Posted on 03/28/2009 8:59:19 AM PDT by AT7Saluki
It sounds like such a simple thing: Buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, save the planet. But a lot of people are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple. Consumers who are trying them say they sometimes fail to work, or wear out early. At best, people discover that using the bulbs requires learning a long list of dos and don’ts.
Take the case of Karen Zuercher and her husband, in San Francisco. Inspired by watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” they decided to swap nearly every incandescent bulb in their home for energy-saving compact fluorescents.
Instead of having a satisfying green moment, however, they wound up coping with a mess. “Here’s my sad collection of bulbs that didn’t work, ” Zuercher said the other day as she pulled a cardboard box containing defunct bulbs from her laundry shelf.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Candles will be the next solutions. Welcome to the second round of the Dark Ages.
Huh. We’ve been using them for years with very few (2? 3?) failures.
Any chance we can use the light bulb issue, politically?
This is something that the public will understand.
Stupid is as stupid does.
You are correct. The best candles were made from spermaceti -- far better than tallow or beeswax. But we don't have enough whales; that industry effectively died in 1871.
I presume that they do save money when running, but that’s largely eaten up by having to replace them at about the same frequency as incandescents (despite claims of greater longevity) and at a much greater expense.
Im a high end handyman in the OC compact bulbs fail at an amazing rate some right out of the box and they have a lag time on them to full output I take a sharpie and put the date on them some have failed in less than 2 months some have been going for a couple of years most of the time you get about a year out of them about on par with incandescent
As far as energy usage clients have not seen a dramatic drop in there bill regardless of rate hikes
Inspired by watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,”...
There really is a sucker born every minute, isn't there?
She better hope that they don't get accidentally knocked off that shelf or she will need a hazmat crew.
All the earth loving environmentalists just make more energy available for me to use!
As long as I pay for it i’ll use all that I desire!
I can’t wait:
ATF will become:
ATFLB
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Light Bulbs!
Sounds like a couple of dim bulbs to me...
Granted it doesn't get very cold here (not much below freezing and not for long) though it's very wet (Seattle) but I used an indoor flood 24/7 outside no problem. And the woodshed has had one for 7 or 8 years now -- the first I installed (because of its poor light quality; newer ones are better).
A former tenant had these stupid bulbs in all the light fixtures, we removed them. They are ugly and took forever to light to the correct wattage. Besides, I don’t want to call hazmat every time a tenant breaks one.
This one of those things that California should mandate before the US government even thinks about it. Make the Californians suffer from their foolishness...
I vaguely recall reading a federal bill that withdrew the mandate. You might want to check...
Not my experience at all.
We have several in other rooms, and they seem ok, except for the slow runup.
“Take the case of Karen Zuercher and her husband, in San Francisco. Inspired by watching the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” they decided to swap nearly every incandescent bulb in their home for energy-saving compact fluorescents”.
...I hope these ass clowns choke on their organic veggie burgers.
Which Clinton or Gore crony got the Chinese contract to produce them
The spectrum varies widely across brands, models, and date of manufacture. About two years we found some whose light, viewed indirectly, is indistinguishable from incandescent.
Well, of course, you are one person.
You like them?
Fine.
Your experience is positive?
Fine!
Give the rest of us a CHOICE in the matter.
We want the old fashioned light bulbs!
And, I think that we can win, politically, with such a simple slogan.
Due to past moves, lamp changes, and downsizing to just one home, we've got three huge rubbermaids full of all varieties of incandescents. I could live to be as old as Helen Thomas and never run out.
Speaking of idiotic “energy saving” ideas, we should all remember to turn on every light in the house tonight at 8:30-9:30. It’s that lights out for an hour thingy and Rush said “turn ‘em on”! I intend to.
As I stated on the other thread, due to a visual perception disorder, I am one of the millions of people who avoid fluorescents of any sort like the plague. LED has the same effect, however the technology works. Give me a plain white incandescent bulb and open shades any day of the week.
Here’s the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/energy-environment/28bulbs.html?ref=business
I lived in Madison, Wisconsin until 1995 and I recall that under the DSM (demand side management) schemes of the Public Service Commission, utilities were given funds (or allowed incremental rate increases) to generate money for DSM projects. Whatever the allocation available to MG&E, evidently they had unspent money for such programs that had to be spent by Dec. 31 of 1994. In the local paper they ran ads for rebated on fluorescent bulbs, which, when combined with the retailer’s 100% rebate on the retail price of the bulbs (evidently they were not flying off the shelves back then) meant that you were being paid $10 per bulb to buy some florescent bulbs. I bought the limit, packed the bulbs away somewhere after using one and finding that the quality of the light (its color temperature) was unpleasant. I see to recall unboxing the last of those bulbs in 2006 to install in a basement closet, where it would be used infrequently (and thus had very little impact on energy savings).
Many of the Obama administration programs ring the same bell, they are going to be absurd distortions of individual choices in the market. They should be leaving incandescent in place and subsidizing the refinement and development as a consumer product of LED lighting. Bootstrap us into that future technology and I’ll back you. Fluorescent is a very flawed intermediate step.
