Are CFLs A Bright Idea?

I didn't realize they contain mercury, my mom has totally switched to the CFL's in her home. I will pass on the EPA website information to her. I prefer the illumination of the incandescent bulbs. Thanks!

Problem is Brian...they don't work, cost 10 times the price and since GE shipped manyfacturing off to China they have not lasted more than six months on average. My biggest beef was finding out the hard way that the noxious smelling odor emitted when the bases get hot contained chemicals my daughter was allergic to! So beside the expense of the bulb, lack or reliability and Emergency Room bills...I guess the were an okay answer to the good old fashioned light switch which I now rely on to conserve energy. I guess the good news is we were able to restart her breathing and remove all the poisonous CFL's from our home without the expense of a Funeral?

The CFL's are no joke! Liz was laughing about them this afternoon but if one breaks in her home, her babies are in danger, and they can hurt adults too. We need to change to LEDs or some other better technology....or keep the old stuff until it is ready. Our ground and sea water will also be polluted from the mercury in the CFLs!

Never mind the added cost, from the increased difficulty to produce (to go along with the additional waste requirements for broken or spent bulbs), likely off sets much of the "saved" energy. Then, I find florescent bulbs give me a head ache, as seems to be the case for a number of people I know.

Too bad Congress in its infinitly wiser foresight will force all producers out that do not make CFL. Candle light here I come!

I cannot express how much fun I've had when my cat dropped a lamp on his way down from the table. The lamp was OK, but the CFL shattered, cat standing in the debris and looking at me funny. I'm definitely looking forward to the law that makes it a requirement for your cat to stand in a pool of mercury, in addition to the shattered glass, every time he tips a lamp.

You're kidding, right?

Hey Brian. Add another item to the "Ways to Control the Way Americans Live" list. We, like you, have a few CFL's around our home but I don't like the way they look either. After I heard Obama speak today, I called my husband and told him we're going to stock up on incandescents before they are outlawed. I also refuse to follow the rules of disposal. I had a thought earlier. What will Las Vegas do about complying with the new standards? Can you imagine?!! My husband tells me the CFL's will not "blink" and you cannot adjust the brightness of them. I guess Nevada will have to get a bailout to replace all the bulbs in Las Vegas, huh? Utter nonsense!

I've got some fossils in my barn. They don't burn very well. Oil and natural gas are not fossil fuels. Sullivan and the DC Micro and Macro tyrants are ignorant or corrupt in perpetuating this nonsense.

Banning the manufacture of incadescent lightbulbs in this country will only create an underground market for such bulbs imported from other countries. Meanwhile, I am working on my stockpile of Reveal bulbs!

This is old news. Obama is just parroting the "Green Line" from a couple years ago. This business of CFL's ranks right up there with conserving toilet paper by only using one sheet per visit, and taxing cow farts.

The mercury content in a traditional mercury thermometer is roughly 125 times the mercury in a typical CFL today. The EPA cleanup recommendations are a little excessive for most situations. Did you a 1 lb box of mothballs dropped in a crawlspace makes the area an EPA hazardous waste site? A couple thousand dollars wouldn't even get the crews onsite! Yes, many CFLs are junk, and fail quickly. However, energystar rating requirements include mercury content limits, minimum startup times (1 sec to light, 8 sec to 90% brigthness, if I recall correctly), and life expectancy minimums, as well as the expected efficiency requirements. CFLs come in several light "temperatures" resulting in reddish to bluish tints (Our high temperature (bluish) floodlight makes it seem almost like moonlight in our yard.), so the color issue shouldn't be a big one. Additionally, some CFLs work with dimming, although you have to look a bit to find them. I do not in any way support the move to ban incandescents any more than a move to require airbags for everyone, especially the 5'-1" woman who couldn't have hers removed professionally even when pregnant and having already had a fetus killed by an airbag. However, the mercury issue is a bit overblown, and the use of references to obsolete and poorly built CFLs to damage the performance image of CFLs overall is the same method presently being used to discredit the construction of nuclear plants.

While it's true that CFLs contain a tiny amount of mercury and should be recycled properly (at your local Home Depot, for instance), the coal that's burned to light our homes also contains mercury that goes up into the air we all breathe and into the groundwater we all drink. So think of it this way: Every time someone flips the switch to light an incandescent bulb they're putting 4 times the mercury into the environment compared to using CFLs.

The EPA standards for drinking water in parts per billion for Mercury is 2. The atmospheric mercury appears to be negligible, as I can't find a single reliable source that reports it. A CFL appears to have 4-5 mg of mercury, or 2.24x10^-5 mol (using 4.5 mg), or 1.3x10^18 molecules of Hg. That's 13 followed by 17 zeros. For the Hg vapor in a CFL bulb to be bellow the 2 ppb it would need to be diffused in ~10^4 or 10,000 moles of air. At sea level one mole of air takes up about 25 Liters. So we need 250,000 Liters. Or about 1/4 a cubic decameter (10m x 10m x 10m, or 1000m^3, a 1500 sq. ft. home would have a volume of about 139m3). So, if you are anywhere near a CFL bulb and the time it breaks, you are almost certainly being over-exposed to Hg. Not to mention if you are the one doing the breaking you're being exposed to this mercury possibly on your skin, and in a volume less than 1m^3. So, given the choice between having a coal burning plant add some Hg to the atmosphere or water and have it diluted down to "safe" standards or have the coal burning plant release less Hg and risk a high concentration dose of Hg in my home, I choose the former.

I realize that this is definitely a divisive issue, but please remember that it is important to recycle your CFLs and other fluorescent bulbs. There's no reason not to, and it is very easy. One innovative recycling program is EasyPak, which lets you mail in your fluorescent bulbs- check it out at www.lamprecycling.com. It's especially good for businesses, schools, and hospitals that have lots of bulbs. Also check out my bulb recycling blog at http://blog.lamprecycling.com/ .