by 12 people |
Compact Fluorescent Lamps: Are They Really All That?
But is that really a good idea?
The Bright Idea
Yippee!
However, there is a dark side to CFLs that should make you reconsider society's blind-hearted loyalty and devotion to these potentially dangerous lighting alternatives.
The Problem
Mercury? Did you say mercury? The same don't-break-a-thermometer-or-eat-too-much-fish-because-of-the-poisonous-effects-of-mercury mercury?
Yes, the very same. While mercury is HARMFUL to the environment, and mass producing these bulbs puts LOTS more of this hazardous material into circulation, putting it in a household light bulb seems pretty dumb - SINCE LIGHT BULBS BREAK ALL THE TIME!
Break the CFL bulb, get direct mercury exposure. Not good.
Not cheap, either. Read this article about how one woman had to secure a section of her home because she dropped a CFL bulb - and had to have specialists come in to clean up the mess! The estimated cost was in the neighborhood of $2,000!
For one broken light bulb. That's pretty dangerous.
Furthermore, improper disposal of CFLs can contaminate the environment! That doesn't sound so green to me...
The Savings
Compact Fluorescent Lamps are supposed to save lots and lots of money on your energy bill. That's not true, either. Here are the facts:
1) About 50% of your energy bill is from heating and cooling appliances. Only roughly 10% of your "light bill" is actually for the lights! Reference
2) The savings from using CFLs in an average American home only add up to $142.50 over the course of an entire year! That's if every light bulb in the house is changed! Reference
3) The cost for 6 CFLs at Wal-Mart is $15.16, bringing total savings for year one of CFL usage to $127.34. Reference
I'm not putting my family at risk for $127 dollars. The health liability is great, and the potential financial liability is in excess of over 1,000% of the savings.
The savings do not justify the risks.
Compact Fluorescent Lamps or consumers doesn't sound like such a bright idea after all...
Sound-Off - Are CFLs The BEST Option?
Are CFLs Worth the Mercury Exposure Risk?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byYes - proper disposal is protection enough!
Brian Dancer says:
One of the most compelling reasons to support CFL use is that it will greatly reduce the amount of mercury in the air as a result of emissions from coal burning electric power stations. There is so much more mercury in our lives as a result of making the energy than there ever will be from CFL bulbs.
I also take exception to the concept that light bulbs break all the time. This simply isn't true.
As for the person who called HazMat to come over to her house and clean up the spill from a broken CFL bulb, that was extremely careless on her part. The US Government has issued specific instructions on how to deal with a broken CFL. If you follow those steps, there will be no danger to you, nor will it cost you a dime.
If this world uses (and produces) LESS energy from dirty sources, it is a very, very good thing. Use CFL's and help save the earth.
Posted May 13, 2009
John C. Briggs says:
The mistake you are making, and it is a big one, is to see CFLs as increasing risk, when in fact they decrease risk. Yes, there is a small amount of mercury (4mg) in each bulb.
However, each bulb saves burning 1/4 ton of coal. So for each incandescent bulb that you leave in your house, you are adding the pollution from 1/4 ton of coal in to the air. Oh, and that coal will put more mercury in the air than your CFLs even if you break every one of them.
Is that "erring on the side of caution"? I don't think so. Thanks for polluting the plant my fellow earthling. You are making my children sick.
Next up on "Self Justification Daily" why leaving the lights and computers on 24 hours per day is really the safe thing to do for my kids.
Posted March 25, 2009
Jason says:
Have you ever seen the dual layered bulbs. All the CFL bulbs in my house have two layers. The inner layer is the common coil (contains mercury) as seen in the picture at the beginning of this lens and an outer layer that looks like typical bulb. You would have to literally crush the bulb to break that internal coil. I have found these bulbs at both Home Depot and Lowes.
I have been using these bulbs for about 6 years and have never broke one. I feel the slight chance of me breaking one does not compare to knowing what extra pollution will be created from the extra electricity used to power them or to create the 8-10 incandescent bulbs I would need to match the life of a single CFL bulb.
I use 36 of these bulbs in my house most of them being 18W bulbs. All of them on only use about 650Watts. Compare that to having having all 75Watt bulbs. That would be 2,700Watts.
And finally to the best of my knowledge throwing anything into a landfill pollutes our environment. I do not know off anyone who collects regular bulbs for recycling however, I have 4 Home Depots within driving distance that will take back my CFLs.
I do appreciate bringing up any environmental concern. Debating any issue is better than keeping a lid on it.
Posted December 07, 2008
R.M. 'Auros' Harman says:
http://www.slate.com/id/2183606/
Posted August 18, 2008
ecogreenbags says:
I'm surprised I haven't heard more about this, but I'm still willing to use CFL bulbs. I think the disposal factor isn't advertised nearly enough, and this is something people need to be aware of.
Posted August 15, 2008
No - light bulbs break too easily, and that equals Mercury spills!
The Bulb Man says:
Read about cfls at Twitter.com/thebulbman
Posted July 23, 2009
Rob says:
buy LED lighting
Posted June 30, 2009
Beth says:
We lowered our light bulb wattages in the 70s! Who uses 75 watt light bulbs, anymore, Jason?
All of our bulbs are 60 watts or less. We do have two lamps that use 3 way bulbs, but we only use the higher wattages sparingly.
We're frugal. We apply common sense to our energy use habits - and that includes using the dishwasher, the washer and the dryer in the evening in the summer to save on cooling, and cooking/baking at night or early in the morning. The process is reversed in winter. You can set your thermostat lower and count on the appliances to provide part of your heat. We raise the temp during the day in the summer while we aren't home, cool the place during the late afternoon, and often turn the air off completely at night. Our water heater has a timer on it and doesn't run while we're gone during the day. We still use - perish the thought - thermal draw drapes on our windows and only open them when we're here and want to enjoy our views.