I understand they make dimmable CFLs, though I recall they aren’t cheap. And at least some modern CFLs are instant-on (like the one in the lamp beside me — I just tested it).
Mine work quite well, and I like them. However, I do not support banning incandescents.
What about security lights, especially security lights hooked to security cameras?
It takes so long for these mercury lights to turn on, that the burglar or intruder is either long gone, or you are dead, before any picture can be taken or any light goes on!
are you one of those wackos that cling to your bibles and incandescents
I’m sorry, but the official FR position is that “CFL’s are unquestionably bad because environmentalists have pushed them.” Read the thread and see the tons of lame excuses posited as to why incandescents are superior.
First of all, LED bulbs will replace both incandescents and CFLs in the near future. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people here moan and complain about that as well. Now, CFL bulbs are not prone to failure (I’ve been using them for years with one failure that comes to mind, and that was replaced under warranty). I have not noticed any problems with the light spectrum, and this just strikes me as the most absurd complaint. (I’m trying to imagine some rusty old conservative guy actually caring about the spectrum of the light bulbs in his house.) Add to that the vast majority of lights in the house are filtered with some sort of cover anyway and it really doesn’t matter.
Also, the notion that breaking a CFL bulb requires a Hazmat crew is one of those stupid myths that just won’t die. Yes, they contain mercury. No, it’s not a hazardous amount. It’s significantly less than other fluorescent bulbs and I’m pretty sure those have been broken before. Just as with incandescents, the greatest health risk of breaking a bulb comes from the broken glass.
***Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Light Bulbs!***
And if you break one CALL THE HAZMAT team because of that little drop of Mercury!
They are useless for keeping a well house warm in winter! I stock up on 100w incadesant bulbs for this!
Nobody here does. I often get labeled as a ban supporter just because I’ve had success with CFL bulbs.
Please show me just where I am forcing a mandate on you. I didn't write that, and I didn't say it.
In my experience, the compact flourescents work in ceiling fixtures with no globes or shades, (which wouldn't fit over the CF's anyhow), where they are never turned off -- which pretty much defeats the energy-saving purpose. I've got a couple that've been burning almost constantly for six months.
I also have one in an outdoor fixture; it lasted quite a while until I started turning the fixture off during the day, when it promptly blew. We've left the replacement on 24/7, and it's lasted much longer.
I don't know your circumstances. We have 1 of 5 working in our maim bathroom. I'd guess they're 3-4 years old. Three of the four in our living room are currently working after about the same amount of time, but I've already changed one our two. Kitchen and our other bath I can't count, but I'm sure I've changed several of them over the last 3-4 years.
I'll probably continue to buy them, but the savings are very questionable.
I'd like to go LED, but last I heard they were still too expensive.
I have several CFLs from 1999 that still work, but the current Chinese bulbs are like everything else from there -- a reasonable lifespan is not a reasonable expectation with them.
I can't be under those for any length of time, either. Gym lights - nope. Stage lights, oddly enough, are okay. But, it's a good thing I don't read at hockey games.
This is something that the public will understand.
Sure.
The same way we used the Al Gore mandated (check it out, he authored the legislation!) low flush toilets against him.
>> Candles will be the next solutions. Welcome to the second round of the Dark Ages.
Wrong! CANDLES EMIT GREENHOUSE GASES, you resource-wasting polluter! Who do you think you are, consuming our planet’s precious resources so you can read and shave?
Learn Braille. Grow a beard.
:-)
And around here they don't even make it easy to recycle them. We have one "hazardous waste" recycle center for a city of almost a million. Several times a year all the recycle centers have special e-waste days where they take batteries, phones and computers, but they don't take CFLs.
I've tried to replace them in most of my lights as the incandescents burn out, but they don't do well in the bathroom and outside (slow to warm up). I've got one in the bathroom that has an irritating high pitched hum, but I hate to throw it out. It cost too much!
You get what you pay for. They went to Costco and got some cheapo bulbs, and complain that they don’t work.
Where the hell have these guys been? They claim to want to save the planet. Compact flourescents have been around for more than a decade. And they’re just getting into it—but buying the wrong bulbs?
We’ve been using them for more than ten years, and have saved a ton of money. I’ve tried a variety of brands, and my personal choice is now GE. If you buy the wrong make of bulb, you’re liable to end up with some hideous green color as well as the kind of problems described.
So, shop around, do a little investigating.
For some of us, the light wavelengths actually slow down vision processing which is why we get sick. I've been in places that have faux Tiffany glass shades over CFLs and I can still tell (and I still get nauseous and a headache).
I'm stockpiling 60 and 75 watt bulbs and I don't care who knows it.
I put a link to the full article in the NYT in post 29.
While the incandescent bulbs were the most commonly used bulbs, the CFL’s were an alternative, and an economical one in that they used less energy and lasted longer.
But wait. Now that they are the only option, mandated by the gov, whaddya bet their useful life goes way down, and the price goes way up?
And whaddya bet that senator boxer and those other gonifs of her ilk are heavily invested in the CFL industry, not counting, of course, all of the kickbacks that find their way to her and their secret accounts?
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