What to do with a bunch of used light bulbs?

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pieman7

Member
Mar 5, 2004
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"CF" as in Compact Fluorescent, not Compact Flash!

My local power utility is having a rebate offer for CF bulbs, so I bought a boatload because they were essentailly free after rebate. Now that almost every incandescent bulb in my house has been replaced, I have a bunch of working, but used light bulbs taking up space. I don't want to throw them out, being that they still work. Does anyone know of any charitable organizations that might accept used light bulbs? My church is also using nothing but CF bulbs anymore, so they have no use for them.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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Shelly21

Diamond Member
May 28, 2002
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I loaded up when IKEA had a sale of those fluorescent "bulb" (3 for 2.95 instead of 5.95).
 
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techfuzz

Diamond Member
Feb 11, 2001
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Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
Your local chapter of Habitat for Humanity might be able to use them.
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My thought too. Also, any organization surviving strictly off donations would glady accept things like that.

techfuzz
 
clamum

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
26,256
406
126
Make a bunch of vaporizers for smoking herb or crack out of and give them to your friends.
 
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arcas

Platinum Member
Apr 10, 2001
2,155
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You can attach a high frequency power supply to an incandescent light and turn it into a lightning globe.
 
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randomlinh

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,846
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linh.wordpress.com
all the compact florecent bulbs I've seen are still larger than normal bulbs... it just doesn't seem possible (in other words cost effective) to make. The smallest things from ikea still poke out too much from some of their own lamps. That and they take too damn long to warm up :p
 
Kelemvor

Kelemvor

Lifer
May 23, 2002
16,928
8
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I love CF lights but all the ones I've ever used had to "Warm Up" before they put out much light. Do they all still do that? The style I have are a spiral kind that look like this: cf.gif. I can actually sit there and watch the light move slowly up the tubes until it gets to the top. Takes a good 30-60 seconds or so.

If they would just come on when I flipped the switch, I'd use them a lot more places in my house. But maybe they are just old and outdated.
 
0roo0roo

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
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no warm up these days. that was years ago. or really shoddy ones. my oldest panasonic bulbs.. yes..panasonic ...those warmed over atleast a minute. all the ikea bulbs i've ever bought are almost instant on though. just keep normal bulbs around..good in a bind i guess. but yea i guess you can donate em. i love cf's, most of my house uses em, cept for those damn dimmer switch lights and bathrooms which use the ge reveal lights. like using a few low wattage cf's to light a room instead of a single overhead:)
 
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pieman7

Member
Mar 5, 2004
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Originally posted by: lnguyen
all the compact florecent bulbs I've seen are still larger than normal bulbs... it just doesn't seem possible (in other words cost effective) to make. The smallest things from ikea still poke out too much from some of their own lamps. That and they take too damn long to warm up :p
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gistech1978

Diamond Member
Aug 30, 2002
5,047
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Originally posted by: Amused
I hate the color of fluorescent light.
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yeah, but i love the sound they make.
they hum like angels.
youre never alone when you have a fluorescent light!
 
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Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Originally posted by: Amused
I hate the color of fluorescent light.
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:confused:

You can get different color temperatures. In general, fluorescent light is much closer to normal white daylight than anything else, especially regular lightbulbs.

As for the warmup thing, it still takes a bit, but it is largely unnoticable. The energy savings are worth a few seconds of "warmup" time. However, they have gotten a lot better with the "instant on" part.

It simply takes a bit for the mercury bead to ionize....

If you tip the bulb so you can see the bead of mercury.. you can flick the bulb with your finger and make the mercury bounce around, and it will instantly get brighter each time you do it .. until it's at capacity. Kinda neat. :D
 
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pieman7

Member
Mar 5, 2004
101
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Originally posted by: lnguyen
all the compact florecent bulbs I've seen are still larger than normal bulbs... it just doesn't seem possible (in other words cost effective) to make. The smallest things from ikea still poke out too much from some of their own lamps. That and they take too damn long to warm up :p
Click to expand...

Oooops, got trigger happy with the reply button....

The CF bulbs I bought have come a long way as far as size, brightness, lack of flicker, startup time, and price:

Size: The 60Watt replacement bulbs I got at Home Depot (I can't remember the brand name) are the same length as regular 60W bulbs. They are also about the same width, except near the base. I've been able to fit them in all my fixtures where previous CFs did not fit. The 100W replacements were slightly larger, but I was still able to fit them in their respective fitures with room to spare.

Brightness: I expected them to be dimmer than the incandescents, but they turned out to be noticably BRIGHTER! I couldn't believe it, especially when they use only 14Watts (replacing the 60W) and 26W (replacing the 100W). The package says that they emit about 900 lumens for the 14W, and 1700 lumens for the 26W. Not sure how many lumens the incandescents emitted, but it HAD to be less.

Flicker: There is a slight flicker when first turned on, but then it goes away quickly. After that, no noticable flicker at all, unlike my under-the-cabinet fluorescents in the kitchen.

Startup time: It's true that they startup a little slower than incandescents, but it takes less than a second for the CFs to start emitting light. They acheive their total brightness in under a minute. Even within that minute of warmup, the light is enough to see by. Considering the price and energy savings, I can easily live with that small inconvenience.

Price: Home Depot had the 14W (60W) 4-packs for $7.50. The power utility offered a $2 rebate for each bulb (but not exceeding the cost of the bulb), so those were essentially free except for the sales tax. Sam's Club had 26W (100W) 5-packs for $14.50. Worked out to $.90 each bulb after the rebate. How can you beat that?
 
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Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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100W incandescent bulbs put out around 1600 lumens, so yes.. they are very comparable.
 
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pieman7

Member
Mar 5, 2004
101
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0
Originally posted by: Jzero
You've got a microwave, right? Use it!
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...but doesn't that damage the microwave (not resulting from the explosion/implosion, but rather the microwave emitters)?
 
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Jzero

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
18,834
1
0
Originally posted by: pieman7
Originally posted by: Jzero
You've got a microwave, right? Use it!
Click to expand...

...but doesn't that damage the microwave (not resulting from the explosion/implosion, but rather the microwave emitters)?
Click to expand...

Your neighbor has a microwave, right? Use it!
 
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pieman7

Member
Mar 5, 2004
101
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0
Originally posted by: FoBoT
Originally posted by: dman
Sell them on Ebay as EZBake Oven Burner Replacement Units.
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ebay them
just keep the shipping charges under $5 and you should make some $
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I think I can get more out of them by donating them and writing them off from this year's taxes.
 
OrganizedChaos

OrganizedChaos

Diamond Member
Apr 21, 2002
4,524
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save them for use in a droplight. the bulbs are gunna break every time you drop the thing anyway.
 
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