Planet Earth banning common light bulbs

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | March 22, 2007

[AlexW]

"Common sense is out the window. Loved mercury cleanup when I was young."

Your so right. I loved playing with mercury, and the asbestos purge was also a massive scam, just as Gorbal Warming.

[SteamShovel]

the fluorescent bulbs save electricity and last longer

I had one of these bulbs the local utility offered at a reduced price as a gimmick to reduce demand. One day it started sparking and smoking and I had to shut the lite off. If I was away, it might have started a fire. This is not to mention that the light intensity is awful and makes me go blind with eye strain.

I'm all for energy efficiency, but these incandescent fluorescent replacement bulbs are not the answer. I also disagree that the government should have anything to do with it. It ought to be my own decision based on my (non government inflated) electric bill.

[I got the rope]

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/research/mercury-bulbs.pdf

There's going to be a lot more mercury out there.

[Cronos]

The reality is that people will run more lights longer if they are forced to use CFs everywhere to get around the warmup time

CF BULBS don't have a warmup time more than a fraction of a second -- the ones I have, have the same "warmup" time as an incandescent bulb. For the larger rooms, I DO use CF TUBES and THEY do have a warmup time of nearly a second.

[Cronos]

Why not let the marketplace make that determination? Are we going to mandate that everyone upgrade their furnaces and A/Cs?

Well, we did make it mandatory for polluting vehicles and to upgrade housing materials etc. I don't think mandating CF bulbs is really something to object to. Other things, I'd agree is stupid, like banning guns or something like that.

[kabar]

Well, we did make it mandatory for polluting vehicles and to upgrade housing materials etc. I don't think mandating CF bulbs is really something to object to. Other things, I'd agree is stupid, like banning guns or something like that.

We [government] mandate too much. If these CF bulbs are so superior, then why can't the marketplace decide what is best? Polluting vehicles and housing material requirements are more connected to health and safety rather than cost savings.

There are pros and cons associated with CF bulbs. It is an evolving technology that needs to address some of the cons before total conversion could even become a possibility. Let the USG convert all of its facilities to CF bulbs first. Or will they buy CF indulgences from Al Gore?

[Ford4000]

Well, I bought a new Philips CF last week that produces about as much light as a kerosene lamp for the first minute and full warmup seems to take about 5. In cool temperatures they are even worse. Standard fluorecent tubes are much better in this respect.

No wonder the Philips company is trying to get them mandated.

[ridesthemiles]

-- the fluorescent bulbs save electricity and last longer. I don't see why incandescent bulbs should be allowed any more. We don't allow smoke belching factories in the hearts of our cities, nor smoke belching cars, so why not retrict these old bulbs?""

I have up close and personal experience with these bulbs that everyone thinks are the latest answer to everything.
They cost my client $8 each for his office. They said they lasted 8000 hours. He was open from 8:30 to 5 every day. Closed for lunch and on weekends. We replaced the bulbs as often as every 3 months, and I don't remember one lasting even as long as 5 months.
Do the math--- that is nowhere near 8000 hours.

They are useless in cold situations. No longer a light in your refrigerator? Nothing in your garage?? How about the security lights on your house or elsewhere on your property??? Is this what you want?

$8 for a bulb instead of about 99 cents. Less actual light output. Much less length of time usage. Doesn't work in cold. Has excess Mercury in it, and, if past history means anything, we will be charged a serious surcharge to dispose of them.

The biggest parts of your electric bill are: Air conditioning-----Heat in all electric homes---Hair dryers---toasters---electric range--electric clothes dryer.

I don't have air conditioning. I have a house equal in size to my neighbors. We obviously have very similar weather circumstances. My summer electric bill has only once been $125.00, and I pump my own water, as do they. Neighbors with A/C have bills between $475.00 and $600.00 a month in the summer.

We have created a society that wants to be in a narrow "comfort zone" at all times. I grew up without anything close to air conditioning. Now EVERY dwelling/business/automobile MUST have A/C. We have become pampered beyond belief. Now you are attacking light bulbs over pennies, while stepping over dollars.

All of the followers of this theory are just plain nuts.

Now tell me again about how much money I am going to save by changing from 99 cents bulbs to $8 bulbs... $8 bulbs which don't last as long.

[AFPhys]

Have you ever tried one of those fluorescents in your cold garage? On the front porch? As security "motion detected" lighting outdoors? In a cold cellar?

Sure, you could replace some of those applications with MUCH higher wattage bulbs, or multiple bulbs and fixtures, or mercury vapor, etc... but fluorescents don't hack it in many applications.

