U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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jlp
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Judged:
3
When there is a perfectly good and safe alternative, why the hell would I want something in my house that requires a laundry list of precautions in the event of breakage and disposal at a hazardous-waste site? Thank god I don't have kids - but I DO have pets. I don't want these things anywhere around my house. I see I am going to have to stock up on incandescents.
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Broadcast Ace
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Great...I have had 3 of these break in basement fixtures and vacuumed up the mess BEFORE they started informing us about how to handle these correctly. So I have mercury poisoning now?
Seems they planned to get us to buy these first, then tell us the bad news. The original boxes these came in had disposal instructions in super fine credit card print.
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Paul Meyer
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Judged:
1
Scientists across the pond say these cause MIGRAINES. Google "Home fluorescent lights + headaches" for over 300,000 hits. Even my physician at Northwestern Memorial says he gets headaches from them. Besides the myriad health hazards, who wants their home lit like their office? Which, come to think of it, may pose yet another health risk when you're trying to escape a bad day at that office: DEPRESSION.
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Mtgolfer
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Judged:
2
1
Isn't it funny how the liberals and enviromentalists, who would normally be screaming hysterically over mercury, don't utter a peep about this?
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John
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I can't wait until I break a few and have to turn my house into a haz-mat scene! WHOO HOO!!
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Patrick
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Mtgolfer wrote: Isn't it funny how the liberals and enviromentalists, who would normally be screaming hysterically over mercury, don't utter a peep about this? Remember when they were convinced that chlorinated water caused cancer? 10,000 people died and over a million were sickened with cholera after Peru stopped chlorinating their tap water. Ooops. In the the DC area, they switched from chlorine to chloramine. This unfortuately caused lead to leach out of the pipes. Ooops.
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Right
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Yup, people should read a bit more deeply before getting wound up about this. I have read a number of studies and research articles, am not concerned at all, and am convinced CFLs are the way to go for my pocketbook, the environment, and even my family's health. I started with a 4-bulb strip over my bath vanity. Replaced two of the four bulbs with CFLs rated for the same light output and color rating as the remaining two incandescents, so I could see them side by side. They are virutally indistinguishable in both lumens and warmth. I also bought a 50-100-150 3-way CFL for my bedside reading lamp. It's great! Now, as my incdescents burn out I'm replacing all of them with CFLs. Saving money is good.... The only drawbacks I see are the initial cost (especially the 3-ways) and the slight warm-up period. But I know the payback is good, and the warmup issue is so trivial it doesn't bother me at all. Patrick wrote: <quoted text>
Remember when they were convinced that chlorinated water caused cancer?
10,000 people died and over a million were sickened with cholera after Peru stopped chlorinating their tap water. Ooops.
In the the DC area, they switched from chlorine to chloramine. This unfortuately caused lead to leach out of the pipes. Ooops.
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Raucous
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Mtgolfer wrote: Isn't it funny how the liberals and enviromentalists, who would normally be screaming hysterically over mercury, don't utter a peep about this? Isn't it funny how a segment of America has oversimplified politics into some sort of dualism of "liberal" versus, well, not liberal. Isn't it funny how all the oppositing viewpoints, despite their complexity or contradictions, have been lumped into the categry of people called liberals. If you don't think such categorization doesn't do an injustice to your ability to think about differing political viewpoints, then you've been suckered by the conservative media entertainment industry. My neighbor is a national radio personality and a friend of Limbaugh's. Guess what.. my neighbor assures me Rush is far more liberal than you'd ever believe, but he knows how to make money from people like you.
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Sound Reasoning
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Broadcast Ace wrote: So I have mercury poisoning now? Only if you have a habit of licking the floor clean, after vacuuming up the mess. BTW, children are the ones who are most susceptible to mercury poising. It is a lot like lead.
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Sound Reasoning
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Right wrote: The only drawbacks I see are the initial cost (especially the 3-ways) and the slight warm-up period. Some more drawbacks, which are significant ones to me.... Most can't be dimmed. Even the ones marked "dimmable" are only slightly dimmable (like from 100% down to 60 or 80%). Related to the above, one can't START them dimmed. This means they don't work in the couple of situation where I have "theater lighting" (the lights slowly ramp up). The LOOK UGLY in fixtures with clear or transparent glass shades or globes.
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Sound Reasoning
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Oh, another drawback...
