To my southern US readers...

[pyat]

So, y'all are having a cold snap! Congratulations!

Question for you - have you noticed that all your CFL bulbs (especially outdoor ones) take forever to light up?

Welcome to winter in Canada! Switch on the light, wait forever to see anything...

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Either you have crappy bulbs or we have radically differing levels of patience. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Mm, no, I suspect you just don't have a porchlight, one or two poorly ducted rooms, or an unheated basement, like I do. CFL bulbs really do have greatly increased start up times in cold weather, and some even labelled with their minimum start up temperature. The basement ones typically take 20-30 seconds to get up to full brightness, and start out very dim indeed. The one on the porch can take 10 minutes on a cold night.

Still totally worth it, of course. I'm just wondering if it's something southern folk would have noticed before.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

You know, I should check if the floor lamp in our livingroom has a CFL bulb in it or not. I noticed the other day that it was dim and then later that it wasn't, and maybe that was what was happening and I just never noticed before.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I've found that CFLs take a bit to get to full brightness even in moderate temps. I've always kind of LIKED that, since I don't blind myself or walk around squinting when I first turn on the lights in the morning. By the time the lights are full-bright, my eyes are ready to cope.