Any time the on/off cycle that is short is inherently bad, VERY BAD, for the fluorescents. They have a very long warm up time during which they are dim, and each time they are cycled it greatly shortens their lifetime. Turn them on and off enough, and the additional energy it costs to make them exceeds the electricity they "save".

I USE the compact fluorescents in several areas of my home: where they are turned on and will remain on for hours. That is where they shine.

Banning them will result in inefficiency.

[ridesthemiles]

What about the mercury, and the headaches"

For those of us with eyeglasses, the coating against CF's is very expensive. I need to pay $175 more just to get that protective coating when I buy glasses. Since I am basically retired, I skipped it on my last pair, and now the government is mandating I get headaches????

[AFPhys]

They work fine outdoors when you give them a long time to warm up. Usually, when I go out to the porch or garage at night, it is for short periods - say, five or so minutes. By the time I turn the light back off, a CF will barely have reached reasonable light. Big tube fluorescents are only a little better.

Sorry... for many of us, CFs are not good options for many of the applications we have in our homes.

[ridesthemiles]

Those stupid waterbased paints are not even close to being as good as the oil based paints when you go to paint your house. "

Thank you for reminding me about that.

The enviros forced changes in paint formulas, and they made the problem worse:

Say that an old style gallon of paint contained 100 units of pollutants.
Say that the new style gallon of paint now mandated contains 50 units of same pollutants.

Old style paint lasted 15 to 20 years, and often better brands guaranteed long life with their paints.

New style gallon of paint lasts 3-4 yers at best, and coverage is not satisfactory.

So--the enviros have made you change from a 15-20 year paint to a 3-4 year paint.
You are painting 4-5 times as often, using 4-5 times more paint.

100 units once every 15 years.
50 units every 3-4 years.
Uses 4-5 times the gallons of paint, so now you have created up to 250 units of pollution instead of 100 units.

I haven't even factored into the math the poor coverage of the newer style of paint. That increases the pollution in the new style even more.

These light bulbs are no different.

The Government is hawking a policy similar to the Emperor's new clothes.

[ridesthemiles]

I forgot to discuss the 4-5 times labor costs if the homeowner isn't doing the painting himself.

Sure hurts the homeowner who is living on a fixed income.

For many of us, the cost of living isn't very fixed, but the money we have to do it with is VERY fixed.

[NavyCanDo]

So the alternative "fluorescent bulbs" gives us a whole new problem - landfills filled with mercury. That's if you can get them to the landfill in the first place being my garbage collector will not take fluorescent bulbs, in fact you can be fined if putting them out with the trash.

I use them in my garage and when they burn out I have to resort to putting on a mask and busting them up while contained in a empty trash can - then dumb the contents into a paper bag and hide it in the trash.

Before they try to solve one problem, try coming up with a better alternative first. If they would do that they would not have to pass any laws - Consumers would flock to a good light bulb that will lower their energy bills dramatically.

[NavyCanDo]

"The enviros forced changes in paint formulas, and they made the problem worse"

Here in Washington, they use to paint the street center lines in reflective paint which was always comforting on a dark rainy night. Because of the banning of certain chemicals in the paint used, the paint used is no longer reflective and the lines can be very hard to see when the pavement is wet at night. I wonder how many accidents, deaths, and injuries were caused by someone crossing the center line because they couldn't see it.

[SoCal Pubbie]

If they're worried about the heat generated by incandescent bulbs, can a move on halogens be far behind?

[ctdonath2]

Wait 'til they come after hot water. You ain't seen nutin' yet.

Of late I've been in the shower (pending crisis or not ;-) noting how much energy goes into heating the hot water source, only to be negated by mixing with cold water to adjust it to "just right". One shower per person per day times a billion or so makes that a LOT of wasted energy. Hilarity will ensue when they come after showers...

[ctdonath2]

Ask the advocates if the type of one's light bulb is so important as to warrant fines, imprisonment or (if the former two are sufficiently resisted) death.

[ctdonath2]

Or photography? or any other normal application where the type of light source is vital?

Idiots think they can, with a few minutes pondering, cover all the impact of such laws.

[ctdonath2]

I don't see why incandescent bulbs should be allowed any more.

Umm...because the alternatives suck? I keep trying CFLs, and keep regretting it. The color is bad, the startup flicker is bad, the price is high, disposal is toxic, the brightness isn't, ... frankly the emitted light itself seems toxic.