Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: Proceed with Caution (Think Twice before Discarding Incandescent)

American Thinker ^ | 09/22/2010 | Peter Wilson

[MrB]

There have already been schools evacuated because of CFL breakage, pending cleanup.

Won’t be long before kids figure this out.

[nina0113]

Plus they look really ugly in decorative fixtures. We use the candelabra bulbs in those, and the three-way in the reading lamps.

[1951Boomer]

Thanks. didn’t know that. The cashier at the dollar store where I buy them had not heard they were being phased out. Maybe this news has slipped by a lot of folks.

[Jaidyn]

Two of those curly monsters broke soon after being put into the socket. They don't just break, but shatter into thousands of pieces, that takes a vacuum to pick them up. Even so, I found pieces in other rooms in my house.

They cannot be used in many lampshades and ceiling fans/lights because their either don't fit, or look stupid. Nearly all the bulbs I bought, burned out in less than a year. They are a huge, dangerous waste of money.

[muawiyah]

Tungston is radioactive ~

[bboop]

I’m with you on those two reasons — they are butt-ugly and I am sick and tired of the State telling me to do ANYTHING. Plastic bags, incandescent bulbs, cholesterol, french fries — I am going whole hog on ALL of them.

Just in spite. It’s my own little one-person Tea Party, every day in every way.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Foreseeing this idiocy, I have been hoarding the old-fashioned light bulbs—mainly because I detest those horrid-looking, wormy new spiral ones

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Isn’t there a law that all homes and businesses should replace incandescents by CFL by a certain date? ( I forget when ?).

How would you like some bureaucrat sending you a letter or knocking at your door gently ( or roughly as the case may be ) reminding you that you are breaking the law ?

Not saying that I agree with this, but that a law like this even exists ought to cause people ( including the Tea Party movement ) to go up in arms.

[FrankR]

CFL's are an enviromentalists' boondoggle.

There needs to be some money-following to find out who's getting rich on CFL's, and any connection to them by the clowns who passed this ridiculous law banning incandescents.

I'm buying up incandescents as fast as I can afford and putting them back for later. I will not buy a CFL. My electric co-op recently left two CFL's on everyone's doorstep; I took them back to the office when I paid my electric bill and told them no thanks.

I think the lamest thing I've seen is a house where they replaced all of the outside floodlights, with 60-watt CFL's...it wasn't even bright enough to attract candleflies.

CFL's are - IMHO - a scam to sell CFL's. Think of the concept: "Now, how many light bulbs are in America? If we could get a law passed to out law them all, we could make a fortune selling replacements. Yeahhhh, that's the ticket. Never mind that the mercury in them is ten times worse on the environment than the addition electricity used by standard light bulbs...but we just won't mention that ok?"

CFL's - or spaghetti bulbs - are as big a hoax as global warming...probably bigger. Other than appeasing the environuts, there are not significant reasons for switching.

It will be like the tobacco thing...they make it almost impossible to find a place for smokers to light up, quadruple the taxes, run anti-smoking campaigns out the yang-yang...then millions of people quit smoking, and the same nanny-staters that bitch about smoking, are now bitching about the loss of tobacco revenue in taxes.

If everyone cuts their power usage in half, the electric companies will be crying the blues about the loss of income,as they will still have to maintain the generators, power lines, and customer service; that generator in the coal fired plant, or hydroelectric is going to be running whether we use CFL's or incandescents. Their operating expenses will go down very little, but their income will go down a lot.

It's the "be careful what you ask for" scenario.

Spaghetti bulbs are for meatballs."

[arthurus]

I started replacing all my incandescents 10(?) years ago as the incans burned out. Where I live the power is unreliable and is out several times a week for a nanosecond to a few minutes as transformers on power poles blow and the voltage varies a bit constantly. The incans were lasting from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. Since I started the replacement I have replaced one(1) CFL. I have no problems with them in cold weather (It seldom gets below 40F here) and they seem as bright as the incans they replace. They mostly take a second or less to come all the way on. I have a stash of incans because there are, indeed, some applications where they are better and because the government outlawed them.

[dblshot]

I saw some LED light bulbs that look just like an incandescent bulb at the store recently. are they worth trying?

[MrB]

Other than appeasing the environuts, there are not significant reasons for switching.

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I have a relative who is the epitome of a liberal that is a liberal in order to feel good about herself. That is THE major motivation behind this.
“I CARE! I’m doing something to save the erf!”

[LoneStarGI]

I have never and will never use a CFL bulb. Instead, I’ve begun replacing my incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. Yes, currently they are expensive and not easy to come by (usually requires an online order), but the benefits are worth it. They use less electricity than a CFL, they don’t get hot even after hours of use, they don’t require a ‘warm up period’, come in a variety of styles and brightnesses, and have a usage-life of 60,000 hours. I’ve even got a pair of LED bulbs that are ‘dim-able’ flanking my garage.

[DustyMoment]

I tried some of the first generation of CFLs and quickly learned that I could waste my money more easily by just throwing it away as spend it on these things.

I’ve been building a stock of incandescents in anticipation of the day that the government bans them here (which I think occurs in 2013).

LED bulbs make more sense but, the rocket scientists in Congress have already thrown their megalomaniac brain power behind the CFL junk science and won’t soon reverse their decision in favor of LEDs.

[Sherman Logan]

During the heating season CFLs lose much of their efficiency advantage. The inefficiency of the incandescent bulbs is released as heat, which just helps reduce the energy consumption of the furnace.

OTOH, in cooling season the extra heat load must be removed by the AC, which makes incandescents doubly inefficient.

Most comparisons of efficiency ignore both of these rather important factors.

[yesca]

Goodwill, yard sales, etc., I've got quite a collection, my fav. is an old Edison shape(like over yer' head when you get an idea) 300 watt'r that puts out a great big beautiful spectrum & BTU's too, I use it in my bedroom in winter on a dimmer(lasted for years now).

Worked for a time in theatrical lighting , so I'm quite the fan of the wonderful variety of the blessed incandescent!

[Vor Lady]

I hate CFLs; I hate the light they produce, I hate the flickering and I hate the noise they make.

I have been stockpiling incandescants since they passed that silly law banning them. I have enough to keep my house in incandescants for 5-7 years depending on usage. I have high hopes that adults will be back in charge by then and get rid of that ridiculous legislation.

If I could convince my hubby to let me rent a storage space for them, I’d stockpile them and become the incandescant black market queen.

[DustyMoment]

My son and his wife used in their home and they actually burned. The bottom of the bulb got black and smelly.

We had the same experience with ours. That's why we went back to incandescents.

[ßuddaßudd]

Out with the CFLs and in with the LED lights in the near future. . ☼

[dila813]

I purchased cfls at subsidized prices and still lost money. In the first 6 to 8 months 55% failed costing me a cool 400 plus dollars.

After 3 years, about 10% are left but the incadence bulbs are still going strong. My cfls were Phillips, not a cheap brand.

I hate cfls now, I am converted.

[MrB]

The phaseout begins in 2012 with the 100 watt bulb
and ends in 2014 with the 40 watt bulb.