johndiii's Journal: Compact Fluorescent Lights and Mercury Contamination

Worth reading from the front page: Mercury Contamination Vs. Energy-Efficient Lightbulbs. It appears that this is not a very well-thought-out way to help the environment. Burned-out light bulbs go into landfills, which means that mercury goes into the water supply. Something tells me that that is not a great idea. Anyone know the average lifetime of a CFL bulb, compared to an incandescent?

Of course, there's also the fact that people tend to not like the light as well. In our offices, we leave the fluorescents off and use incandescent bulbs in lamps. I have three bulbs burning right now, as opposed to the six fluorescent tubes in the ceiling.

Excuse me, then, for a moment. I need to go and see what can be done about the three fluorescent tubes in the break room trash. :-)

Lifespan

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Average 7:1, extraordinary (perfect) circumstances, 15:1. CFL is extremely long lived in comparison to incandescent. Having said that, there are OTHER incandescent technologies that hold a promise of longer life and less energy usage. Back in the early 1900s, Edison Company was producing a few, for sale to institutions only, low wattage, long life bulbs [roadsideamerica.com] a couple of which are nearing their 100 year anniversaries, one of which has exceeded it. In addition to those 5 watt bulbs, GE recently announced a 13

As I recall...

[peacefinder]

... the mercury in CF bulbs is at least somewhat offset by the reduction in mercury emitted by coal-fired power plants.

According to nescaum.org [nescaum.org] coal-fired power releases about 48 tons of mercury per year. TFA claims that each CF bulb contains about five milligrams of mercury.

If we could cut US coal-fired power emissions 10% by replacing 870 million incandescents with lower-power CF bulbs, all of which ended up being disposed of by incineration (sending the CF's mercury into the atmosphere) we'd come about

Re:

[johndiii]

Guess I shouldn't switch, then. Since I buy my electricity from Green Mountain Energy [greenmountainenergy.com], I wouldn't want to be responsible for a net mercury increase. :-)

Re:

[peacefinder]

Well, if you switch to CF and dispose properly of the used CF bulbs, you'd be doubly ahead.

I vote

[bethanie]

for going back to whale oil!!

Scrimshaw and ambergris, anyone?

....Bethanie....

I saw the whale oil comment when I modded

[WillAffleckUW]

I had 5 mod points this morning, so I moderated that discussion, mostly upmodding -1 posts, with a few downmods.

Good point someone made about coal usage creating as much mercury pollution (actually, more) as CFL has, even though CFL uses 1/8th the energy that incandescent does.

I for one welcome our new Canadian CFL-enhanced overlords, and am glad I have dual citizenship.

moof

[Bill Dog]

It appears that this is not a very well-thought-out way to help the environment. Burned-out light bulbs go into landfills,...

What was not well-thought-out was educating the public on properly disposing of them, before urging the public to begin switching to them. Only recently did I come to know, thru TV advertising with that Tool Time co-host/Family Feud host what's-his-name fellar, that they should not just be thrown away like other light bulbs.

Of course, there's also the fact that people tend to not like

Re:

[RevMike]

I don't notice flicker in the curly compact fluors I have now, versus the old tube types above my kitchen, or the ring-tube kind I used to have in one of my lamps. And the quality of the light can be altered. Downstairs a lampshade warms the light up, and at my computer desk I bounce it off a (low) corner ceiling. I greatly prefer diffused over harsh, direct lighting anyways.

A few years ago I was critical of the light quality too, but now far less so. I just bought a few dozen a couple of weeks ago, and

Interesting Comment on Article

[bettiwettiwoo]

n/t