cfl bulbs , are they real money savers

[Lord Nemesis]

Have you managed to RMA CFL's (within 12 months) in Bangalore as ppl here from the states of Kerela, Gujarat & Maha claim to have done ?

I have got warranty on all the branded CFL's I bought so far at various locations (Nellore, Hyderabad in AP and Mohali in Punjab). As others indicated, the date and signature is marked on the CFL with a permanent marker. I have also successfully RMA'ed a Philips CFL in Nellore (AP) about a little over a week after it was purchased the reason being that the light was flickering. Don't see any particular reason why it should be different in Bangalore.

 

[blr_p]

Don't see any particular reason why it should be different in Bangalore.

Agreed and two more states in the list now, but three different places gave me an indifferent look when i asked them about warranty for the CFL's, pointing to the box and saying nothing of the sort exists. ATM i'm at a loss to offer them a counter argument.

That's why i asked to know what adder's experience has been.

 

[adder]

Have you managed to RMA CFL's (within 12 months) in Bangalore as ppl here from the states of Kerela, Gujarat & Maha claim to have done ?

I'm was not going on any theory, my intention was to clarify further what you previously stated, which you did.

It appears that the choice of ballast used in tubelights is much more significant than the one in CFL's.

Well sorry should have been clear i thought he was talking about tuble light ballast,as far as the cfls well never did RMA.

 

[bitspilani]

tubelight

Which tubelights are good for living and bedrooms ?

 

[robertjohn]

Re: tubelight

Which tubelights are good for living and bedrooms ?

As per my observation, Philips tubelights are brighter than others and give more light and about Rs. 5 costlier than others.

 

[himesh23679]

Re: tubelight

The requirement of light intensity in both the rooms varies.

In the living room u need more (brighter), where as in the bedroom u need less...(unless ofcourse u r in a habit of studying in horizontal position on ur bed....lol.... my best friend does that).

So select the wattage accordingly.

As far as the brands .... i found Philips n' Surya fairing better.

 

[random2]

At my home, we started using CFLs around 8years back in couple of places. Rest were general T8s. None at home liked CFLs for indoor lighting and I used to get headaches if I read anything under a CFL. Finally moved over to T5s around an year back.

Replaced all T8s and CFLs with T5s indoors and have warm white CFLs for outdoor lighting.

 

[bitspilani]

conceal lights

Which company conceal lights are good and what is the cost :huh:

 

[coolraghav]

I dont know how you guys think put more lights here n there.

Doesnt any1 of you here have designer made rooms ? They put soo many fading lights. I'll post my room pics someday. I dont even know how many tubes it hass

 

[sri_k]

Even i need to know what do they call the regular tubelights fittings which we have at home T12or T8?also read an article in paper that T5 tubelights are energy efficient&where to get this from?Are they any different in their shape&size?

 

[random2]

AFAIK, regular ones are T8s. T5s are lot slimmer and consume 28watts of power (Think T8s consume 40+choke). T5s must be available in most decent shops selling regular lighting equipments. I dont have problem buying them over here in Mysore. So it should be lot easier in Mumbai.

Size is standard 4footer. Maybe slightly shorter than T8s. For me it cost around 550 for the whole unit. Bulbs will cost around 120 I think. There are quite a few chinese brands and also Wipro, Osram and few others. I got Wipro (A usual, even these are Chinese made).

 

[blr_p]

While I do have my own apprehensions regarding the lifetime and light output of CFLs, at least here, the warranty is being honoured for one year for almost all brands.

The shopkeepers mark the date of purchase, the shop's name and their initial on the ceramic body with a permanent marker. Once dead, take it to the dealer and within a minute, the replacement is given. Not even the bill is asked for. Had got two of them replaced recently.

So i got to test this out in a different shop and the guy had a Phillips CFL, so i asked him about the warranty, he did as you said, marked the date on the bulb and said so long as it was not broken he would replace it within 6 months of the purchase date. He took very little off the MRP. Now whether he'd have the same in stock if i did call him out on this is another question entirely, i hope i do not have to, 23W warm daylight is harder to replace than the cool day light ones.

Went to another shop, this guy has no Phillips but he has Havell's and refuses to do the same. So when i asked about it he said it was only for foreign brands like Phillips made in China, so i showed him the Phillips i bought that was clearly indian made

He then says the warranty is offered by the shop only and not the vendor, well its clear some shops stock brands that do no offer any warranty. Less hassle for them this way. Havells is about 10% cheaper.

