Because of a bill introduced by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) the manufacture of the commonly used incandescent light bulbs will become outlawed and Americans will be forced to purchase those swirly compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). Therefore, I purchased a large amount of the regular incandescent bulbs in most all wattages, which will last me for many years to come. Yesterday, I read an article in the Rocky Mountain News about CFL bulbs. The CFL bulbs contain mercury in the powder form. Therefore the bulbs cannot be thrown away. Few, utilities, or retailers are volunteering to collect the mercury laced bulbs for recycling, despite what public officials and others say could create a real health hazard if the hundreds of millions of them are tossed into the trash and end up in landfills and incinerators. Of course the EPA, got involved, and they have written their guidelines on how to clean up broken bulbs and the mercury powder. "Completely vent the area by opening windows to reduce concentrations of mercury in the air. Scoop up the mercury very carefully using sticky tape or paper and cardboard. The broken glass and the mercury powder should be sealed in a glass jar or sealable plastic bags. Other states advise sealing a burned out or broken CFL in two plastic bags". The city of Madison, Wis. requires retailers that sell the bulbs to also collect them for recycling, and the stores can and will charge their customers a fee for the service. Sylvania offers a mail in program. With all the hassle involved recyclers and others guess that only a small fraction of CFLs will ever be recycled. However, environmentalists say it is important to balance the positives of CFLs against any negatives. Environmentists at work again ?? - Millet (Drill ANWR)

But Millet, do we really need light? The next step is to ban light bulbs all together. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are the next trend until they find something wrong with those. E-waste?

Phillip

Those advertisements for CFL bulbs are misleading.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of CFL bulbs. Not yet anyway. Talk about crappy lighting.

I remember reading on one CFL package: "Last 10X longer than incandescent bulb. Don't have to change the light bulb for 7 years!" Then, in really tiny texts: "only if use 4 hours a day."
It's like a bag of chips. "Only 140 calories!" Then you look at the serving size: "12 chips." C'mon, nobody eats only 12 chips!

Anyway, CFL bulbs don't live up to their longevity or saving promises. Their claim is done under "ideal" conditions.

*Power surge - there goes your $5 CFL bulb.

*Frequent cycling of the [On/Off] switch (like going to the bathroom briefly) reduces the lifespan of CFL significantly. CFL is worst if turned [On] only for a few minutes at a time.

*Manufacturing CFL bulbs cost/use more energy. But didn't they claim their bulb saves energy and give off less pollution?

*If using CFL, a person (or building) uses more electricity on Central Heating during the wintertime because the person doesn't get the extra heat from incandescent bulbs. Didn't they claim to save you money?

*Broken CFL bulb - call your local HazMat Team. What a pain to clean up!

Disposing the CFL bulb is a pain in the neck. The manufacturers don't address the safety concerns with CFL. Do you think people are willing to pay a small fee for proper disposal? Waste gas money to drive to a recycling center? Where's the saving now? Most people will just toss the CFL bulb in the regular trash can. There goes the mercury pollution in the landfill, air, and water.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a GREENER world. What I don't like, is creative marketing and forcing people to use a product that doesn't live up to its claim.

Just my opinion.....

Am not really a fan of CFL for reasons already mentioned.

I bought mine for like 3 pcs for $1 during promo. I bought like 150 pcs to last me a long time. Changed all my lights. I have brighter lighting and reduced electric bills. You can still get them on sale for under $1, and about $1 when not on sale if you know what stores to go to. Definitely the 98 cents clearance and Dollar tree stores have them at various wattages, and of course they cost no more than $1 over there.

Some of the on sale CFL bulbs are still working after 8 years of continuous use, and that bulb is in our bathroom and still works todate (could be just one of those lucky bulbs). Some would conk out after 8 days! On the average, most would die out on me after 2 years, but those that go beyond that seem to live up to their name of longetivity. Bulbs that are placed on position other than hanging vertically down, those are the first ones to go out, and those that are installed straight down, they last longer. The first ones to go out are those placed horizontally. I don't bother to undergo the stress and pain of complaining to the manufacturers about those other bulbs that die out before their "guaranteed" life span. I got them on the cheap anyway. Not worth the bother.

I have a bag to collect such bulbs, and I go to the hardware stores more than once a week, and is not a bother to bring and unload them there when I buy something from the local stores.

