Posted on 01/14/2012 8:08:34 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE
My 96yr old Great Uncle is an avid reader that uses 250watt bulbs - guess he’ll need to buy a flashlight...
I have to agree with you. The early cfls that we bought were no bargain as for the light emitted. The latest ones are great. They really do last a long time. I still haven’t tried any outside, in the cold, and don’t want to.
I, too, feel that you should be able to buy both types. Each type has its uses.
Last year my electricity supplier, Aiken Electric Cooperative, sent each customer a CFL bulb through the mail. I took the one I received to the AEC Customer Service Department and tried to return it.
The clerk asked, "This was given to you free, why do you want to return it? Is it broken?"
My response, "I don't know if it's broken as I didn't open the package. Why would I, on purpose, bring a known biologically hazardous substance into my home?"
The clerk just looked at me as I set the CFL package down on the counter along with the three page set of instructions (pdf) from the EPA explaining how to clean up a broken CFL.
Of course it is. That’s been the outcome of most of this idiotic environmental legislation - pushing industry to China.
BTW - Want to see a dirty little secret behind cheap CFL’s? Check out the power factor on them.
Heh.
Just what I want, a light bulb shoved on me by government gone wild and one that disturbs sleep patterns. They can take their bulbs and their dictatorial rules and regulations and shove them where the sun doesn’t ever shine. I have enough 100 watt incandescent bulbs to last us for 3 generations. Why did I do that? Because I could and they said I couldn’t. Plus I like my incandescent bulbs.
The other night the dogs were playing and they ran by a cord, the lamp fell, the bulb broke. I don’t want my home to become a toxic waste dump. Glad you like them, enjoy. You won’t ever see one in my house unless they repeal the ban and I decide I want it. I have on CFL in an outside lamp post. It has lasted about 3 years but it get’s dimmer with each passing month.
I wouldn’t buy anything with the name GE on it, I wouldn’t even take it for free.
So do I.
I never get up before the sun, no lights needed in the morning and you do need them and get up at the crack of dawn, that’s what dimmer switches are for.
I never get up before the sun, no lights needed in the morning and if you do need them and get up at the crack of dawn, that’s what dimmer switches are for.
Read this and then let’s talk. Have you ever spent an August in South Florida? I’m going to turn off the A/C, spend several hours airing out the house, sweating my butt off, because a bulb broke? Are you freaking kidding me? Do you know how much electricity you would use to take your house back down from 90 degrees to 75 degrees? Then even after the initial incident they want you to open windows when you vacuum and leave the A/C off for several hours? The insanity never ends.
http://epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.pdf
MJ- who has a stock of 100W INCANDESCENT bulbs to last through 3 generations.
That set of instructions is for old-fashioned tube fluorescents, too. Do you have any of those in the house?
First off, I’m not sure why you’re taking a hostile tone with me, but I realize people get cranky for no fault of mine. Since I already said I prefer free market principles in my first post, I’ll simply add that Government regulates every facet of your life, if they can get privy to it (and roundabout if they can’t), so I welcome your effort to throw off those chains. You’ll be extra tick’d in the next few years once cash is outlawed, and I encourage you to stock up on anything you hold near and dear, lightbulbs included.
Secondly, ALL fluorescent bulbs disturb sleep patterns, compact or not. Most people work somewhere lit with fluorescent lighting, so while I still dislike that aspect (especially when I come home, I minimize it by not being under direct expusure when I can avoid it anyway.
And lastly, regarding toxic substances, there’s probably dozens you keep in your home that could range from bug killer, to spray paint, to spices in your cupboard, to deodorant. I’m not particularly worried about a light bulb (Especially since dad played with mercury for years in science class), and may you feel free to worry or not worry about what you will.
I described the money saving I have had, and my experience with the bulb. I don’t care what you do or don’t use, and wish you all the best. Take care.
