GE 78965 55-Watt 3860-Lumen General Purpose T5 Spiral CFL Bulb, Soft White

This light bulb is exceptionally bright. I would not put it anywhere where you might look at the bulb. So, maybe cover it with a shade or put it behind you or above and behind you if you use it in your office/den.

Item is GE 78965 CFL, 55-Watt, 3860 Lumen, Medium Base.Bought three of these July 2012. Two from here and one from OSH. GE rated these 8000 hours, but only if mounted base-down.Heat is the enemy to all electronics and ventilation is especially critical on higher-wattage CFL' s. Voltage converter is designed to be convection cooled from base to spiral . Have an easy mod that prolongs invert mount lifespan, but that's for another time.Vibration also shortens useful life. If lamp housing rattles, CFL's mounted next to exterior doors always die first.Out-of-the-box, circumferential base ventilation holes are poorly drilled or not at all. Result is premature death to electronic components inside base.The fix is remove all plastic mold flashing in four base vent slots with OLFA 9mm Razor Knife. Expose blade only to first click=minimum protrusion. Hand chase all 20 vent holes using 1/16" or #53 (0.059"/~1.5mm) drill held in an Eclipse or Starrett 162B Pin Vise, Set drill stop, or tape drill flutes such that drill penetrates no more than 1/4". Any more and you hazard damage to components or wire insulation. Blast plastic shavings through every hole with Costco's DustOff canned air.Cooled correctly, these CFLs are amazingly long-lived. However, Chinese components says they won't live forever. Bought two spares whilst GE still making them. Cheers!

This bulb takes longer to reach full brightness and is not as bright as previous GE 78965 bulbs I have bought. Perhaps a slow leak, which means a short life. It was a good value at $5.95, and that is if it lasts 6 months. 2nd update: Last bulb Lasted about 2 hours. I use 6 of these over a bench in the garage. I may turn on this bench light once or twice a month for no more than 30 minutes. These recent bulbs arte failing faster than the ones I purchased 3 to 6 months ago. I will now have to switch to a different bulb. Simple, these bulbs are junk. I spoke with the GE Rep and these bulbs have been discontinued because of a high failure rate. Amazon apparently is the only place you can get them. Perhaps they bought them for only pennies on the dollar. GE hopes to have a LED replacement.

Not sure how GE's Reveal Series enters the ratings for this bulb. It is not a Reveal Bulb. That said, it works well for me with the expected brightness and lower temperature of a CFL.

I have a metal torchiere that has always required a 200 Watt bulb. Incandescent 200 bulbs, which I have used in this lamp for years, aren't exactly small. So I wasn't worried when I read other reviews complaining about the size of this bulb. But the size of this particular bulb was still surprising to me. And, not surprisingly once I saw it, there's no way it will fit the lamp I bought it for. I'm not sure I can imagine what kind of lamp it would fit, other than an industrial fixture perhaps.

This unit was packaged really well. It was entirely encased in bubble wrap and taped up very tightly. The light comes on immediately, but it takes a while for it to get to full brightness. That's okay for my application, but I'm not totally convinced that the full brightness is equivalent to 200 watts. I have 150 wait equivalent bulbs that seem just as bright. I would have gone with an LED, but a 200 watt or even a 150 are still very expensive.

We purchased two of these because I intended to use them in two floor lamps. I only got one of the floor lamps working and then we went away on vacation. Just today I tried to use the second bulb and it turns out that it does not work. I have tried it in several sockets, but to no avail. Since the return window had closed, there is nothing I can do.The one that works is working fine and produces a lot of light with a good quality.

What can I say... It's a light bulb. It's very big and very bright. It's probably too big to fit in most fixtures, but ymmv.