Gallery of Lights
The Site => General discussion => Topic started by: rjluna2 on November 22, 2009, 03:32:36 PM
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sunday November 22, 2009.
Advice, page E15.
By Bill Husted, Technobuddy
The Help Desk by-line
Downside of 'green' bulbs
Q: With regard to your recent article on energy savings, I'd like to share my experience with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). As a retired electrical engineer, the concept of having more efficent electrical appliances is especially appealing to me. I replaced 24 incandescent bulbs in my home with CFLs. Since that time four of them have burned out. The advertised "six times longer" life may be based on lab results, but it's not my experience. Coupling that with the environmental concerns about disposal means I will not use them again. -- Robert L. Dowdy
A: I've actually had great luck with those bulbs. I've been using them for more than a year and have yet to have the first one go out. But as you'd know better than I do, it's hard to reason from one specific example to the general. It's like saying that since my Toyota had problems all Toyotas are poorly built. Everything I've experienced - and all that research - says CFLs do last longer.
You make a good point with the disposal problem. They should not be discarded in the regular trash since these bulbs contains small mercury. Here's a Web site that will let you key in you ZIP code to find a recycling center near you: www.recycleabulb.com/locations.index.aspx
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sunday, November 29th 2009.
Page E15, Advice, Technology Section, The Help Desk, by Bill Husted for the AJC.
Q: When you mentioned the savings which can be achieved - quite correctly - though the exchange of the old-fashioned incandescent lights into the new compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), you forgot to mention that the CFL's contains mercury and therefore should be disposed of properly. - R.M. Santner
A: You are right. The bulbs should not be thrown out with the garbage. Home Depot stores will accept the used bulbs - no matter wher you bought them - at no cost. One nice thing to know is the bulbs are an environmental plus, even with the small amout of mercury they contain. In a New York Times article, Steven Hamburg, interim director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University, notes that power plants put mercury into the environment. And since the CFLs dramatically cut energy use "The avoided mercury emissions are much larger than the mercury we're using in the bulbs."