Are compact fluorescent bulbs still a bright idea?

Another major problem is that CFLs can't be used with dimmers.

Just throw the darn thing in the garbage.

I'm sorry, but I don't see what is so green about a lightbuld that contains mercury, a poison. I really doubt people are gonna drive these to a special recycling center and pay a $1/bulb to throw them away. 99.9% are gonna get thrown in the trash. Plus, flourescents still throw a weird light that makes everything look like crap.
Instead of eating less to lose weight, people in this county try to find ways to eat more (fat free, reduced carb, etc.)
Instead of reducing consumption and packaging to help the environment, we try to find better ways to throw all the crap away we buy (recycling).

Exactly. The bulbs only contain 1.7 milligrams of mercury, most of which has formed a chemical bond with the glass (depending on the age of the bulb).

Most of us have broken a thermometer or two leading to exposure hundreds of times greater than that of a CFL and we are still alive to tell about it.

I don't think CFL's are going to be very bright in -5F porch lights this winter.
It's taking forever for my EasyBake oven to cook this cupcake!!!

Rich wrote:

Just throw the darn thing in the garbage.

Let's try and more forward to LED lighting technology

also many ACE hardware sores now will take CFL's for recycling

Where I work now has started a program where employees can bring in failed CFL's for recycling

XYU wrote:

Another major problem is that CFLs can't be used with dimmers.

Actually, they do make CFLs that can be used with dimmer switches, however, they are much more expensive and are a pain to find. Home Dumpo occasionally has them.

I believe Home Depot will now take your used CFLs. Just save your bulbs and drop them at home depot.

Tic wrote:

Let's try and more forward to LED lighting technology
also many ACE hardware sores now will take CFL's for recycling
Where I work now has started a program where employees can bring in failed CFL's for recycling

If they do not recycle, they will get a "hardware sore".

the big difference wrote:

I believe Home Depot will now take your used CFLs. Just save your bulbs and drop them at home depot.

Yeah, no problem.

Compare whatever amount of mercury is in CFLs with the amount blown into the environment in coal fired power plants. Ashes are usually contaminated with all sorts of poisonous stuff, and I bet the reduced amount of power consumptions more than compensates for a little mercury in your lamp.
Of course it would still be better if we could do without. I am not sure whether LEDs really help, because they might contain similarly nasty stuff to produce the semiconductor lattice defects that are required to adjust the color. But I am not really up to date on LED technology.

Bruce B wrote:

I don't think CFL's are going to be very bright in -5F porch lights this winter.
<quoted text>

I've had CFL's in my porchlamps in Illinois I think since 2001 and they've survived winters just fine.

The infrequent times I have turned them off in the winter (or when replacing the white ones with festive Holiday colored bulbs) it does take an increased time for them to get back to full brightness depending on the ambient temperature.

-M

MJ Massey wrote:

<quoted text>The infrequent times I have turned them off

Well, that of course is an entire topic of its own. No matter how efficient CFLs are, that is no excuse to leave them powered 24/7. Switch them off during the day, and you'll reduce energy consumption by another factor of two (or thereabouts)!

I got two of the CFL bulbs from the city free. One lasted about 600 hours, and the second about 1100 hours.

I bought some new ones from Home Depot. These are a bit better, and while they do take a few seconds to brighten up, they are quite bright, at only 14 watts (60 w equivalent). They're not like the old fluorescents (one of which I have in my kitchen, which I absolutely hate), and more like an incandescent.

I can take the old ones to Home Depot or to the city recycling center, free.

As far as I'm concerned, it's worth it to recycle. Just combine all your stuff and do it when you're running errands in that neighborhood. Doesn't take that much effort.

First, it would do the writer of this story well to read up on recycling CFL bulbs before sending a story like this off for publishing. A simple Google search asking how or where to recycle CFL bulbs would reveal to you that there is in fact a great way to recycle CFL bulbs at Home Depot. And since you're in the news business, and this has been in the news (happened a few weeks ago -- somehow the NY Times managed to find this out and report on it) you should have known.

It's extremely misleading to say, "However, there aren't many recycling centers available. At some county hazardous waste collection sites you have to pay about $1 per bulb to recycle CFLs," when in fact, there are around a thousand Home Depot Stores nationwide that will accept CFL bulbs for recycling for free.

The omission basically renders the writer's statements that there are not many recycling centers available and that it is as costly as $1 each, when Home Depot is offering this for free at all of its stores completely false.

Where were you and your editors on this? You have probably hundreds of blogs out there covering this story, and the Tribune can't get its facts straight? If you're going to write about the environment and deride a method of improving one's environmental impact, perhaps by using CFLs, you had better read up on the news happening around you!

Another regrettable omission is that while CFLs can release toxic mercury over their life span, they reduce the amount of mercury that otherwise would have been spewed from coal-burning power plants because of the larger amount of electricity the incandescent bulbs that the CFLs replace would have demanded more coal being burned.

Furthermore, it's as if the writer has never tried CFLs and is writing about the very first ones put on the market many years ago. The current day CFL bulbs produce a much warmer light and sometimes have a second or two delay -- hardly enough time to make a bed. Let us not be sensational in our reporting, please -- I use CFLs throughout my home and the quality of light produced is hardly different from the incandescent bulbs I replaced. Please do your research before writing another such story.

If you did not know it, we're facing energy source shortages, energy price increases, and global warming -- if a reader had been considering purchasing CFLs and read your story, that's a shame, because you failed to give the whole story on the topic. You omitted details that rendered some of your "facts" false. Be ashamed for your low-quality reporting and do better next time -- people look to the Tribune for quality guidance on such issues, and in this case, your reporting is frankly irresponsible.

Mike, I agree with your comments. This is a misleading article and the reporter has obviously has not done her homework on the subject.

I do not believe the FEIT brand of CFLs are sold at Walmart or Home Depot - why comment negatively about a product that is not readily available locally?

Walmart reportedly sources (from China of course) CFL lamps with a third less mercury than normal. The mercury issue has been blown out of proportion - as you correctly point out there is a net reduction in the total amount of mercury emitted when CFLs are used. If the CFL lamps are disposed of without being broken then no mercury is emitted.

I'll be interested to read Ms Downs' response to these comments

Look at what you pay, read the usage that determines the savings, and judge the light quality. The mercury is marginal, but if not disposed of properly and most people won't, that could be a problem.

It's a scam. There is NOTHING wrong with that 99c 4-pack of basic light bulbs. The greedies just want to bilk us out of even more money. I am stocking up on these cheap bulbs so I will have plenty for a long time! hee hee

we should have been handling the old fluorescent tubes more carefully but did not.

in time we will have a place to dispose of cfl s and fluorescent tubes safely. the learning curve for what to do is always behind. we will find a way to safely deal with them

A new industry could be created - Cleaning up broken CFLs!

Please note that HOME DEPOT announced that ANY of their stores will now accept burned-out compact flourescent bulbs for recycling....at no charge.
According to a June 24, 2008 news release by Home
Depot headquarters in Atlanta, "At each The Home Depot store, customers can simply bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulbs, and give them to the store associate behind the returns desk."