out how long your bulbs are actually lasting before failure.
John.......