Posted on 06/11/2008 7:02:10 PM PDT by JohnRLott
No matter how well-meaning, politicians frequently fail to understand all the consequences of their laws. Real world costs, the costs and benefits faced by those who will actually have to live with the regulations, often elude those who pass these rules. Yet, even by those depressing standards, problems with the mandated that people will soon be forced to use stand out.
The advantages of compact fluorescent light bulbs are obvious. While the fluorescent bulbs can cost 10times more than incandescent ones, fluorescent bulbs use 75percent less electricity and last up to 10times longer.
But longer life and energy savings come with a caveat — the fluorescent bulbs must be used for at least 15minutes once they are turned on and ideally for at least several hours at a time. Turning them off quickly after you have turned them on dramatically reduces their life expectancy. Not being able to use light bulbs simply when it is convenient is a cost the consumers will bear even if politicians didn’t factor it into their estimates of savings.
But those are just a tiny fraction of the other real world costs. As many now know, the compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury. The hazards are not trivial. One study found that “immediately after the bulb was broken - and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted - levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times.”
The EPA has come up with detailed advice on how to deal with how to put bulbs into sockets, cleanup spills, dispose of bulbs, and even safely transport them. For example, drop cloths should be placed on the floor under sockets in case bulbs are dropped, to cushion the fall. But if that fails, the cleanup process becomes incredibly involved. (Continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
???Is there any way to dim a CFL, or does it just flicker with lower voltage???
About 90% of the lighting in my house is dimmable, for mood, don’cha know!!
You take Viagra before changing the lightbulb. That just sounds wierd!
I guess if you take enough you don’t need to stand on a chair...
Three way lights are available (equiv to 100 and 150watts). A dimmer is just not possible. Thank you congress.
I’ve had a lot of broken bulbs over the years. There is a hazard to large dogs and their tails, they can knock the lamps off the table when excited.
Exactly. Dosage makes the poison. And once the bulb goes into a landfill, the dosage of mercury vapor is zero.
“This bit about the danger of the mercury in the bulb is ABSOLUTELY STUPID.”
People that are worried about this seem to have forgotten, or never knew, that standard fluorescent tubes we’ve been using for years have far more mercury in them than the newer CFL’s.
LoL!
Not true at all. This myth was soundly busted on Mythbusters. It takes only a second or two for a fluorescent bulb to reach peak efficiency and the poser it consumes during that 1 or 2 seconds is barely enough to power it for 5 seconds at operating temp.
Also, a secondary savings is realized in the summer by using fluorescent bulbs is that they produce much less HEAT than an incandescent bulb, which uses only 5% of the energy it consumes to produce light, the rest is heat that must be removed from the house during the summer.
We've made a fun hobby out of being cheap.
We went from 8 watt night lights to 4 watts...... To LEDs...
I give the utility companies as little as possible. Even our exterior lights went to motion detectors. Probable save 150 bucks a year not burning outside lights all night every night.
Is it even a proper and Constitutional function of Congress to get involved in such things? Wouldn’t a better solution be to just GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY and obey the Constitution? Especially look up the Tenth Amendment... If there is no specific grant of authority, then there is NO authority. How hard would it be for our congresscritters to realize this simple fact?
how hard? Impossibly hard. They would have to give up power and stop torturing the Commerce Clause.
I agree but we lost a big chunk of our republic along time ago with the 17th ammendment. The weakest link to bring down this house of cards should be obvious by now. See my tagline.
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I agree, sad to say. I keep getting the impression that it’s time to use the Constitutional reset button. Better now than when my sons and granddaughters have to do it. At least many of MY generation have the needful training and skills.
I’ve not broken that many lightbulbs in my life, but once they have expired or burned out, they have to go somewhere. Mercury in the landfill? Water? Don’t we need special recycling for these buggers?
Repealing the 16th and 17th amendments would be a good start... starve the government and I don’t care HOW many “laws” they pass... with no affordable enforcement mechanism, all they’re good for is kindling anyway. Maybe to light the fires under the politicians standing tied to the stakes.
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