I’ve never broken a CFL (maybe because once they’re in place it’s for years?), nor do I have any in an unprotected fixture. Incandescents, I’ve broken oodles. Having two parents as electricians (though now retired), has offered me plenty of light bulb changing hours. Since glass is an amorphous solid, it can flow, causing parts to be thinner over time, like windows on old houses. At last with the CFL’s I CHOOSE to use, I have a base which I can unscrew, and not have to hold the glass bulb, which I have have had many break from their base as I tried to unscrew them, requiring pliers to get them out. To each his own.
Oh, and maybe you should brush up on the FDA’s treatment of a raw milk spill. The argument that the overkill of a federal agency will determine my reaction to something is mistaken.
Nor would I ever live in somewhere with weather (or people) like south Florida, lol. Never.
Consider not using CFLs in lamps that can be easily knocked over, in unprotected light fixtures, or in lamps that are incompatible with the spiral or folded shape of many CFLs.
First of all, LMAO! Secondly, if CFLs are too dangerous to use where they might be broken, then what am I supposed to use instead? These are the same people who want to *eliminate* incandescents, and in a few years, there won't be any more incandescents sold. So then what?
I’m curious as to the light causing depression. I have never heard of such a thing, is it a medical condition? I’m supposed to keep the lighting low at all times, but I pick and choose that battle. I have had too many lectures (completely ignorant and patently false, I might add) about reading at low light harming your eyesight. If the rest of the house could tolerate low light, I’d probably not often turn them on at all.
zero, did you take into account the cost of your bulbs?
Seriously, you have to take into account the cost of the CFLs in the first place to determine if it saved you anything.
In my case, 32 cost me $12. Saved me $50 the first month, and have never been replaced (4 years). So, from my experience, taking initial cost into account, I’m ahead. I know you didn’t ask me, but there you have it.
Having said that, if you were to buy them singly, or in a very very high wattage (Say 150W equivalent), those bulbs would add up quickly. But I (myself) have no applications that would require a single bulb of that brilliance.
Nope. Every light in my house is 100% pure, natural, man-made incandescent. Oops, the light that comes on when I open the garage door is fluorescent. Need to change that :)
LOL! Well you couldn’t pay me to live where you do, so were even there. I would imagine since you use heat so much of the year, you probably consume 10X the electricity I do so in the end, so your funky government mandated bulbs still don’t mean jack.
I can have my windows open, no heat or air usually from October or November(depending on when the first cold fronts come) through May or June. That’s nearly half of the year.
I’m so glad greenies like you don’t want to come to South Florida, thank God! We don’t need anymore snowbirds down here. I’ll think of you when I am enjoying our warm water and 100’s of miles of beaches on both coasts, tropical sunsets, tropical plants, fresh coconuts, mangos,Key Limes, mangos and various other tropical fruits.... while I am fishing for snapper and diving the coral reefs for lobster, sitting on my veranda enjoying the sunset over the ocean......I will think of you sitting in your home, with the heat turned up full blast as you sit and read beside your cool new government mandated light bulbs.
PS. I see you are going to be in the teens tomorrow night. How much heat does that consume per 24 hour period? Or do you just freeze to save electricity? 70 degrees here, windows open. Eat your heart out.
The CFLs cost little more than an incandescent nowadays.
Let's see: 100W at 12 hrs a day is 1.2kW at 21 cents a kW is 25.2 cents a day. A 100W rated CFL at 28W is 7.2 cents a day. Over a month that is a savings of $5.40 a month. They have lasted over three years so that is a savings of $196 for the three years. I don't know how much you are paying for the CFLs in your area but it ain't that much. Multiply that over ten lamps and you get $1900 over the three years.
Are you adding in the cost of incandescents that only last about six months?
you got 32 bulbs for 12 dollars?
What about spots, sphere/globe bulbs? This has to be only the cheapest 60 watt replacements.
and they saved you $50 bucks the first month, where are you getting your electricity?
Even the manufacture inflated calculators don’t make such an absurd claim:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/pop_lighting_calc.htm
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