I've bought this GE/Jasco 55w 2D fluorescent fixture. The fixture is not as
advertised because the package states "five 60w bulbs" is incorrect. The
dome is too thickly frosted to achieve that claimed light output. Whoever
designed this fixture must have went by the raw lumen output of the
fluorescent tube, and probably never tested the actual fixture with the dome
in place. I've contacted GE, but they say "contact Jasco". So I contact
Jasco. Either the person responding to my email doesn't understand this, or
they don't care. In short, Jasco says: "We can't make the bulb brighter, so
just bring it back." ???? So of course I try to explain it to them again,
not the BULB but the DOME is the problem. Either make the dome less thickly
frosted, and/or at least fix the wattage claim on the box. I like the
fixture, except the lower than claimed output is a little disappointing.
This is a common complaint of compact fluorescents.
I would take light output claims exceeding that of known
available incandescnts (including incandeascents with rated life as low
as 750 hours) of as low as 2.5 times the claimed power consumption with
skepticism in addition to at least a grain of salt, and claims of
producing more light than an incandescent of about 3.5-4 times the claimed
power consumption with at best "hostile skepticism".
Producing same light as an incandescent of 1/4 the claimed power
consumption is easier, due to a few various "economies of scale" that
favor higher efficiency of higher wattage lightbulbs. However, even good
brand/model compact fluorescents in good conditions only produce about as
much light as better incandescents of 4 times their nominal wattage.
For example, I have found the best 13-15 watt compact fluorescents
generally to fail to significantly outshine the brightest 120V 60 watt
incandescents, and I have found them more noted to fall short of "60 watt
incandescent equivalence" than to exceed such. You may sometimes need a
compact fluorescent of wattage in the 18-20 watt range to produce as much
effectively usable light as a 60 watt incandescent, and in more extreme
adverse cases require 23-25 watts of compact fluorescent wattage to get
you as much useful light as a 60 watt incandeascent.
And beware - recessed ceiling fixtures are a bad case, harder on
"screw-in" (ballast-included-in-"bulb") compact fluorescents of wattage
more than 20 watts, and ones as low as 15 watts get to claim something
special about being rated to survive the heat endured in recessewd ceiling
fixtures. (HINT: Compact fluorescents do not produce much infrared,
produce more non-radiant heat [materializing in the fixture as opposed to
elsewhere in the room] than incandescents of same wattage, heat up
fixtures as much as incandescents of about 1.5 or more times as much
wattage, and tolerate high tem,peratures less than incandescents do!)
Not only do ceiling fixtures, especially recessed ones, as well as small
enloclosed fixtures compromise the life of many compact fluorescents and
most of ones of wattage over about 13-15 watts and probably nearly all of
wattage over 20 watts, this can compromise light output, color of the
emitted light, and color rendering properties of the emitted light.
In a somewhat bad case, I have seen an installation (visiting many
dozens of times night and day) of apparently 13 watt quadtube units in
recessed ceiling downlights where the light output of each I have never
estimated to significantly exceed that available from 40 watt "standard"
incandescents.
I do encourage usage of compact fluorescents, but I do warn that they
have some "pitfalls"!
- Don Klipstein (
[email protected],
http://www.misty.com/~don/cfx.html)