The CFL bulbs doesn't work well if you have a light sensor or in conjunction with security lights and motion detectors. They drive me crazy blinking rapidly if you use them on those. Although there are some models that can be used on those application.

The CFL are an improvement over the tubular Flourescent bulbs that we have been using in most of our offices and buildings, but it inherited the same mercury problem.

One thing that CFL cannot do is to provide supplementary heating when you want to have both lighting and heating like when you want to have incubators, heating of plants and other niche applications.

CFL cannot replace any of my appliance bulbs.


And at the moment, the LED are way overpriced. When their prices come down to $5 per bulb for the same lumens, that's the time I would buy them instead of CFL.

I cannot agree about CFLs giving more light. They are a horrible, HORRIBLE, reading light. Greenz is correct, about the fact that they are not supposed to be turned on and off quickly, which greatly reduces their life span. Particularly, what I don't like, is some California female Democratic politician submitting her bill, forcing every American to have to use them, whether they want to or not. Greenz is also correct, in that a great majority will simply toss the bulbs in their trash. If one thinks that many will bother to return them, and pay a fee, they are certainly naive. Few will bother to drive to a recycling center, and even fewer will pay someone to take the bulbs of their hands. Another greenie left coast idea. I simply do not want to be bothered by the whole mess, so I purchased a bunch of incandescent bulbs which will last for years. The little money I "might" save, i really don't care about. God bless America, and God please you are going to have to hurry.. - Millet

I can see that you detest the looks of CFL. There are beautiful ones in the market and gives off very nice lumens for reading, but you have to read the spectral regions that it gives out. Some have nice quality lights and others are scary or flickery. LED's at the moment seem to have ghostly glows, and of course, I love the warmth of incandescent.

When one has to compare various lights such as CFL, incandescent, LED, halogens, sodium or halides, neons, we need to tally the total costs, total life cycle energy from cradle to grave, expenditures or savings, and their recyclabilities included.

I haven't seen the complete picture for LED lighting yet, so cannot give you a more balanced opinion on the matter.

Joe, thanks for your input, they always seem to be based on good balanced information. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. Actually, I personally, really do not care if CFLs save energy, I don't care if they are supposed to be better environment, nor do I care if they are worse for the environment, or if they might lower my light bill a little. They are a hassle. In fact, I am getting VERY sick and tired of constantly hearing and reading about being "GREEN" ever time I turn on the radio, or read the news paper. The environmental wackos always over do it, and push there crazy ideas, with no regard to the wishes of others. They say don't drill or own oil, but send the President over to Saudi Arabia to beg them to increase production. On top of that, now we are going to have to listen to thousands of inane political campaign TV commercials for the next five months until the election is over. I should have been a Monk in a cloistered monastery that raised citrus or grapes. Take care. - Millet (Drill ANWR or be quite about the high price of gas).

I really can't add much to this discussion. I think the whole idea is stupid. If you want to use them, fine....DON'T make it a LAW!!
I do have a question though:
Have they made one that will work for a Plant Light? When the Greenhouse gets full in the Winter, I use Plant Lights inside. Just wondering.
Darren

Darren, you hit the nail on EXACTLY the center of the head. If a person wishes to use them fine -- use them, if a person does not wish to use them that is also fine. But don't pass a law. Unfortunately, yet again another busy body environmentalist in office made it a bill, thereby forcing it on EVERYBODY regardless of their desires. - Millet

Agree with you there. Some people carry it overboard when they are in power.

I myself have kept all of my incandescent bulbs just in case I'll be using them for future projects.

I have also heard that CFLs should not be used outside. However, I have a question. The excellent CFL tree lighting thread by Joe Real, caught my attention. I have an in ground greenhouse Marisol Clementine that I have lit with a Metal Halide light for the last three years during the winter months. I have also heated the tree's soil throughout the winter to 80F, for the three complete winters. During this time, the tree produced five (5) growth flushes each year even here in Colorado. This year I am letting the tree fruit for the first time, and the tree now has perhaps 80 - 100 fruits. All that information brings me to this point. What I am interest in is the best possible GROWTH from heating and lighting, on two new in ground greenhouse trees. I do not care about energy used, or costs what I DO CARE about is obtaining the best growth that can be attained by these two new trees. So, do you think, the best growth will come from Metal Halide, or would the best growth come from CFLs, or would they both produce about the same growth? The trees are in a 55F night time temperature Colorado greenhouse. - Millet