Lumens

I didn't know there are slow lumens and fast lumens. You know the unit of measure to describe the light bulbs, or as defined, "SI unit flux, equal to the amount of light emitted per second in a unit solid angle of one steradian from a uniform source of one candela."

I wrote the entry about replacing my CFL bulbs with standard incandescent bulbs because the CFL weren't as bright, always took minutes to get up to full power, and the bulbs didn't last more than a year despite promise of years of life.

Well, the incandescent bulbs produce a lot of heat, which is great when it's cold in a small bathroom, but otherwise, it just generates heat. I love the instant on to full power, just not the heat, which is the, "I told you so." response.

So today I bought a 5-pack (4 for the light and a spare) of higher wattage, high power CFL bulbs, the largest which will fit inside the light fixture above the bathroom sink. And sure enough, they're the same, taking a few minutes to get up to full power.

Hence the slow and fast lumens. With CFL bulbs you have to turn them on and go get coffee. The incandescent bulbs were 1080 lumens which is instant. The CFL are 1250 lumens but clearly it takes while before they get up to power.

In the end I'm back to CFL bulbs until they prove to be a poor choice because for the price, $14 for 4 bulbs versus just $4 for 4 incandescent bulbs, and life of the bulbs which isn't a good record for the ones I've been given or bought.

I'm still not enamored with CFL bulbs and LED bulbs are too expensive, and I'm keeping the incandescent in the closet to be reinstalled whenever the CFL bulbs fail to be worth it.