Posted on 12/19/2007 1:18:19 PM PST by truthfinder9
They last about 5x as long as a normal bulb. If a normal bulb lasts you 3-4 months, then 1 1/2 years is normal for a CFL. The 5 year quote is off normal use which is 3-4 hours per day only.
“The government should not tell us what kind of bulbs we have to use.”
People will cross state lines to buy lightbulbs now! Bwaaa! They’ll bring lightbulbs home when they vacation!
Yes but it should be your choice if you want to risk being exposed to the “small” amount of mercury if you break one. The government shouldn’t force all of us to buy this crap if we don’t want to risk that exposure even if the risk is small ( I bet the liberal media says it’s small and they don’t lie huh).
If you want to buy it that’s ok. I just don’t approve of the government mandating all of us. We are losing freedom.
I would like to see the calculations that lead one to think the ratioAs a life-long bookkeeper, I cannot buy it as stated.
Mine were a lot more expensive.
They'll set up a bureaucracy to handle disposal!
“keep your incandescents to use in closets “
Considered a fire hazard and are against code in many places!
In the near future, the guy who sidles up to your car, and asks,”Do you wanna buy some rocks?” will be askin’ “Hey! Wanna buy a light bulb?”
Of course, anybody will be nervous when smelling smoke. This part of the design needs some improvement.
Mine don’t seem to last much longer than incandescents.
Home depot has 14watt soft white bulbs giving off 60watt lite a 4 pack for $2.97. I like these and have lowered my bills noticably. I never paid more than $1 a bulb.
That’s because your 1.6 gal toilet was designed properly to work with a 1.6 gallon flush. The earlier ones were not.
I had to replace a toilet this year and I researched them on flushing power, got a great American Standard (just a simple model with a great rating) and it works fantastic. Much better than the old one. Helps keep the water bill from getting bigger.
It’s pretty sad that only 30% of my water bill is for actual water used. 70% is service charges, connection fees, wastewater estimate charges, etc.
I put one of those damn expensive bulbs in a ceiling fixture in my garage — the traffic congestion on my commute is just as bad and my electrical utility cost is still about the same.
I replaced mine a couple years ago and haven’t had to change one out yet.
I think some people may have more problems depending on how old their wiring is, how old the external wiring and transformers are in their neighborhood, the quality and cleanness of the electricity coming into their home (less noise, how consistent the voltage is), and whether they get a lot of lightning strikes where they live. All of this can factor in, I think.
Stop breaking light bulbs. I've never broken one, and only once or twice in my memory have I seen a bulb broken. The world is inherently dangerous and if you go through life wantonly breaking things, eventually one of them will hurt you. So be more careful. And stop panicking over 4mg of mercury. If you are a man, it is womanly; if you are a woman, it is unattractive. You'd have to break a dozen bulbs and snort the fumes for hours to hurt yourself. (IANAD, I employ hyperbole, do not try this at home. But one bulb in an average-sized, ventilated room won't hurt you unless you cut yourself on the glass. Just sweep it up, double bag it and recycle it or throw it away.)
I have a fireplace that we use to heat the living and dining rooms, and we like the ambiance of a cozy fireplace on a cold night. But fireplaces are very inefficient home heaters since roughly 75-85% of the heat produced goes up the flue even with the supposedly more efficient all steel types like mine with enclosed chambers for heating air and vents for convection circulation of the heated air.
That's why I want to get a soapstone wood stove like my neighbor uses to heat his entire house, which is larger than mine btw. He says that he can load his stove with wood before retiring for the night and have hot coals in the stove and a comfortably heated house next morning. But my problem is the same as yours, I don't have the space necessary to install a wood stove with sufficient space around it to be safe. I recently talked to a salesman at a local store that sells wood stoves, and he says he can safely fit one into my home. But I doubt that, and anyway his prices are way out of line according to online wood stove sources. A $3000 wood stove would take years of use to save enough money over my present cost for firewood to make it worth the trouble and inconvenience of having another space-taker-upper in our small and crowded living room, especially a very hot space-taker-upper. If I can locate a decent one at about half that price or less I might consider it more seriously.
Since my store doesn't carry these bulbs, I would have to special order them, which works in my favor since all employees get special orders at 10% above cost, knocking the price down considerably.
And speaking of the light bulb police, have you seen what they've done with ceiling fan lights? All ceiling fans manufactured after January 1, 2007 are equipped with candelabra-based (small base) light fixtures.
The "official" reason given for this change is that people were putting too heavy of a wattage of bulb in their fans and were starting fires. If this were true, however, wouldn't these same people be doing the same thing in their regular light fixtures? Most of the older ceiling fan light kits were equipped with ceramic sockets, which were capable of handling bulbs up to 100 watts in strength, while most regular fixtures have plastic sockets that are barely capable of handling a 60 watt bulb and usually burn out after just a couple of years.
Now, given the two, which do you think is the greater fire danger?
A fire hazard? How is having the light on for less than 5 minutes a day in the closet a fire hazard? As opposed to any place else in you dwelling?
You may have some strangely warped control freaks writing your building code. Perhaps they’re pointing out absurdity by being absurd?
Yep.Same for me.About 1 year.And the bulbs in the garage.Hardly used.
“You may have some strangely warped control freaks writing your building code. Perhaps they’re pointing out absurdity by being absurd?”
No, it’s because they think you’re stupid enough to forget to turn the light out!
I only have one walk in with insufficient lighting, but I wired it with a door activated switch. But many people just have a switch or even a pullstring. That’s why! This is a very common code regulation.
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