I haven't traded with them, but 1000bulbs.com seem to have a pretty substantial catalog of dimmables at reasonable prices.

Color temperature is a bit confusing in that the higher the color temperature, the cooler the light. For what most people would call a warm color, look for color temperatures of 3000K or less.

The most common CT for compact fluorescents is 2700K. For comparison, most incandescents are in the 2700K-2900K range, depending on wattage. Halogen incandescents are a bit higher.

Daylight fluorescents are usually 5600K or 6500K. These are very icy and bluish. "Cool white," the ubiquitous dreary color of office fluorescents and generic hardware store replacements, is typically 4100K.

1000bulbs.com and imagineenergy.net are the cheapest I have used. They both carry Greenlite dimmable CFLs in a number of sizes. Dimmable CFLs are still few and far between from other manufacturers.

After reading Dallasbill's comments I did a little exploring at 1000bulbs.com and noticed that they're offering Litetronics 8 watt cold cathode CF retrofit lamps. They have clear and white in stock.

They claim 60 watt incandescent equivalence for the clear model, but that has to be an error. Initial lumens are claimed as 320, which is equivalent to about half that wattage in incandescent (roughly 30 watts), about the same 4:1 ratio as conventional CFs. That's an unimpressive efficacy of 40 lumens/Watt, btw. But you can flash them, in case you have in mind making a marquee on your front porch. ;-)

For the white-envelope version they claim 320 lumens in one place and 460 in another. (The Litetronics website says 320 lumens.) For this one they claim 40 watt incandescent equivalence. That's still overly optimistic; a 40 watt incandescent produces about 500 lumens.

The questionable claims of incandescent equivalence aside, has anyone experience with these CFs? How's the build quality? Typical Chinese stamp-em-out? Better? Worse?

Do they live up to their claim of an 18,000 hour average lifetime?

The color temperature 1000bulbs offers is quite low, 2250K, not all that much higher than sunlight at sunset (2000K). Is it that annoying chrome-yellow tint that some of the early Lights of America CFs had, or a more reddish color? How do you like it?

I see from the Litetronics website that they also make a 2850K version of these CFs, with slightly lower lumen output, but I don't know who offers it.

Just wondering if anybody has used these pups, and how they've worked out for you. They're not that pricey at all for an 18,000 hour lamp.

RE: Typical Chinese stamp-em-out?

To the best of my knowledge, all spiral CFLs are made in China. Spirals are still a partially handmade, labor-intensive practice.

The only ones I buy are Greenlite for dimmable, and GE for fixed or 50-100-150 equiv. No idea about those others.

CFL lamps work best when they are upright or horizontal. Installing them in recessed fixtures so that they are pointing down reduces their life and unless the fixture is designed for them the light level is also often reduced. It's not just about the lamp (bulb).

Let's clarify those remarks, because it's a bit of a sweeping generalization.

Due to the position of CFL bulbs in recessed fixtures, the ballast runs hotter than in most other applications. This may shorten the life of the CFL bulb and/or reduce the amount of light output over time. Key word being may. The average CFL bulb life will still last longer than standard reflector bulbs.

See CFL FAQ here.

If you want the new R-CFL rated floods for enclosures, you can find the latest manuf. list here.

And FWIW, we have had no issues for the past year with our Greenlite R40 floods in sealed ceiling cans. Nor with the GE's in the downward pointing bathroom sconces.

sorry to hijack this thread a little but its great to know that you can get CFLs to work with dimmers, this was one reason I was leaning towards a mix of LV and incandescent recessed... One qu can an incandescent recessed housing be fitted with a CFL bulb or are they incompatible?

Although I love the idea of CFLs but am a little scared to use them if they need a special housing and I can not swap back to incandescents with ease.

If, by recessed, you mean like a ceiling can, then the answer is yes. That's what all our floods are in.

> can an incandescent recessed housing be fitted with
> a CFL bulb ...

If the CF will physically fit into the recessed can, you should be fine. Most these days will. The fully enclosed R floods look nicer but ordinary helical or tri-tube types are cheaper and entirely satisfactory.

A friend of mine now has nothing in her kitchen recessed cans but helical CFs. (She also had the electrician come back after the house was built to install a real fluorescent light in the kitchen, because the cans caused so much glare and shadow. But that's another issue.)