Posted on 12/19/2007 1:18:19 PM PST by truthfinder9
They may lower your bills, but don't really do much for C02:
The U.S. Energy Star program says that if every home in America replaced one normal light bulb with a fluorescent...it would be equivalent to taking 800,000 cars off the road. Sure, that sounds like a lot, but it's less than 0.1 percent of registered cars worldwide. Plus, transportation accounts for only about one-fifth of global emissions anyway.Just the increase in the amount of coal that China will burn by 2020 will send as much C02 into the atmosphere as 3 billion Ford Expeditions, each driven 15,000 miles a year.
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems, p. 7.
Not for long. Mark Levin just said that the newly-signed energy bill bans incandescent light bulbs by 2012. They'll soon be going the route of freon in auto air conditioners for very little environmental benefit.
What about when they break on their way to the landfill?
There needs to be some mandates integrated into any energy/water/whatever laws that if people do actually conserve and become more efficient, that government MUST reduce staffing or costs to keep up their end of the bargain with consumers who are expecting savings the politicians promised.
We’ve lost a lot more freedom than what kind of light bulb we can use and waste a lot more time/money. For starters, 30% of my paycheck is confiscated every other week. Anything we can do to reduce our energy use is a good thing. I agree though that the gov’t shouldn’t mandate it. If people want to waste money & energy, go right ahead. I’ll use CFLs and save plenty of cash. When LEDs get cheaper, I’ll switch to them and save even more money.
I understand. I stand by my comment about strangely warped control freaks.
Well, you’re right. But so are they. Standard light bulbs generate a lot of heat. That’s why the code regulations.
What is it to you or the government what I decide to do in my home? If I don’t want to use them because I don’t want mercury exposure then that should be my choice. My point is that you or the government shouldn’t be able to tell me what to do.
I don’t care if you think it’s manly or not to use a product with mercury . Is it manly for the government to mandate things and make us slaves and for us to accept it like sheep? It’s more manly I think to oppose the government and buy the banned bulbs because they are causing no harm because global warming is a lie.
And I am just trying to point out the hypocrasy and evil of these liberal/socialists.
So liberals are not solving any real problem because global warming is a lie. but they are actually creating an environmental problem when there wasn’t one there to begin with but they tell us that they are curing global warming when the earth is actually cooling now. People will throw into the trash millions of these bulbs with mercury in them. where do you think that mercury will end up? why is that not an environmental problem to the media? The evil and hypocrasy of these liberals is amazing.
First of all there is no reason to switch to these bulbs because Global warming is a big lie , a hoax.
The the liberals and the liberal media constantly have been telling us how capitalism and private companies , wal-mart and companies from China being the most recent scare, have poisonous chemicals in their products. Then the liberal media makes up the global warming hoax. and then they make the government mandate that we all have to change our light bulbs to bulbs with an actual poisonouos chemical in them.
but the liberal media ignores that these bulbs have mercury in them when they have been telling us how companies have been polluting and poisoning us but then they themselves make us buy something with mercury in it which will end up in the water and food.
So liberals are not solving any real problem because global warming is a lie. but they are actually creating an environmental problem when there wasn’t one there to begin with but they tell us that they are curing global warming when the earth is actually cooling now. The evil and hypocrasy of these liberals is amazing.
We use CFLs everywhere but where the fixtures take fluorescents or use decorative incandescents. The only slow warmups are the indoor floods (and not all of those), some of the older CFLs have a second or so turnon delay.
The lighting from them used to be terrible, but the ones we have today, when shaded, are indistinguishable from incandescents.
So....you'd been blowing a hole through the ol' ozone with 560 Watts worth of light so your dog can go pee in the Summertime? There are AM radio stations out there (playing Barry Manilow, no doubt) that don't have that much power at night. Might as well install a GE space-heater right next to Greenland! The AlGore Commissar will be dropping by soon....
;^)
I’m thinking of going down to Costco tomorrow and buying their entire stock of incandescents. I’ll be rich.
Exactly, I don’t want to waste time with light bulb changing.
“Mine are burning out more often then the incandescents.”
Really? That doesn’t seem right. I have three in lamps around the house that are at least 2 years running.
2 years...one of them I know is at least 4.
You should care.
Mercury is going to become the new Radon scam. Before you sell your house, or move out of your apartment, you are going to have to have your house or apartment inspected by a licensed inspector whose sole objective is to find mercury residue. Then you will be required to have it cleaned up by a qualified mercury clean-up crew. You won't be able to do it yourself, and you won't be able to sell your house without it.
It isn't there yet, but just look at the Radon scam, and how quickly that test, and the inevitable expensive remediation, has become standard in many parts of the country.
Radon cant hold a candle to the dangers of mercury, or so theyll say. You may very well wish that you had never heard of florescent lighting.
Same here. They're saving me money and time. A win-win.
My new Walmart Phillips ones are noticeably dimming in months ... They are also lighting slower by the week. I find the long 40W tubes much better for everything.
There are no dimmer switch versions, our house is set up with about 25 ceiling cans with dimmers on the the various circuits. Makes CFLs useless for most of our lighting.
I think the Congress and their Soviet style central planning mentality should get out of the planning business. Market forces are far more efficient for everything, from healthcare to light bulbs. The end result with the Soviets was there weren’t enough bayonets to force anyone to go out in the fields and pick potatoes.
In the end, I think most will give up on mercury laden CFLs and switch to LEDs. I don’t plan on buying anymore of the CFLs.
I agree...LEDs will be the answer once they can boost the light output and lower the cost of production. The CF is really more of a transition product.
Wanna bet? They'll either go in the trash bin or, if government environazis step in with special disposal requirements, people will take them out in the country and toss them out along the side of the road.
I got a neato LED battery powered trouble light coming for Christmas. It’s the one in the long skinny box :-). I started using a small LED flashlight for working on the car a while back, the heat was too much with corded lights. Now that LSD rechargeable batteries are out, I use those exclusively. Never looked back.
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