Over the years I have replaced many, many failed lamps, be those LED, Fluorescent, Compact Fluorescent, Halogen inside a conventional bulb, or just plain and simple incandescent types. So much so that I feel as though it counted as a second job, for which I was not monetarily compensated.

I am currently phasing out my stock of compact fluorescents as they are usually too large to replace bulbs in most fittings. When they were first introduced to "save the world," around 1990, our local council (Brunswick) were subsidising the cost of them, (still $18.00 each).
Well they had their own problems. None ever achieved the claimed life figures, which I believe to be complete and utter fantasy. The light output was low, some took several minutes to achieve full brightness, and their colour output was different from lamp to lamp.
Always try to find out the colour of the lamp before you buy. I try buy only lamps with the colour temperature of 6500K.

Now those 12 volt 50 watt halogen down lamps are going extinct, good riddance to them. They were extremely in-efficient, most of the energy radiated as heat and not as light.

Now, the latest chapter, L.E.D. lamps. Very cheap, but ever so ever un-reliable. Or as explained to me. It's not the l.e.d.'s, it's the drivers!
A couple of months ago, had to replace one of the two lamps in an art-decor lamp that I have in my lounge room. I determined the colour temperature as best as I could, and the light output, and fitted a new led lamp. The match was quite good, but the lamp lasted less than two months. One of he two electrolytic capacitors inside the base was open circuit.

I must go now. I have to buy more led lamps. I have a ceiling lamp in the lounge room that is faulty, and one in my workshop that is not working. Then there is the light switch insert in the bathroom that sometimes sticks and needs replacement. I guess that my second job is secure for now.

The perils of modern technology and effort that went into things that are designed to fail within a short time.

I'm using a combination of Incandescent bulbs, Flourescent tubes, and a couple of Compact Flourescent types.

The least reliable, not surprisingly, is the most modern, ie, the Compact Flourescent.

The humble Incandescent, that cost about $1 each, seem to last forever... at least none of mine have blown in at least 10 years, and I have a cache of them to see me out.

Flourescent Tubes have always been long-lasting. I've replaced the 15w type from my 70s-style desk lamp a few times, but the longer ones just keep going. The power-correction capacitors are just as likely to die as the other bits. I had one starting to short out, so I simply disconnected it. It's only there to make you pay more for the electricity.

My first Compact Flouro was in an enclosed glass shade, in a steamy bathroom, and only lasted a week. A second one lasted a month. So, back to an incandescent, which many years later, is still there. It seems the Compact Flouro prefers the open air, where it can stay cool. The 2 I have in that situation have lasted quite a while.

In all, my recent experience with bulbs has been good. 10 years per bulb is quite acceptable.

In respect of CFL's environment is actually a key factor. I have one on the motor circuit of a pump that is currently 500metres from the house but at one stage a kilometer away. That way one can tell if its motor is on from the distance. The globes are in an enclosure & the current CFL has got to be over 10. Unless there is a line, or switch fail that globe is only cycling on & off on demand.

There is another in an Insect zapper. I got sick of it blowing its UV tubes nearly seasonally & nobbled it. currently it has its first LED globe. The CFl's tended to last 8 to 10,000hrs, with it hanging under a verandah. I dated the tubes & it was on a timer so that was fairly accurate.

Flashovers were common as were envelope failures. I considered its own transformer & ballast with the constant sparking to also be dear enemy. The addition of line caps & MOV's seem to have solved that.

The Rugged construction incandescent type usually lasted decades. I do wonder at cheapness and their recycling vs the environmental impact of making a CFL?

I often wonder at the intelligence of the people in our governments.
To make out that a plain light bulb was the most evil thing in the world that had to be eliminated to save ourselves from some boogyman that was never specified. This is the problem when highly educated people meddle in things they don't understand, in reality they are children who can be conned easily. To convince the politicians to replace a device that had a bit of glass, a bit of tin and a tiny bit of toxic metal with a device full of toxic elements was the most beautiful con I have ever seen. And while all the hoo haa was going on about the evil deadly light globe, the type of light, the fluorescent tube that IS full of deadly stuff never got a mention!! That just demonstates how stupid most people are and the more educated the more stupid they are!
Common sense tells you that if a product like the light bulb was so bad and so expensive to make the manufactuers would just drop it and make something simpler and cheaper. The height of stupidity was that it was illegal to sell a simple light bulb and the globe police would arrest you or fine you if you did, but it was legal to sell exactly the same shape glass globe and base but with a halogen filament lamp mounted inside! And now they make bulbs with expensive electronics in them and that's ok as well. Conned rotten.
Anyway, we went through all this before, Like a lot of you I have a 20 year old box of climate killer bulbs I bought from woolies and every couple of years replace a bulb, or, every now and then replace a fluro tube from Bunnings and that's it. We don't have any other type of lamp. In my workshop I have the same big fluro tubes bought back in the 1970's, the big diameter ones that will last 100 years probably.
Fred.

