Shining a light on hazards of fluorescent bulbs

MSNBC ^ | March 19, 2008 | Alex Johnson

[Petronski]

Florescents flicker at 60 Hz (the frequency of AC current).

Modern CFLs do not.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yes, but the fact in your example is is that the market made that change happen, not a forced government policy. It’s one thing when people (the market) wants a better processor voluntarily, it’d be another thing when government says ‘you can no longer buy Pentium 1’s anymore’ and the Pentium II’s are still very expensive because the market hasn’t adjusted their prices down naturally....

[PapaBear3625]

wiki article on flicker effect

[Secret Agent Man]

Yes, I still have small incandescents in our kitchen lamp on our dimmer switch. Our fridge and oven have incandescents.

I am not yet ready to pay what they are asking for CFLs that work on dimmer switch circuits. I may just not even get them and get the white diode lights instead when their prices come down.

[Petronski]

Magnetic ballasts flicker at 60Hz or (later) 120Hz.

This flickers around 20kHz.

[cva66snipe]

I only change my incandescents at about one change per year though except a couple that are close to doors and get jared out. I was replacing bulbs like mad because I had 128/256 VAC sitting on my electrical service. After a few calls to my utility I got a transformer with 115/230/ as I threatened to go public with it.

I am a retired maintenance mechanic with a strong electrical background BTW so I know all about bulbs. I simply buy the brass base incandescents for about 50 cents a box more and no problem. The 128/256 voltage was a far larger issue on my electric bill and bank account in general due to replacing things like water heater elements and pumps etc than my lightbulbs ever were.

[Petronski]

We’re all waiting for LED bulbs. Hopefully soon.

The knock on dimmable CFLs is that they do not dim 0%-100%, but only down to about 30%.

I’ve only read this, and don’t know if (a) it’s true or (b) how much of an issue it truly is.

[tbw2]

Other ideas:
1. Force home owner associations to allow solar panels for anyone who wants them up (greens, anybody in Arizona)
2. Stop tearing down hydro dams for fish spawns. (Maine has done a couple.)
3. Outlaw cities outlawing home offices. People’s eBay businesses, home offices for law or writing or programming, are technically illegal due to zoning (because businesses want rent) Want to save gas and energy? Let people work from home.
4. Encourage home schooling. Less transportation needed.
5. Get rid of limits on geothermal heating/cooling/power systems - and let people build.

[Petronski]

We were running hot her for many years....~129Hz.

We only had to call once. They actually apologized (!) after fixing it.

[ThePythonicCow]

Snopes is kind to Senator Hussein

A google search for snopes site:freerepublic.com shows that this is not the first FR thread to doubt Snopes.

• De-bunking Snopes: the John Kerry Record:

  Snopes attempts to cast John Kerry's egregious anti-Military voting record in a positive light.

• Snopes' bias, Part II:

  "The credibility that they've established is based on the laziness of reporters who have used them as a source."

• I no longer trust Snopes... and neither should you:

  if any of y'all have other examples of Snopes having a slant, please let me know!

• Autodesk's founder reports gross errors by Limbaugh, CNN, Snopes (Remember "Columbia's Last Photo?"):

  Hooray! Hooray! Trashes properly those PC jakes at Snopes!

  I've visited the Snopes site several times over the last few years, generally from links in mail and news discussions and, while there's nothing explicitly bogus about the site, there's something about the tone which I've found consistently off-putting. It's reminiscent of the too-smug, overly-glib style of the Skeptical Inquirer which caused me to let my subscription lapse in the early 80's and, perhaps, set in motion my long migration from CSICOP to Psi-perp.

  Unlike NASA, [SNOPES] did not identify the source (although it had been identified on newsgroups long before Snopes posted this article), and the Snopes commentary itself contains two or three factual errors, depending on how you read it, and misses three of the most obvious things which identify the picture as not taken from Columbia.

  Snopes posts 17 truths to shove an 18th lie in the mix. (IN MY OPINION!)
  

• Is Snopes biased to the left? (vanity):

  Snopes is the most prestigious of all urban legend research sites. But is it biased to the left? Some, including yours truly, believe so. However, judge for yourself.

[cva66snipe]

We were running hot her for many years....~129Hz.

It's what called a back door rate increase LOL. Seriously that is way too high for any house. 120/240 should be a mandatory upper voltage limit allowed for residential service drops. Anything above that is waste as it generates heat and nothing more.

I did fine till TVA ran a 180,000 volt transmission on my place which feeds the new substation my utility built two miles away. When the line was finished the utility to pay for it jacked up the voltage from 115/230 to nearly 130/260. They can't say it's harmless as it leaves no room for surges. Things began burning up and I began checking. At first I thought my Volt/ohm meter was out of whack till I used a second one that confirmed the problem. The utility director tried to tell me it was for future expansion etc and I said B.S. come and fix it or I go public.

[TopQuark]

Yep, especially of certain frequency range.

When I collide with them --- you wouldn't even believe what happens... :)

[CapnJack]

CFL'S, like fluoride, is another damn Commie Plot!

[ThePythonicCow]

Fluorescents flicker at 60 Hz

I wonder if eyes, like ears, loose their high frequency response as one ages. I seem to recall (though my memory is fading ;) being annoyed by fluorescent flicker in my youth. They made irritating high pitched sounds back then too.

Now all the fluorescents I buy produce rock solid light, and are as quiet as my pet rock ;).

If those who still get annoyed by fluorescent didn't mind stating, I'd be interested to know if they were younger than say 40 or 45 years old. I just turned 60 myself.

[ThePythonicCow]

~129Hz isn't hot ... it's fast!!

~129 volts is hot.

<grin>

[TXnMA]

None.

[Smokin' Joe]

...and I like the fact that they don’t take 90% of the energy they use and turn it into heat.

This is a recurring theme in the reasons people from southern latitudes like them.

For those of us practically on the Canadian Border, though, days are considerably shorter in the winter, the time of the year the "waste" heat is a welcome addition to our homes, and much longer in the summer, (IOW, who needs to turn the lights on?) in the summer. The 'extra heat' isn't wasted here, and does not work against the Air Conditioning when we do run it.

The only problem is getting the kids to bed at 11:00 PM in July while the sun is still shining.

("But Papa! It isn't even dark outside!")

So, as usual, we are stuck with a one-size-fits-all solution for a problem we did not have. YMMV

[mylife]

Mandrake! plug in these halogen flood lights!

[WOSG]

“Just build more nukes already.”

So great i am making it my tagline.

[yorkie]

You whipper-snapper, you! ;-)