compact fluorescents

I'll admit, I was spurred to put this lens together after disagreeing with someone who's a way better lensmaster than I'll probably ever be.

But I think that this mercury scare is not just "way overblown". It's plain wrong.

If you are worried about mercury in compact fluorescent light bulbs, you SHOULD be buying them. We'll get back to that... but incandescent lightbulbs cause MORE mercury to be released into the environment.

Clean up is pretty simple.

1. Air out the room. Opening the window for 15 minutes should do it.

2. Scoop up the big pieces. A piece of cardboard or sheet of thick paper makes a handy scoop that you can throw away.

3. Use sticky tape to pick up any powder or tiny pieces of glass. And a damp paper towel or wet wipe to get anything too small to even see.

4. Seal it all in a plastic bag or a screw top glass jar.

But, really, how often do you break light bulbs? I've broken three in the last four years. Two of them were when I was taking them out. But CFLs last 8-10 times as long as regular bulbs, so you won't be taking them out as often.

If you need to vacuum up the stuff from a carpet, throw the vacuum cleaner bag in the garbage, just to be safe.

CFLs are designed to fit where ever you would put a normal light bulb.

They do take a minute or two to reach full power, though, so they work best in a place where you turn them on and leave them on for a while.

You'll probably want to keep using a regular, incandescent bulb in any place where you aren't leaving the light on for long and want full light quickly. So, for instance, I use them at the front door. When I come in, I flick the light on, but I don't hang out in the doorway. I turn the light off once my coat and shoes are off.

I use compact fluorescents in my outside lights, too, because I run them for a few hours most nights. But CFLs don't work well when below freezing. (Or at all, if it gets really cold.) It never gets that cold where I live.

Almost everything in the CFL is recyclable. I just take mine back to the place I bought them. If you can't remember which store, go to Home Depot. They'll take 'em.

The rules and services vary from place to place, but you'll find that fluorescent light bulbs are banned from most dumps (so they should be) and that most places that sell the bulbs can take them back or tell you where to recycle them.

And these bulbs last so long that you won't need to go often!

Your thermostat and thermometer are the most obvious. Yup, that thermometer Mom used to stick under your tongue was filled with mercury. In fact, the average thermometer has as much mercury as 100 compact fluorescents. Your thermostat for your furnace has anywhere from .5 to 2 grams of mercury -- it would take 100 to 400 CFLs to have that much!

Your watch battery contains five times as much mercury as a typical CFL.

And, of course, the fluorescent lights in your school, office, mall or grocery store all have mercury in them. So do the high intensity discharge lights at the local sports stadium or rink.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a very detailed page on CFLs.

Canada's natural resources department also has a great page on energy-saving light bulbs. In places, it is word for word identical to the US one, but Canadian bureaucrats are allowed to specifically point to research that there is just too little mercury in a CFL to pose a health risk.

They are not, however, allowed to make disparaging comments about the CFL (Canadian Football League) on their website. So don't waste your time looking for any.

And, of course, there is Mr. Electricity. Take his advice on saving electricity, but not on hair styling!

1. The light used to bug me. In early CFLs there was often a flicker that got on my nerves. But the manufacturers have fixed that one. Doesn't happen now.

2. They used to be darned expensive, but have plummeted in price over the last decade.

3. I didn't like the delay in having the lights come on. I don't know why I thought that it was an all or nothing commitment. I used CFLs were it makes sense and I use incandescents when I want a light that turns on instantly. It's better to change a few bulbs than none at all. So don't change the ones that will irritate you.

Once I started switching over, I was sold on the benefits. And I just kept replacing old bulbs with compact fluorescents.

My kids (aged 4 and 2) have broken one compact fluorescent light bulb. They are pretty good at breaking things and hurting themselves, but the CFLs don't particularly worry me.

There just isn't that much mercury in them. The real danger is from broken glass... but there's glass in "normal" incandescent bulbs, too.

The other real danger is from the electricity. Both CFLs and incandescents use electricity. I worry about the kids getting electrocuted, but we aren't about to give up electricity. And neither are you.

Compact fluorescents are superior in two ways. First off, they cut down on energy consumption, which cuts down on the amount of mercury being pumped into the air from power stations.

Secondly, you can touch a CFL without getting burned. It gets warm, but not scalding. While my kids have broken one light bulb in the last four years, they have burned themselves on light bulbs at least a dozen times.

Also, since I need to change the light bulbs much less often, there is less chance they'll have to watch me toppling from a ladder and breaking my neck.

If you live in an apartment, you probably have less opportunity to green than in a house.

The good news is you probably already have a smaller environmental footprint than a homeowner. The better news is compact fluorescents to the rescue!

Living in an apartment, you have limited space to do composting or other such things. You probably aren't interested in putting more insulation into the attic of your landlord's building.

But you can put compact fluorescents in.

The other big advantage is it is easy to start. You can start for less than 10 bucks. You don't need any special equipment. You don't need any special training.

Easy is good!

Squidoo hates my picture. I've uploaded it time and again and still it only displays once in a while.

Hey, it's working! Darn. I really liked this module! Oh well, I'll leave it up a little longer just in case.