Amazingly, we actually keep our electric bill under $150 a month. There's so much we can do without resorting to using products with questionable characteristics.
In my opinion, flourescent bulbs for home use are a really bad idea.
Posted April 25, 2009
Beth says:
Flourescent light bulbs are dangerous products. Imagine factories mass producing these things. How much mercury are they using and what is the environmental impact of their manufacture? Now think of the magnitude of the disposal problem. We use a lot of light bulbs in everything from lamps to appliances. Don't tell me the bulbs don't break when they've finally burned out and have to be thrown away. Where is the mercury going to go? Then there's the risk to the ordinary person handling these things.
My grandkids decided to entertain themselves tossing my sofa pillows around the living room the other day. They They knocked over a lamp next to my sofa and the bulb shattered. Naturally, the kids tried to pick up the lamp and minimize the damage before they found me in the kitchen and confessed. What if the bulb wasn't just an ordinary incandescent type bulb?
I can't help but feel that this new push to use flourescent bulbs is being shoved at us like-it-or-not.
It's so easy to reduce your light bill safely by just using lower wattage incandescent bulbs. Why take the risks?
Honestly, I worry about the younger generation and the lack of common sense. By not thinking these things through, we may end up making more problems for ourselves. Zeal for the environment is a good thing, but we do have to be careful that we're not just being groupies and embracing change for the sake of change.
Personally, I think the changes are really all about getting us to spend more money not less. We are going to have to buy, buy, buy to get up to speed on the new 'green technologies.' And if we balk, what does that make us?
Something to think about.
Posted April 25, 2009
tandemonimom says:
Not only is there a disposal problem - because even if they don't break, most people will just toss them in the trash rather than dispose of them as the hazardous waste they are - fluorescents can cause or aggravate all sorts of eczema and skin problems, including lupus-related skin conditions.
Posted April 04, 2009
Watch This Video
Other Helpful Resources
- ESL Light Bulbs: Greener Than CFL, Cheaper Than LEDs | Green Gadgets | The Green Optimistic
- Residential Lighting has invented a new type of light bulb, that claims green gains, even more green than the CFLs. The new technology is called ESL (electro-stimulated luminescence). The technology was patented in June by a startup company called Vu1.
- 10 Things Moms Can Do To Reduce Environmental Impact AND Have Healthier Kids
- Whether you're a health nut or a tree hugger, going green is a good thing. It's not just healthier for the environment - it's healthier for people, too! That double benefit is what makes it worth your while as a parent to take a little extra time or effort to make healthier, greener practices a...
- 10 Things Kids Can Do To Go Green and Reduce Environmental Impact
- As the world becomes increasingly concerned with the environmental impact of our actions, children want to know where they fit in. This up and coming green generation can start incorporating more responsible practices into their daily routines that will foster a lifetime of good earth stewardship.
More Green Resources
News On Green Lighting Options
- sgdjsjfcsdh: ESL Bulbs
- The need to conserve energy and save the environment has been in the forefront of most political and social issues today. One of the things that has been scrutinized greatly as of late is the light bulb. The light bulb has gone a long way in ... A new option has come from Vu1 in the ESL or Electron Stimulated Luminescence bulb. An electron source fires electron at a phosphor plate and causes it to light up. Vu1 says that these bulbs last around the same time as a CFL, ...
- Luminescence Inspirations
- someone poked a whole in the sky and stuck a bulb in it. Its very amazing and beautiful. The Pulitzer Building New York 1909. What caught my attention when I saw this building was the shadow that is created on the other building. ...
- The Big Switch-off
- Com) offers 14 different types of bulbs, including drawings colored balloons outdoors and Cat's Eye - a bulb that numbs the luminescence emitted children candy, sleeping pills, after long have become extinct. ...
- LED Lighting – Enlightening the World
- As compared to incandescent bulbs the LEDs are much more expensive and its execution largely depends on the ambient temperature of the operating environment. They require adequate heat sinking in order to make it more durable. ...
Your Two Cents
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- tandemonimom tandemonimom Apr 4, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
- Great lens! Very informative and helpful. 5* and please join the REAL FOOD REAL LIVING group.
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- lisadh lisadh Oct 3, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
- Very informative. I had to check it out myself and both NPR and TreeHugger had articles about this. I have CFLs throughout my house, but will try to recycle them rather than just throwing them out. 5* for great info!
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- Karen_Knight_Bennett Karen_Knight_Bennett Oct 3, 2008 @ 6:43 am
- Wow, who knew. Thanks for informing us. We should all do our research before we "green" everything. Nice lens.
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- CleanerLife CleanerLife Aug 27, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
- I hate the light from these bulbs. I like the full spectrum type bulbs, but have only tried incandescent ones. The new ESL(Electron Stimulated Luminescence)bulbs should be available next year. They use about the same power of CFL's, don't contain mercury, can be made into different shapes, can be dimmed and can be made in different "colors" including " warm, yellowish glow of the incandescent bulb" we're use to.
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Reply
- icjackson icjackson Aug 25, 2008 @ 4:34 am
- Thanks CandleGal :-)
I am pretty green, but I'm what I like to call "new-school" green - I am willing to weigh options, investigate what is socially accepted as "fact", and admit that environmental science is a growing and developing thing with very few absolutes.
So, although many believe that the amount of mercury powder in a CFL is "harmless", I'm not sure enough to use light bulbs with it in them. Light bulbs break too easily and human beings are oftentimes wrong.
If I do err, I err on the side of caution.
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