Sylvania CF23EL Lighting in My Shop

I was getting a little concerned about the looming unavailability of 100W and greater incandescent bulbs as they will go out of manufacture in January 2012. I had tried some CFL bulbs and was very disappointed in their brightness. That was until I tried the Sylvania CF23EL micro mini.

This CF23EL bulb delivers 1630 lumens for 10k hours using 23W of power. It delivers uniform light compared to the Sylvania 150A21/CL/RP 2740 lumen, 750 hour 150W bulb that I've used in my shop for decades. The CF23EL bulb is a Bright White 3500K bulb suitable for visibility tasks such as reading and shop work.

The bulb cost is $4 compared to $2.50 for the 150W bulb. So you pay 38% more. But it lasts 13 times longer. So the real bulb cost is 1/8 the cost of incandescent bulbs. And that doesn't include the power usage savings of 85% that you'll save. Sylvania claims that you'll save $77 in electricity using the CF23EL over the bulb lifetime!

You'll notice the 40% loss of light but it will seem less. More like using a 100W incandescent, which makes sense as the CF23EL is sold as a 100W replacement bulb. The heat generated by the CF23EL is much less than a 150W which makes for a more comfortable work space.

The downside of the CF23EL is the warm up time to reach full brightness. It takes a couple of minutes for the bulb to reach full brightness.

I'm pleased with the CF23EL and am no longer putting incandescent 150W bulbs in a survival stash.