They have a MUCH SHORT life span, when turned back off within a few minutes of turning them on. I can think of an application like in a closet where one would turn the light on, find what you are looking for, and turn the light back off in under, say, 5 minutes.
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Patrick
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Sound Reasoning wrote: Oh, another drawback...
They have a MUCH SHORT life span, when turned back off within a few minutes of turning them on. I can think of an application like in a closet where one would turn the light on, find what you are looking for, and turn the light back off in under, say, 5 minutes. Doh! I was wondering why the ones in my bathroom kept dying.
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Right
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Haven't tried dimmables yet. I have several different CFLs where there is an outer frosted glass envelope so the CFL has very similar shape and appearance to the incandescent it replaces. I've had a number of these bulbs for more than 2 years now, including in my bathroom where there is moisture and short on-off cycles. No failures yet, which is far better than the incandescents in the same fixtures.... Probably makes sense to use them first where they are the best "fit" for the situation. I'm sure the technology will improve so they become a better fit in more places. Sound Reasoning wrote: <quoted text>
Some more drawbacks, which are significant ones to me....
Most can't be dimmed. Even the ones marked "dimmable" are only slightly dimmable (like from 100% down to 60 or 80%).
Related to the above, one can't START them dimmed. This means they don't work in the couple of situation where I have "theater lighting" (the lights slowly ramp up).
The LOOK UGLY in fixtures with clear or transparent glass shades or globes.
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Rob
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Not worth it. Sorry.
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Matt_PSU
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The mercury issue deserves attention. And another thing, often there are some enclosed lights which are too small to allow the fluorescent bulb of equivalent output, so there seem to be some fan bulbs that aren't available.
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PGZ
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jlp wrote: When there is a perfectly good and safe alternative, why the hell would I want something in my house that requires a laundry list of precautions in the event of breakage and disposal at a hazardous-waste site? Thank god I don't have kids - but I DO have pets. I don't want these things anywhere around my house.
I see I am going to have to stock up on incandescents. Its considered Household Hazardous Waste (HHW), there is a misconception that it needs to be taken to a toxic waste dump or it will kill you just to look at it. Also in the list of items considered HHW: paint, paint thinners and varnishes, batteries (except alkaline/non-rechargeable batteries), used motor oil, antifreeze and brake fluid, household cleaning fluids, pool chemicals (such as chlorine), propane tanks and pesticides. They are items that should not be poured down the drain or on the ground, burned or thrown out with the regular trash. Mot municipalities have HHW drop offs or neighborhood pickups for these items. Also, I don't think a 4-step process is a "laundry list" of precautions, IMHO.
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PGZ
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Judged:
1
1
Mtgolfer wrote: Isn't it funny how the liberals and enviromentalists, who would normally be screaming hysterically over mercury, don't utter a peep about this? Actually, they are the ones trying to educate people about them.
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Dumbest Nation
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Have we not done this before? Sure, well do this for today and worry about it tomorrow. It's the mentality of the 20 somethings who throw out their McDonalds containers on the roadside, "not in my car! Someone else can take care of it."
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Gadfly
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Right wrote: Yup, people should read a bit more deeply before getting wound up about this. I have read a number of studies and research articles, am not concerned at all, and am convinced CFLs are the way to go for my pocketbook, the environment, and even my family's health.
I started with a 4-bulb strip over my bath vanity. Replaced two of the four bulbs with CFLs rated for the same light output and color rating as the remaining two incandescents, so I could see them side by side. They are virutally indistinguishable in both lumens and warmth. I also bought a 50-100-150 3-way CFL for my bedside reading lamp. It's great! Now, as my incdescents burn out I'm replacing all of them with CFLs. Saving money is good....
The only drawbacks I see are the initial cost (especially the 3-ways) and the slight warm-up period. But I know the payback is good, and the warmup issue is so trivial it doesn't bother me at all.
<quoted text> I'm not concerned about using CFLs either. The money I save on m my electricity bill allows me to pump more gas into my big honkin' SUV which I enjoy driving moreso than I miss the faster performance of standard bulbs.
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Zonker
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Judged:
1
The amalgam fillings in your mouth put far more mercury into your bloodstream than eating a dozen CFL's would. And they've been leaching for years! Probably explains why so many Americans are so ignorant. Higher levels of mercury have been in tube fluorescent bulbs for years. I don't recall the 'dittoheads' blaming the 'libruls' for that. You rednecks are really something!
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