Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs...

[Quicklet]

A friend sent me this link, I hadn't even thought about this but it makes sense, I was just wondering if anyone else knew more about this since it would seem to make the whole CFL crusade a little bit whacky given what this article is saying. Then again, how the hell did this woman break it on a carpeted floor... considering how light these things are, I'd think you'd have to really slam one into a carpet to manage to break one.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/fina ... 2dee548fda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fl ... light_bulb

The wiki seems to confirm the mercury danger though it says nothing about manufacturers in India/China, but if coal power plants have their own mercury emissions, then I guess it just becomes a matter of whether or not people are able to not break these things. I dunno, the article makes sense but then again, people used mercury thermometers for the longest time and those were probably a lot easier to break than these CFLs. Maybe it's time to just accept that whatever we do, this planet is gonna be a wasteland in a few hundred years and we should enjoy it while it lasts?

[Ichthyos]

from slashdot:

1. The article is NOT a news piece, it's an op/ed essay. Its author, Steven Milloy, is better known as the owner of JunkScience.com, and is presenting CFLs in the worst possible light.

2. The Bridges family is out $2000 (and this sensationalist story consequently exists at all) mainly because whoever they talked to at Maine poison control hotline went way overboard. EPA recommendations say that a small amount of mercury (5mg qualifies as small) can easily be cleaned up by a normal person without much trouble.

[aurik]

Steven Milloy's articles are the real junk science here.

Firstly, as Ichthyos posted, small amounts of mercury can be easily cleaned up by onesself without donning a full-body hazmat suit. For example, normal household thermometers such as the ones found in medical kits have an order of magnitude more mercury. And you know those smash pretty well if you drop them on say, a tile bathroom floor. But you don't see hazmat teams called in to clean up those incidents.

Secondly, the amount of mercury emitted to the environment by power-plants needs to be factored into the environmental cost of incandescent bulbs. Indeed, the extra energy needed to power an incandescent bulb for the same amount of lumens over time generates more mercury at the power-plant than the CFL contains.

Thirdly, you can recycle CFLs, meaning the disposal dilemma is nowhere near as severe as he explains.

[Quicklet]

Yeah good points, the article did seem way over the top to make a point, and I did mention the mercury emissions of coal plants in the OP. I had trouble understanding how the hell you can break one of those things without seriously giving it a good smash. I actually was just unaware of the mercury content in CFLs and was hoping to get some more info. Good stuff. I'm all for the libertarian point of view but this article just seemed to try too hard. Have any other information about the factories in India/China that make CFLs?

[Cheerios]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ5MiLqb5VE&eurl=

[Wilimac]

Idc, they save me $40 on my electric bill!

[Elesirdur]

In the Capital Regional District surrounding Victoria, B.C. where I live the regional government has passed regulations requiring that all new residential light fixtures installed must use CFL bulbs in place of incandescent bulbs by like 2009 or something. I smell pork-belly politics in this one, but it's overall a good move for reducing energy consumption (and our province's reliance on foreign electricity imports, especially from coal and oil-burning thermal plants). However, I always wondered what the additional energy costs are in producing CFLs compared to regular incandescents. Cost isn't much of a factor anymore as CFLs are pretty cheap where I live thanks to local and provincial tax incentives, but if they take up 10x more energy to produce and transport but only save 5x over an incandescent that's no savings at all.

Ninja edit: I use CFLs wherever I can in my home and office so I'm not arguing that they're bad or anything, just always wanted to see some good, peer-reviewed, scientific or economical studies on this subject of energy efficiency.

[Charla]

But that 5X savings would be per year, so it would break even after the second year (it's probably closer to like 12% savings and 40% more expensive, but never mind that).

[Fhqwghads]

LED light bulbs are going to surpass incandescents and CFLs before long. They supposedly have better color, last an ungodly length of time, and use squat for energy. If it weren't for the fact that they only have a 60 lumen version as their brightest at this point, I'd buy a few for the house. Oh, and they're also pricey. The 60 lumen version is about $45.00.

[aurik]

Good luck finding an unbiased report <_< the only people willing to fund such a thing usually have something to prove.

Edit: I'd pay a good amount of money for high-quality LED lights in certain locations of my apartment. I basically only use 3 locations anyway, certainly worth a bit of money upfront to never have to change those light bulbs and cut energy costs forever.