Customer Reviews
enlightening 
2008-06-25
I purchased several of these bulbs and so far we are more than pleased. They are not obnoxious in any way. They do take a little bit to warm up, but they are worth it.
Not Quite As Bright 
2008-02-09
I have 3 sunken light fixtures in the kitchen for spot illumination. I replaced a 50 watt incandescent flood light bulb with one of these. It does the job but does not provide as much light as the other.
Short Life Span 
2008-01-13
They don't outlast 8-10 incandescent bulbs as claimed. My experience they last about the same. I swapped out my entire house last summer, about 40 bulbs altogether, 5 are still working. So I'm back to using incandescents. I do recall ever replacing so many burned-out bulbs. I'm all for saving energy but more work on the technology needs to be done before I jump in again.
Very pleased; brighter than a 65-watt equivalent 
2008-01-02
Installed 10 of them as soon as they arrived. No problems so far after a week in use. There are a couple of things to note about this bulb that either isn't reflected in the product description or differs from my experience.
-- The box says the color temperature is, "soft white (2700K)". However, I found the color of the light to be a bright white -- perfect for task lighting. Also, I noticed a very slight variation in color of light among the 10 bulbs I installed. Though it's hardly a noticeable difference.
-- The bulb is slightly taller than the incandescent bulb it replaces (by about 8 mm). This causes the bulb to stick out of the recessed can a little more and potentially shine more light.
-- Though the description says it's equivalent to a 50-watt incandescent bulb, other sources say 15-watt CFLs are equivalent to 60 or 65-watt incandescent bulbs. In my case, these CFLs are a bit brighter than the 65-watt incandescent bulbs they replaced. (According to the box, the light output is 520 lumens.)
-- The product description also says this is an indoor/outdoor bulb. However the box says nothing about this. In fact, it cautions the user not to expose to moisture or water and that, "an enclosed fixture is required for outdoor use".
-- As other reviewers mentioned, they do take about a minute to get to 90% of full strength. Then another minute until fully bright.
Overall, I am quite satisfied with this Globe 15-watt R30 CFL bulb. Would have rated this bulb 5 stars if it could actually be used outdoors as I anticipated.
One died after 3 minutes 2007-04-12
I ordered two of these to replace the bulbs in our bathroom. One of the bulbs lit up only very dimly when it was turned on, and a few minutes later, went out completely, and smelled of burning plastic. I quickly removed the bulb from the socket and found that it was hot and had become discolored. The other bulb is still working.
The color of the light from the other one is more sterile (green/white)than the incandescent bulbs I replaced, perhaps a better choice for a kitchen than a bathroom.
great energy saving source 2007-03-31
It takes a minute or so for the lights to come to full power. It lights up the whole living room brightly. We love it!
They do the job, but they aren't as bright as regular bulbs 2007-03-29
Ok, we want to go green, and that may be a good thing, but one must remember that with going green there are some prices to pay. These bulbs do not shine as brightly as normal incandescent bulbs, but they do work. I will continue to use them, and hope that they will come up with a design that will be better than normal light bulbs.
1 in 20 failed quickly ... 
2007-03-02
I purchased 20 of these for my home. I've had them in for 2 weeks and I've had one fail already. I sincerely hope that the others last much, much longer than that. ** update: No more have failed in about 1 year of regular use. **
The quality of the light has been good. It is a very "white" light. The bulbs do take a noticeable amount of time to get going -- when they first go on they are quite dim -- they brighten gradually over 3 to 5 minutes. I don't mind this, its kind of nice actually.
Great for SOME applications 2006-11-20
This type lamp is available from several makers. Most are great at saving energy and money, and they last a long time -- IF the lamp is ON constantly for an hour or more at a time. As the ON cycle shrinks, so does the lamp life. I've found that when this type of lamp is used in a typical motion detector fixture with an ON cycle of 3-10 minutes, the lamp usually lasts less than a year regardless of brand. The ideal energy-saving lamp type for THAT sort of application is the LED array, but it's considerably more expensive to buy.