 

[sasa110]

My major gripe against CFLs is that they need to retrofit these CFLs for all types of sockets. I have threaded bulbs(and not the regular push and turn) in my fancy lighting around the house and I really want to replace them with CFLs but the threaded variety does not seem to have come to India...at least it had not come 5 years ago when I got the lighting work done. I'm not in tune with what's available right now.

hey, the threaded variety of CFLs are widely available and i got them for my fancy lighting long back. the ones i got look like a regular cfl in the sense they're tubular and not spherical, but unlike a cfl emits a yellow light similar to bulbs. i think the brand i got was halonix whose 8w i bought to replace 40w unbranded threaded bulbs.

I have 2 fancy wall lamps on each side of the living room, each holding 3 threaded bulbs, and before i discovered the threaded cfls, i wouldn't light the bulbs too much because of the costs involved in lighting 6 x allegedly 40w bulbs and lighted a tube mostly nspite of having these.....now its the 6 x 8w cfls on the fancy lamps that do the 5-6 hr evening duty...its a little more than a tubelight in terms of operational cost, but a lot more prettier!

look for these in any store and get them for your fancy lamps asap.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

So i got to test this out in a different shop and the guy had a Phillips CFL, so i asked him about the warranty, he did as you said, marked the date on the bulb and said so long as it was not broken he would replace it within 6 months of the purchase date. He took very little off the MRP. Now whether he'd have the same in stock if i did call him out on this is another question entirely, i hope i do not have to, 23W warm daylight is harder to replace than the cool day light ones.

Went to another shop, this guy has no Phillips but he has Havell's and refuses to do the same. So when i asked about it he said it was only for foreign brands like Phillips made in China, so i showed him the Phillips i bought that was clearly indian made

He then says the warranty is offered by the shop only and not the vendor, well its clear some shops stock brands that do no offer any warranty. Less hassle for them this way. Havells is about 10% cheaper.

Thats strange, always got 1 year warranty (tried it 2-3 times) with CFLs in Delhi and I have purchased 3-4 brands till now!

 

[blr_p]

My state wants to ban incandescent light bulbs

All homes may have to switch on CFLs from Jan 1
Bangalore,October 1, DHNS:

The power-starved State Government has decided to do away with the use of traditional incandescent light bulbs and get even households to completely switch over to energy-efficient CFL and LED bulbs by January 1, 2011.

To aggressively promote use of CFLs and LED bulbs among power consumers, the State government plans to use new ‘Belaku’ scheme with the Centre’s Bachat Lamp Yojana for near-total energy efficiency. The ‘Belaku’ will be launched by Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa on October 2 by handing over these bulbs to slumdwellers in Gulbarga city.

The scheme was put together to pull out Karnataka from a severe power crunch of 1,000 MW, leading the State to borrow power at Rs 350 crore per month. It had earlier banned use of traditional lamps in government offices, and now is contemplating extending the ban to households and other power consumers.

“If possible, a complete ban will be imposed from January 1, 2011,” State Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje told reporters on Friday.

‘Not an easy task’

However, according to BESCOM Managing Director Yushar Girinath, the State does not have powers to ban people from using the light bulbs of their choice, so imposing such a ban would not be easily possible.

As per the Belaku scheme, the ESCOMs will shortly start distributing four energy-efficient light bulbs to every household in the State at highly-subsidised rates of Rs 15 per bulb. Such bulbs would also be made available at all fair price shops at Rs 80 to Rs 90 each, Karandlaje said.

Authorised private companies would visit every household to replace the incandescent bulbs with either CFLs or LED light bulbs, she said. People would be made aware that by using CFLs and LED bulbs, monthly electricity bills could be cut down by nearly 25 per cent. And for the State, this meant up to 400 MW of power saved.

Going by the scheme, the BESCOM has already invited tenders from firms for the supply of CFLs and LED bulbs to Bangalore urban, Kolar and Bangalore rural districts. The distribution will begin shortly.

The State government would also make use of the services of the 50 firms identified by the Centre under its Bachat Lamp Yojana.

Certificates would also be collected from power consumers about their switch-over to the energy-efficient bulbs, for which they would be given carbon credits, Girinath said.

I think this is complete extortion of the taxpayer

Why else is a ban required then ? There is no kickback otherwise.

Govt thinks we are not to be trusted when it comes to electricity consumption. If you consume more then you pay more, for electricity, PERIOD. You are not stealing anything from someone else.

