Light output

What we did

We tested 19 energy-saver bulbs:17 CFLs and two halogens.

Most of the CFLs were 20W bulbs, equivalent to a 100W standard bulb. Three were 18W. There was one 23W and one 22W bulb.

The CFLs were mainly spiral-tubes, along with one U-tube and two enclosed globes. The spiral shape has virtually taken over the general-purpose CFL market. It gives a more even distribution of light than the earlier U-tube style, which tends to spray most of the light sideways. The spiral shapes were the best performers in our test.

The two halogen bulbs were 42W bulbs, designed to replace 60W incandescent bulbs. Energy-saver halogens are nowhere near as efficient as a CFL. But they’re 30 percent better than a standard incandescent – and they can be used with a dimmer.

CFL performance

We compared two samples of each of the 17 CFLs against the averaged light output of seven 100W incandescents. This averaged “incandescent” figure formed our baseline; and the light output of the energy-saver bulbs is their relative performance against this baseline.

The CFL with the highest light output was the Woolworths Essential, which was 47 percent brighter than our baseline. Next-highest light output came from the Philips Tornado Warm White and the Philips Tornado Dimmable.

Eleven bulbs were brighter than the baseline and eight weren’t.

The worst performers were only 80 and 81 percent of the baseline: these were the Envirolux Create Light and the Edapt Mini Spiral B22 TWES20W.

CFLs that look like a traditional bulb are useful if the bulb is visible and you don’t like the look of the spirals. But both of the globe shapes in our test produced light below the baseline – so use them only for places where you want the look of a traditional bulb.

Two of the CFLs we tested can be used with dimmers: the Phillips Tornado Dimmable and the GE Dimmable Warm White. Both performed well and are recommended, but they aren’t cheap. The Philips cost $19.99 and the GE $25.92.

Halogen performance

We tested the two energy-saver halogens separately.

Because these halogens are meant to be equivalent to 60W incandescent bulbs, we compared them (using two samples of each model) against the averaged light output of two different 60W incandescents. Both halogens produced only about 75 percent of the light output of a standard 60W bulb. 

Long life

What we did

We put three samples of all the models through a test that switched them on for five minutes and off for five minutes continually. The bulbs were monitored so we could tell if and when they failed. Initially we reported on progress after 6454 cycles, but we didn't stop there. We finally switched off the rig after a full 10,000 cycles.

Performance

Ten models had no failures during the 6454 on-off cycles (and six of these get our recommendation). The extra 3546 cycles extracted their toll, with a further 9 bulbs failing. But the overall results were still impressive.  After the full 10,000 cycles there were 33 bulbs from the initial 57 still going.

Of our four recommended non-dimmable models, one Ecobulb failed at 9445 cycles and one Osram Minitwist Daylight at 9432 cycles. Of our two recommended dimmable models, two GE dimmable bulbs failed at 7457 and 9013 cycles.

We think failure at these sorts of figures is quite reasonable. If you turned a light on and off twice a day for 6 years, it would only come to 4380 switching cycles. These results don’t change our recommendations from the initial test.

Not so good
During the initial 6454 cycles, the Edapt, E-lite and Signature Range had all their samples fail.

There was some pattern to the failures. Generally, the more expensive big-name brands lasted longer than the lesser-known or home brands. But some big brands had their failures too – most notably one of the Philips and an Osram (see our test results). The lamps that failed just stopped working - there were no fires, explosions or other undesirable events.

On the whole, you can be confident that for the extra cost a good-quality CFL will repay you with a long life. Both the halogen energy-saver models lasted the full test distance.

Keeping bright

The light output from all fluorescent bulbs usually reduces over their lifetime.

To check this, we put the top three bulbs – the Philips Tornado, Ecobulb, and GE Entice – back into our light-output test rig at the end of the initial “long life” part of our test. We then compared their light output with the figures we’d obtained when they were new.

In all three cases the light output was within 10 percent of the original values. Not bad after 6454 switching cycles.