Right wing conspiracy?

Last night on one of the news channels I saw a story on how Compact Flourescent (CF) bulbs are going to be mandatory by 2014 and that they contain insane levels of Mercury. They did a brief how to for bulb breakage and on cleaning up a broken bulb without growing a third teste.

The story closed and went to a commercial featuring John McCain. It's the commercial featuring the little squares with pictures popping up with as the announcer states Johns stand on various subjects. On saving the earth through energy conservation it shows a picture of a CF energy efficient light bulb.

John McCain is trying to kill me by mercury poisoning.

Once upon a time there were no sealed beam head lights in cars. GE invented the thing and campaigned Congress to pass a "sealed beam only" type law and oh by the way, it's patented. Gotta buy it from us.

Think John McCain has stock it the company?

Whats wrong with groing a third teste, sell it to a tesicular cancer survivor

Bad taste aside, multiple companies make CF bulbs, i get the GV brand one from wal*mart. Unless all the others are just re-badged GE's.

Apparently they also want to come out with a new refrigerant standard, let me guess Duponts patent on R-134a is running out?

I don't know about anyone else, but my experience with CF bulbs is that they have about 1/2 the life of regular bulbs. Maybe just a bad batch, who knows.

aircooled wrote: Apparently they also want to come out with a new refrigerant standard, let me guess Duponts patent on R-134a is running out? I don't know about anyone else, but my experience with CF bulbs is that they have about 1/2 the life of regular bulbs. Maybe just a bad batch, who knows.

Unfortunately, I'm getting long life out of mine. This is unfortunate because I hate them. 30 seconds to full light is bullE36 M3.

Huh, all I use are CFL's and I've never had any issues. They seem to last quite a bit longer too (which they're supposed to). Quality of light isn't the best, but I find it no worse than from incandescents; just not great in a different way.

Only weird thing I've noticed is, on one of those 3-click lamps (for a 30/60/90 bulb), the first click makes the bulb blink once then go out, and I need to go to the second click for the bulb to function; the third click is the same as the second.

my only issue with the CFLs are i need to up the watt-equivilent. Things that call for 60w regulars, i need to use the =75w bulbs. It still drops the electric bill, so I'm happy. Of course we didnt start using CFLs till recently, so maybe QC has improved from older CFLs.

Even though they say that some are compatible I am yet to see a CF work worth a E36 M3 with a multi step dimmer.

Dave, there are fast start and slow start ones. A lot of the "coil" bulbs are fast start and a lot of the "globe" ones are slower. We have both throughout the house. The bathrooms that have 3 or 5 fixtures per switch will get 2 or 3 slow start and fast start or 2. Instant light but not instantly harsh. The bedroom is the same way, we have three slow bulbs in our ceiling fan and two fast bulbs in the bedside lamps, all switched with one flick.

I have a house full of the CFs and they work fabulously!! I have never had an issue with low light levels when warming up nor short life. I do seem to have to go up one size rating to get good light, but 22 watts vs 18? C'mon that's not an issue.

Heat generated is way better in CFs. If you have recessed can lights you NEED CFs! Can lights have a heat sensor that cuts the bulb off if heat gets too high which means you have to run an undersized bulb and not get enough light or run the proper sized and put up with the light cutting off and on periodically. CFs totally eliminate this problem.

One thing I have found is that light color makes a huge difference. The cool whites (a slightly yellow light) take quite a bit bigger bulb to get the equivalent visibility as does the daylight bulb (a slightly bluer bulb). They make 2 different daylight colors. The higher degree kelvin bulb puts off a harsher light but the mid range daylight bulb (4,000k I think) makes it easier to discern colors and makes viewing much crisper and better than the more yellow bulbs.

In the winter incandescent bulbs are as efficient as the CFL's.

The energy that's not light is heat, and this means your furnace has to run less.

-James

jamscal wrote: In the winter incandescent bulbs are as efficient as the CFL's. The energy that's not light is heat, and this means your furnace has to run less. -James

Yeah but incandescent bulbs are really inefficient heaters. They waste so much energy making light!

John Brown wrote: Last night on one of the news channels I saw a story on how Compact Flourescent (CF) bulbs are going to be mandatory by 2014 and that they contain insane levels of Mercury.

There's not much mercury at all in a CFL. This is from an Energystar FAQ dated June 2008.

Do CFLs contain mercury? CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 4 milligrams – about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury – an amount equal to the mercury in 125 CFLs. Mercury is an essential part of CFLs; it allows the bulb to be an efficient light source. No mercury is released when the bulbs are intact (not broken) or in use. Most makers of light bulbs have reduced mercury in their fluorescent lighting products. Thanks to technology advances and a commitment from members of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the average mercury content in CFLs has dropped at least 20 percent in the past year. Some manufacturers have even made further reductions, dropping mercury content to 1.4 – 2.5 milligrams per light bulb.

The FAQ sheet also explains how they result in less mercury contributed to the environment compared to regular bulbs, when you factor in the greenhouse gases produced when the electricity is generated. http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf

I have some of them in my house, and they work well. They come on instantly and the light color is fine.

(To mods--I hit "report" instead of "reply"--obviously disregard).

Anyway, Just about every light in my house that isn't on a dimmer is a CFL now.

I have no issues w/ them. Took the tiniest bit of getting used to, but whatever. The 2 100w bulbs in my garage are now 23W each. This is a good thing.

aircooled wrote: I don't know about anyone else, but my experience with CF bulbs is that they have about 1/2 the life of regular bulbs. Maybe just a bad batch, who knows.

You must have a bad batch. PLs (compact fluorescents) are supposed to have a 10,000-hour life (10x the life of old incandescents, and more reliable as well). In fact, that was their chief selling point when they were introduced 20 years ago.

John McCain is in bed with "Big Mercury!" No blood for Mercury!!!

I prefer not to have any wings at all.. but if I have to have them, they should be centred to keep me from moving in circles.

Seriously though, I love the CFLs.. they have made a LARGE difference in my lighting bill. I can't wait till LEDs get cheaper though.

I have to both agree and disagree with mad machine.

+1 on the LEDs, as for wings, I dont care if its right or left, just as long as it comes in a good garlic parm sauce

It isn't the fact that CF bulbs have mercury in them that is a problem, the problem is that there needs to be a recycling mechanism in place for CFs and for that matter, pretty much any type of sealed tube...as nearly all of them have some type of "ingredient" in them that can cause cancer if/when it leeches into the environment.

BTW, one of the first CFs used by my parents was in a cellar stairway light fixture. We went with a (supposedly) long-life CF mostly because it is so difficult to change the bulb in this fixture when it burns out. I think there is/was an electrical fault in this fixture as it "eats" bulbs at a very high rate...CFs or non-CFs, doesn't matter.

DILYSI Dave wrote: Unfortunately, I'm getting long life out of mine. This is unfortunate because I hate them. 30 seconds to full light is bullE36 M3.

Mine all take under a second...just how old is that bulb?

And CFL's don't contain any huge amount of mercury. Less than a tubular fluorescent bulb in fact.

Mine only take a while if it's REALLY cold. One winter I wasn't working regularly, so I had the heat on the minimum it would go, 50 I think. That winter I could really tell, but I've never noticed other than that.