It is also a fact that by using glass as an insulator, there is pretty much nothing in an incandescent globe that is not recyclable.

Can we say that for devices with lots of parts that have to be manufactured by lots of machines and put together by other machines with great infrastructure cost, reflected in the price, there is less environmental cost... I think not.

We also have a RFI issue with anything with a switch mode PSU and anything with inductive loading is dirty. A globe is a clean predictable resistive load.

One shed here has still got one unit with twin 85 Watt tubes. Tube length 7ft 9 7/16"

8 foot fluoro tubes were once more commonplace than many realise. They were most commonly used in large poletop signs that service stations had. Also used a lot on factories, hospitals and shopping malls. Don't expect to replace them though. 6 and 8 footers haven't been made for a few years now.

This thread has put a hex on me! My Philips 60 watt just blew in spectacular fashion as I switched it on. My cupboard of incandescents, filled up from Woolworths when they were selling down their stock years ago at 30 cents per bulb, is slowly running out.

I had two compact fluoro lights, of the type with the replaceable tube plugged into the electronics, installed 16 years ago. One of these burnt out a tube and then its electronics after a couple of years; the other (identical) is still working with its original tube. Just as well as it is 15 foot up.

I didn't have any more of these installed after initial failures. Perhaps I was wrong as it could be that long life can be attained with certain types of compact fluoros.

I remember when 'compact' fluoros came out. They weren't compact by any means and weighed about 2kg each because the fluoro tube was housed in a frosted glass container and the base had an iron-core ballast in it. These were made by Philips and typically had a twenty year lifespan. They cost about $40 each back in the late 1980s - a lot of money back then. Probably just on half a day's wages for most people. One thing that the happy owner did get was value for money.

My tactic in the sheds was to salvage the cover & then mount the std double 4ft or a 4 & 2ft in side it & that sent most of the light down.

Now day's that would be a LED one. The 43 or so Watt LED actually puts out more light than 2 x 38 watt (Checked with light meter).

Compact flourescent bulbs are a mixed bag. The two original ones I bought back in the early '90s lasted a long time (~20 years) although I did actually repair the electronics a couple of times. Made in Australia! Most of the recent ones I have bought are quite good and I get years out of them. The two original LED bulbs I bought from Altronics were complete rubbish but I have kept them because the LEDs themselves are good. The more recent LED bulbs I have bought seem to be good. As said, it's the electronics, not the LEDs. No reason why LED bulbs shouldn't last 10s of 1000s of hours with decent electronics. If I get a bulb that fails prematurely I take it back and get a replacement or my money back! I've no doubt that I would have saved hundreds of dollars over the decades by using CFLs and LEDs. Incandescents are dead in my view.

Cheers.

An old friend and fellow tech. once lamented that "valves were dead!"

Yet, today we see them back in production, more expensive, and crappier than the originals.

As nothing surprises me anymore, I expect incadescents to reappear. Market forces will dictate.

Oh, and yes, they will be more expensive and crappier than the originals.

Incandescent lamps (the standard ones) won't be back because there is a manufacturing and import embargo on them. In the few years leading up to their ban they were indeed less reliable than they once were because they were all imported once the factory in Newcastle closed down.

LED globes and modules are the future. A comment made above is one I intend to clarify on. Where I work, I am in the middle of replacing previous generation LED downlights with better models that are brighter, but at the same time more pleasing on the eye. The weak point in any LED globe is the driver. The LED itself is bulletproof, even the cheap Asian ones. The driver cops the spikes and surges of today's crap electricity supply and its electronics are not designed to handle the variations. So whilst the LED can indeed last for 50,000 hours, the drivers sometimes cannot.

When we do our backup generator test each Christmas, I usually follow that up by counting how many LED fittings and halogens with electronic transformers require replacement.

The LED itself is bulletproof, even the cheap Asian ones

Disagree with that. For a friend, I have recently shorted out a pair of dead LEDs on a downlight comprising 2 rings of 11 LEDs (total 22) because they were causing the lamp to flash on and off. Saved a replacement cost of $15 RRP for the fitting.

Closest similar image I can find is this one:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61gu8jEMugL._SL1164_.jpg

That fitting is rated at mains voltage and has the driver on the LED module. There's very little in the way of a driver because all the components you see there serve as voltage dropping components. LED 'fluoro' tubes are wired up the same way.

A standard downlight has only the LED module inside the 'head' and the driver in a separate package that lowers 240v down to 12v. These drivers have more electronics in them which are quite prone to failure and it is very noticeable in buildings where there are hundreds of them installed.

I've had a lot of good luck with LED globes with the standard BC caps too. Those installed in my flat at all at least three years old and the SES cap one in the fridge is coming up to two years old. Apart from the fridge globe, all at 8W 3000K globes from Aldi and put out heaps of light. I must admit I am quite impressed.