The Light Bulb That Can Change the World

An anonymous reader writes to tell us FastCompany is reporting on the latest and greatest version of the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). While CFLs of the past may have been efficient, they certainly were not effective. However, according to the article, CFLs have come as far as cell phones have since the mid 80s while still maintaining that high efficiency. From the article: "if every one of 110 million American households bought just one [CFL], took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads."

How many...

[gEvil (beta)]

How many light bulbs does it take to change the world? No wait, that's not right...

Too much work

[prockcore]

"Nah, that's just too much work, let's just start daylight saving time earlier!"

(Lives in AZ, uses CFLs everywhere)

I don't think so

[Anonymous Coward]

"In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads"

I'll take two.

How many /.ers does it take to change a light bulb

[Nos.]

• You don't change it, you replace it. The bulb itself stays the same
• lightbulb is one word
• no it isn't
• in Soviet Russia, light bulb changes you
• all your light R belong to us!
• 1
• I'd like to see Natalie Portman change it while I'm eating hot grits
• Dupe!

Re:I've converted

[Anonymous Coward]

I have since given away to relatives my extra pre-purchased packs of old light bulbs, and I will never buy one of those oldies again.

What did your relatives do to you?

Re:So...

[Alaria Phrozen]

What's worse, can you imagine the utter chaos if everyone went out and bought one at the same time?

All those people... "out on the town" (as you hip people who go outside call it)... and the collective simultanious "ca-ching" of cash-registers everywhere.. wouldn't that be enough to shatter my windows and glasses?

Did the submitter of this article even consider: are there even enough of these lightbulbs for us all to get one? Aha! All well, at the very least it sounds like my parent has bought more than his share of lightbulbs. Consider mine bought, thank you sir! I will however petition a GM to replace all the torches in Ironforge with these CFLs; it sounds perfect for the upcoming expansion which slashdot just seems to love covering.

Re:White light?

[MegaThawt]

Up until recently (ie, the last six months or so) most of the bulbs you'd find in the typical discount stores were 4000-5000 degree.

Great ... since I installed CFL's over the last two years, I have to wait only about 8 years before I can start replacing them with the 2700 degree ones.

Re:How many /.ers does it take to change a light b

[Cid Highwind]

• Netcraft confirms it! The light bulb is dying!
• But does the new one run Linux?
• That's "GNU/lightbulb"
• None, it's done automatically by a cron job
• Mod parent "+1, Illuminating"

Re:How many /.ers does it take to change a light b

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot:

Could you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these?

REAL Americans...

[DrCode]

Real Americans aren't going to go for this. When we need light (which isn't that often 'cause we're usually out in the woods hunting), we just fire up the Hummer and aim its headlights into the window.

Re:Too much work

[Lord Apathy]

Yeah, I feel that way too. I got those big ass 75 watt incandesent bulbs in all my shit too. I used to give a ratts ass about the environment too but realized that I turn 40 real soon. By the time the environment changes so much that I care I'll be dead.

Now excuse me while I go out an price a big ass SUV and I need to pick up some old fashon CFC for my A/C.

Re:Correction

[ArcticCelt]

"one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads"

"I think you mean *110 million bulbs* are equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads."

All this confusion is caused by the fact they did not used the journalistic standard system of measurement. I am talking of course of libraries of congress and/or football stadiums.

Re:Mercury

[dfenstrate]

It's not only selfish, it shows you're already mad as a hatter!

(I hope everyone gets it)

Re:How many /.ers does it take to change a light b

[Kenshin]

• It's Sony's fault, somehow
  
  • After years of living in the basement, it's easier to adapt to the glow of the computer monitor and network LEDs than go out into the sun to buy a new bulb

Just to be clear ...

[slightlyspacey]

We on Slashdot have a fetish [merriam-webster.com] with saving the enviroment but don't have a problem building our own 30 KW petabyte TIVO servers? [slashdot.org]

Yes, I'm definitely going to replace all those evil incandescents with enviroment-friendly CFLs while building a second rail line to my own coal-powered electrical plant just so I can watch Captain Planet whenever I like ... :):):)

Re:How many...

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

But the plus side is I found out there are no epileptics in the 'hood when I put one out front. I had one of those neato photosensor doodads that keeps the light off in the daytime. Twilight sucked though. Think Strobe. The voltage would go above the 'on' voltage for the CF, which would be enough light on the sensor to drop it back below the 'on' threshold, it would go dark. Rinse and repeat.

Re:Too much work

[thatguywhoiam]

Yeah, I feel that way too. I got those big ass 75 watt incandesent bulbs in all my shit too. I used to give a ratts ass about the environment too but realized that I turn 40 real soon. By the time the environment changes so much that I care I'll be dead.

Now wait a fuckin minute man, who the hell do you th-- *gasp*

Lord Apathy! My liege! I ... I had no idea, I... please, my apologies... [scurries away]

Re:LED based lighting would do even better

[aminorex]

> if everyone burned CF's, there'd be a lot less mercury released from coal plants.

But if you burned CF's in power generation stations, wouldn't all their mercury be released into the atmosphere?
And by the way, do coal plants grow in zone 4? If we can grow something that produces both coal and mercury,
that's a mighty impressive dual-use crop!

Oh. Nevermind.

Re:I used to do the CFL bulb in every socket thing

[nacturation]

Be careful. There is no official scientific definition for the phrase "full spectrum," so marketers are free to use this term how they choose.

No kidding. I had to take some bulbs back because they weren't emitting nearly enough gamma radiation for my liking.
 

Strobing lights are a BAD idea.

[Fantastic Lad]

I'm sure there are lots of people working on this project who are honest, albeit unwitting gears in the machine, but that doesn't mean somebody at the top wasn't a creep, or wasn't following 'inspiration' based on the whispers from the dark.

Strobing lights lull the brain into a light hypnotic state. This is why activity in your brain drops to a near alpha state when you are watching television which makes it hard to remember what commercial just played ten seconds ago. It's one of the reasons you feel weird and blotchy when in a building lit with fluorescent light. It's deliberate mind-control, plain and simple.

In combination with audio promptings from other devices, people take the suggestions thrown at them and let them sink deep.

Now, why exactly would weapons manufacturer, GE, want to put strobing lights into every household in America?

What are they trying to suggest?

-FL

Re:Correction

[Alsee]

Q: What is the unit of energy for burning 1 library of congress?

A: 1 GWB.

-

Re:RF Noise?

[MrNaz]

Lemme get this straight: You are refusing to do your bit to help the environment because it negatively impacts your ability to listen to the high fidelity auditory experience that is AM radio?