T
TRGLDTE
Guest
But then the unintended consequence is disposal. Each compact flourescent bulb has 4 mg of mercury in the transformer section. These should not be just chucked into the regular landfill trash.
Can Energy Independence Be A Catalyst For A 2008 Victory or better yet.. Third Party?
- Thread starter klaatu
- Start date
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
Yes, do not trust the 'watts' rating. Watts are a measure of power consumption, but have become a misused, incorrect comparison. Obviously an efficient bulb would not use as much power.
Compare lumens to lumens. A sixty watt incandescent bulb produces ~860 lumens. As a factor use 1440 lumens per 100 watt incandescent to figure out what you need.
uscitizen
Villified User
HUH ? it is a paralell circuit, why would a balance be needed ?
uscitizen
Villified User
We have been disposing of flourescent bulbs for 50 years or so....
Look up in your office...
OrnotBitwise
Watermelon
No we haven't. Well, we've been disposing of them but not properly.
Recycling is here to stay however much it may make Penn & Teller froth at the mouth. We need to add easier ways for consumers to dispose of household hazmat like flourescent bulbs next. Until we do this crap is going to end up in land fills, which is a very bad thing indeed.
Yes, it will increase costs to some extent. I don't think we have any viable options however.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
I mixed CFLs with regular bulbs in my living room fixture, which had never needed a replacement bulb in 8years. Soon after, the regular bulbs began to fail (even the new replacements), and then the CFL died. I went to all CFLs on the fixture, and haven't had a problem since.
I don't know why, so I'm assuming it is an impedance balance issue.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
I know, and we've been doing it wrong for 50 years. We need to change the way we do a number of things.
uscitizen
Villified User
Ahhh, your problem might be that the new little flourecents have a big brief startup current surge. They sometimes make my UPS's chirp when I turn them on.
I have my basement a mixed set of little squiggly flourescents, 2 incandescents in the stairway and one teo bulb 4 ft flourescent , all on the same switch, no problems yet. Been that way for over 6 months.
uscitizen
Villified User
No argument from me on that. I support recycling and proper waste management practices.
My point was that I don't think is is an immediate problem that will end the world. And the benefits outweigh the costs.
But yes recycle and dispose of stuff properly.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
In terms of pure economics, a CFL isn't always cheapest. Thermal cycling is the killer for most electronics, so areas that are on / off with short usage durations are probably not a sensible application for CFL (e.g, the light in my attic.)
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
We shouldn't really be pitching alkaline batteries in regular trash either. HomeDepot will take old rechargable batteries (NiCad), and I was told if I bagged my dead alkalines and pout them in the bin, that they would be recycled as well.
uscitizen
Villified User
Probably not, I figure the heat in an attic will kill the electronics in the CFL bulb anyway.
Also Extreme cold locations are not good. But they do better than most tube types in cold locations, just take a bit to fully brighten up.
Led bulbs will probably fill in the gaps for low energy lighting applications.
OrnotBitwise
Watermelon
I wonder about those claims of CFLs lasting longer than incandescents. I'm still not convinced that they're accurate in real world situations. In a lab setting, sure, but not as real people use real bulbs, perhaps.
Let me give you an example.
When my wife an I bought our home two and a half years ago I, good little Greenie that I am, went out and replaced every single incandescent in the house with a CFL, except for the light on the dimmer that hangs over the table. One month shy of the second anniversary of our moving in, I had officially replaced every single bulb at least once and some two or even three times. Except, of course, for the one on the dimmer over the table.
I'm a creature of habit. I turn off lights religiously when I leave a room. I suspect that may be the source of my problems with CFLs: I turn them on and off more than they assume people will in real life. If they consume less than a fourth the energy but you leave them on four times as long, however, I fail to see the advantage.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
We shouldn't really be pitching alkaline batteries in regular trash either. HomeDepot will take old rechargable batteries (NiCad), and I was told if I bagged my dead alkalines and put them in the bin, that they would be recycled as well.
Darn Republicans!
uscitizen
Villified User
Oh I fugure that lifetime claim is somewhat sales lies, err promotion. but I will keep using them until something better as cost effective comes along. I will not spend hundreds of dollars converting my home to LED lights at this time.
I am gradually converting most of my lights to be controlled by motion detectors, if nothing is moving no light is needed.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
As we move away (if we move away) from foreign energy, our natural gas resources may see a surge in demand. Perhaps we should prep for this by, in the name of national energy security, passing down from the Federal level, a requirement that all new construction employ point-of-use / on-demand domestic hot water. I know the upfront cost is higher, and the pay back is about 7 years - an eternity in modern American consumer society, but a small span in reality. Unfortunately, we would still have the substantial existing installed base of inefficient old style boilers.
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
I called the 800 number and they replaced my burned out CFLs at no charge. I didn't have to mail in the dead bulb, or find the receipt. (I had the receipt anyway, and I write the installation date on the CFL with a Sharpie marker, so I can verify life.)