GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

A few Watt-hours here, a few Watt-hours there and pretty soon you have supplied a_BEV or_PHEV without a single new power plant being built.

Wayne Gerdes - CleanMPG - May 4, 2012

Hybrid Halogen-CFL Light Bulb - The halogen capsule inside GE’s new hybrid halogen-CFL bulb comes on instantly.

Consumers considering the latest hybrid can soon look inside their local car dealership. GE Lighting has released their hybrid technology to the lighting aisle in the form of a unique, new incandescent-shaped light bulb that combines the instant brightness of halogen technology with the energy efficiency and longer rated life of compact fluorescent (CFL) technology. Or their nearest home hardware store shelves for their very own Hybrid “Bright From The Start” super bulb.

GE’s Energy Smart “Bright from the Start” bulb is the nation’s first hybrid CFL light bulb to officially receive the DOEs ENERGY STAR qualification. This innovative hybrid bulb combines the best features of an incandescent, CFL and halogen bulb into a single, compatible bulb ready for your nearest socket. The result is an instant-on technology that uses 75 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb and lasts eight times longer.

In a prepared statement, Jeff Patton, GM of Consumer Marketing for GE Lighting said the following:
GE engineers carefully crafted the bulb to eliminate the delayed start associated with the CFL bulb. They discovered a solution by nestling an instantly bright halogen capsule inside the swirl of a compact fluorescent light bulb. The halogen element comes on instantly and turns off once the CFL comes to full brightness, thus preserving the energy efficiency of the bulb. It’s also housed in the incandescent-shaped shell consumers are used to and has an extremely low amount of mercury: 1 mg. CFLs typically contain 1.5 mg to 3.5 mg of mercury.

When comparing the 15W hybrid halogen-CFL with a light output of 800 lumens to the standard 60W incandescent with 840 lumens, consumers will see an energy savings of $39 over the life of the bulb (seven years at 3 hours of usage per day).

Available in both Soft White and GE Reveal styles, the GE Energy Smart “Bright From The Start” 15- and 20-watt bulbs are meant to replace 60- and 75-watt incandescent bulbs. Retailers set prices, but customers could expect to pay $5.99-$9.99 based on product line and wattage.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

I like that they addressed one complaint about CFLs, but that seems like a lot of extra effort to avoid simply waiting 60 seconds.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Personally I like the slow start of CFL's. Especially in the bedroom and the bathroom. Bright light hurts my eyes when I first get up. I like how they slowly get brighter over a minute so my eyes have time to adjust.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Seems to be an improved buggy whip.
Lifetime is also a concern with a halogen heating up a CFL.

LED's already address this concern. With much bigger saving and no mercury.


Come On GE.
Give us a set of good LED replacements for conventional bulbs.

Smell the ozone.
It's your market share burning away.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

60 seconds?, at what temperature?.. all your fluorescents take that long?

No wonder everyone moves to Florida!

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Some of the compact bulbs do take a minute to get fully bright. I also like that feature, especially in the bathroom.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Like southerncannuck said I like the one minute warm up time. For some strange reason in my one bathroom it is the opposite. They start out bright then drop down to their normal operating light range. All the same bulbs through out the house 13 watt GE's and the bathroom is the only place it happens. These new bulbs if they come down in price I would like to try two of them in my kitchen ceiling light. There is no way I'm paying more than $4 a piece for them.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Warm-up time is a problem on the basement stairs. Many trips down there are short enough that an incandescent's inefficiency wouldn't be a problem, but sometimes that light is on for hours at a time. A few years ago I would have purchased this bulb for the stairs application, but now I'm using LEDs.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Not a bad idea in theory, but the cost is going to kill it. I actually do something similar with my outside floods. I have 2 motion sensing fixtures, each with 2 flood bulbs. I have one halogen lamp, and 3 CFL's. The halogen (90W) gives instant light while the 3 CFL's(23W) come up to brightness. works well in the winter, when the CFL's take a few minutes to warm up.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

Herm, at low to mid 60°'s it takes about that. In Florida, the CFLs would be full of bugs and corroded from humidity ;)

I've never seen a CFL come in so dim that you couldn't see your way down stairs. It would have to be dimmer than a flashlight.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

The six 13 watt large globe cfl's in the light bar in our bathroom are terribly dim when turned on. I can't see enough to read the writing on a tube of tooth paste. The floods in our kitchen and porch come on dim, but it is enough to see what you are doing. The rest of the spirals and normal shaped in the house come on at about 90%.

I don't believe I would be interested in the new lamps with a halogen bulb inside. Changing the 9 floods in our kitchen from 75 watt halogen to 26 watt floods cooled the kitchen tremendously.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

To me, "Bright From The Start" technology looks like an expensive solution in search of a problem. I don't see the need. Many recent CFLs come on near enough to full brightness for most purposes. In locations where lights are normally needed for only brief periods, incandescents are likely to have lower overall cost. One could use LEDs in such places, but it might take them 40 years to pay for their initial cost

Perhaps simiar to those msirach mentions, my mother has some CFL flood lights that come on ridiculously dim for the first few minutes, which is very annoying. I assume those are obsolete, considering other CFL floods in her house come on near full brightness.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

I thought these were a great idea and bought a bunch at Target last year when they first came out. I don't have any installed anymore. I think GE cut corners on the integrated ballasts, because the CFL part of the bulb burned out on every single one I got within 6 months.

Instant on is great, but these CFLs still have the classic problem that all CFLs have: They aren't designed to be turned on and off a lot.

I'm a much bigger fan of the Philips 12W A-Lamp LED. That's what I replaced my GE bulbs with.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

I wouldn't go that far. I think it's just GE cutting corners. I have "Bright Effects" brand CFLs in my front lights, and they have been running for 4 years now in the worst possible conditions: outdoors, on a 7 minute motion sensor. They could turn on and off 10 times or more a night.
I should really put incandescents back in there, but those fixtures are a #$%@ to get into.

Now, ask me about my GE LED Christmas lights that went unforgivably dim after only 4 seasons...:mad:

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

I'm not surprised the life of these were short.
The only benefit of the halogen is a quick hot light. But CFL's are already known to have shortened life with frequent on/off, dimming or overheating the electronics.
If you wanted to mix bulbs. An LED bulb and a CFL bulb is better.
I have mixed bulbs in 2 fixtures. I get to use up the old CFL bulbs.
Best is just straight LED's.

I think this was designed as a cheaper solution to LED bulbs. It just is too late.
The market has changed already.

Re: GE’s “Bright From The Start” Hybrid Bulb Now ENERGY STAR Certified
 

The main gripe I hear about cfls is that they look funky when you turn them on. I tell people just quit buying them at walmart and buy a decent bulb from lowes. You get what you pay for with those things.