If these CFL's were worth it they would have flown off the shelves. So now they will be heavily subsidised at our expense and the choice to the consumer will be removed.

 

[6pack]

^ but think of it this way. A rich person could hog all the power he wants by turning on two three ac's etc, and get away with it saying he pays the high electricity rates and you cant do anything to stop him. If such people were there a thousand fold then can you tell what the power situation would be? The state would have no option than to resort to load shedding making people even angrier after paying increased rates which in turn making them use even more power when its available.

This is what is happening in Maharashtra. Look at mumbai and the extended suburbs surrounding it. Mumbai has 24 hrs continuous supply with it being a business capital. But look at the consumption of power there. All the new buildings, companies, etc get ac's and what not. Malls are centrally airconditioned. You wouldn't believe the state is having a power shortage if you lived for a year there.

Go to the extended suburbs outside mumbai which is just half hour from the city limits and you see 4-6 hours of load shedding every day. Its even worse in the villages where i think its about 12 hours a day. The people who live here complain mumbai hogs all the power, and the people who live in the city say they deserve it. Can you justify any side here?

Some people living here and having their native places in other states say the situation is much different. Example, people living here and being a native of gujarat say that whenever they go back to their native place, they don't experience power cuts at the rate they experience here. They say its just 1-2 hours compared to the 4-6 here.

 

[blr_p]

^ but think of it this way. A rich person could hog all the power he wants by turning on two three ac's etc, and get away with it saying he pays the high electricity rates and you cant do anything to stop him. If such people were there a thousand fold then can you tell what the power situation would be? The state would have no option than to resort to load shedding making people even angrier after paying increased rates which in turn making them use even more power when its available.

I don't buy this argument because it is patently anti-growth.

What the govt is saying in no uncertain terms is we cannot grow anymore as we do not have the capacity to generate the electricity this growth requires.

Stop blaming the rich, start generating more electricity !

How is it that other states have surplus to sell us. Evidently they have had more success in keeping up with their growth.

This is what is happening in Maharashtra. Look at mumbai and the extended suburbs surrounding it. Mumbai has 24 hrs continuous supply with it being a business capital. But look at the consumption of power there. All the new buildings, companies, etc get ac's and what not. Malls are centrally airconditioned. You wouldn't believe the state is having a power shortage if you lived for a year there.

Because they pay their bills and consume the most. They are subsidising all the pilfering that happens elsewhere.

Go to the extended suburbs outside mumbai which is just half hour from the city limits and you see 4-6 hours of load shedding every day. Its even worse in the villages where i think its about 12 hours a day. The people who live here complain mumbai hogs all the power, and the people who live in the city say they deserve it. Can you justify any side here?

Lack of sufficient generating capacity. I'm actually surprised to hear this happens in Maha, as i always thought it was 'first world' state.

Some people living here and having their native places in other states say the situation is much different. Example, people living here and being a native of gujarat say that whenever they go back to their native place, they don't experience power cuts at the rate they experience here. They say its just 1-2 hours compared to the 4-6 here.

Then we need to learn from Gujarat.

They are literally the only 'shining light' in this country.

 

[6pack]

^ Then load shedding should be banned. Why should a percentage of people suffer when a small percentage reap the rewards? Dont we poor people pay our bills? Why should we not get 24 hours supply. Staying outside mumbai, I am ready to pay the rates mumbai people pay (which is about 50 paise less than the rates i'm paying) for 24 hours supply. But i do not have an option here.

Can you tell me why i'm paying more and still get power cuts everyday?

 

[blr_p]

Dont we poor people pay our bills? Why should we not get 24 hours supply. Staying outside mumbai, I am ready to pay the rates mumbai people pay (which is about 50 paise less than the rates i'm paying) for 24 hours supply. But i do not have an option here.
Can you tell me why i'm paying more and still get power cuts everyday?

This very valid question has to be directed at the govt, because forcing ppl to use CFL's isn't going to solve the problem, it will just buy little more time. How much longer is dependent on the growth rate. What do we do when we reach that point ?

Why not tackle the problem head on ? Build more power plants. What is the problem here.

 

[adder]

Well i am in for the move i alone cut my power consumption by more then 600watt by going into CFL ,energy saved is energy saved.Thats enough for a house or hut in a village to lit there bulb or watch tv in their 14" tv or put on a fan.

Build more power plants,how many will you build.I don't want a power plant or a nuclear power plant near my house.Its just add more pollution.