[Red Badger]

I have bought these crappy bulbs fro several sources, Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Big Lots, et al. They are all crap!

My ceiling fans eat those things! I have six in the house and each has 3 -4 of those bulbs. They die in less than a year. When it gets cold, the porch light and the shed light comes on dim and stays dim until it warms up in about 5 minutes or they don’t come on at all.

And another thing I have noticed, when a circuit that has several of them on it is turned on, the motion detector lights outside the house will suddenly come on! Must be some kind of electromagnetic spike on the line that triggers them!................

[ArrogantBustard]

1) Read what I have written very carefully. I speak the truth.

2) I see a need to place proper emphasis on your statements, so that you understand where you're going wrong.

"My ceiling fans eat those things!"

"I have six in the house and each has 3 -4 of those bulbs."

I don't doubt the truth of either of those statements.

However, to to assert that your experience, in your house is in any way predictive of what everyone else will experience is ridiculous.

My experience with them is entirely positive. None have burned out. All provide equivalent light to similarly rated Edison bulbs in the same room on the same circuit. All provide full light within about 10 seconds.

I would be wrong (as you are wrong) to generalize my experience.

If I were still teaching high school physics, I would use this conversation to illustrate the utter fatuity of extrapolation from a single data point.

[Cheburashka]

My ceiling fans eat those things! I have six in the house and each has 3 -4 of those bulbs. They die in less than a year.

---

CFL’s have electronic circuitry in them, like computers. I bet the light fixtures in the ceiling fans are hooked up to the motors, and the motors surge when you turn them on and off, and are zapping the electronics in the lights. Just like power surges zap your computer if you don't have a surge protector. (You do have a surge protector on your computer, right? If not, shame on you and get one this weekend. Actually a battery backup would be better.) Eventually they just give up the ghost.

Solution: in the short run, don't fight it, just stop using CFL’s in the ceiling fans. When you are looking to replace the ceiling fans talk to the salesman about this issue, see if they've redesigned the fans so the motor and the lights aren't on the same circuit. In fact there's no reason you can't just drop by this weekend and talk to someone at the store nearby that sells ceiling fans and see what they have to say. They might have a better idea than I do.