Earth Day Synchronicity
Cidu Bill on Apr 22nd 2009
Elyrest: I know it’s Earth Day and it’s most likely been done before, but My Cage and Mother Goose and Grimm are doing the Synchronicity thing.
This month’s Mother Jones magazine, by the way, discusses the dark side of compact fluorescent bulbs: They contain enough mercury-based neurotoxin to be classified as hazardous waste, and must be properly recycled. Most Home Depot and Ikea stores accept used bulbs but Wal-Mart — the company that positions itself as the “champion” for CFLS — does not.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Earth Day, Mike Peters, Mother Goose, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | 28 responses so far
Cornbread Apr 22nd 2009 at 11:21 pm 1
I wonder, why would anyone be surprised that Wal-Mart isn’t doing the right thing? Aren’t they the poster child of corporate amorality?
tofor Apr 22nd 2009 at 11:59 pm 2
Oh man, the whole CFL thing really makes my blood boil. Especially the part where congress decides to arbitrarily set a date for the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs. Such a move is wrong on so many levels it’s not even funny. The biggest issue is that the technology simply isn’t ready for that transition. When it is, it will happen at its own rate. To try to rush something like that is absurd. When I say it’s not ready, I am speaking of such issues as the mercury problem. My personal opinion is that the future is entirely in LED lights of various kinds. They have insane energy efficiency and last forever. However, they are expensive and not easy to obtain. Time will fix that. Then there are certain applications where non-incandescent bulbs would simply be inappropriate (think LavaLamps). CFLs don’t work well in the cold. The practical list goes on and on. Then, this is America folks. Congress has no right to determine that one kind of light bulb is ‘better’ than another and simply ban the one it doesn’t like.
Sorry for the rant, but this whole thing has been bothering me or quite a while
furrykef Apr 23rd 2009 at 01:58 am 3
Here’s what I want to know: is it possible to get fluorescent bulbs that don’t make everything blindingly purple?
I know that incandescent bulbs have a yellow cast, so it’s just trading one color for another, but I’m much more used to the yellow…
- Kef
Blinky the Wonder Wombat Apr 23rd 2009 at 06:55 am 4
tofor:
I’m from the government and I’m here to help you! *shudder*
BTW, the uproar about the CFLs and hazardous waste is really overblown. Yes, they contain a trace about of mercury and shouldn’t be tossed in the household waste, but no need to call out the HazMat team if one breaks. Just toss it in a plastic bag and take it to the recycling center.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
Cidu Bill Apr 23rd 2009 at 07:13 am 5
But the point is, Blinky, if you have to drive over to the recycling center every time you replace one of these bulbs, haven’t you pretty much negated the energy savings?
James Apr 23rd 2009 at 07:34 am 6
I keep a small box in the basement where I put dead CFLs. Then, when I have to run to Home Depot anyway, I bring it along and dispose of any that have accumulated since last time.
Powers Apr 23rd 2009 at 07:43 am 7
Tofor, I pay the government to force people to do what’s right, whether it be paying taxes or not dumping toxins into the water. Free market controls have proven to be insufficient for such purposes.
“This is America,” indeed, and America is not an anarchist state where everyone can do whatever they want. And the phase-out of incandescent lightbulbs is not a purely economic exercise in which the invisible hand can be trusted to move in the right direction. All the freedom in the world won’t mean much if the environment is left unstable or unusable.
RaleighRob Apr 23rd 2009 at 08:46 am 8
The good news is that improved LED lights will probably make CFLs obsolete in less than half a decade anyways. (And they have no mercury or anything else toxic that I know of.)
Also, fortunately, CFLs last so long that recycling them will be something you wouldn’t need to do very often. I have some in lamps that are at least 6 years old and still working perfectly.
Mark Jones Apr 23rd 2009 at 08:57 am 9
CFL bulbs are supposed to last years and years, so taking them to recycle is something that you probably won’t have to do often.
Here’s what concerns me: 10, 15 years from now, when all these CFLs start dying, will people know and/or care enough to dispose of them properly instead of tossing them in the trash?
MellowCake Apr 23rd 2009 at 10:11 am 10
The people who post here seem generally smart, funny and open-minded, so I’ll post a few links/comments here for your consideration.
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I’ve been using CF bulb for 15 years. When we first installed them, the electric company sent someone out as they thought their meter was broken. Some of our bulbs are 10 years old now - the technology has worked great for us.
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Yes - you can even get full-spectrum CFs. Check out this Popular Mechanics article:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html
I haven’t read the Mother Jones article yet, but here are a couple articles regarding mercury in CFs:
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Mercury: Reality Check
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/4217864.html
What About Mercury From Compact Fluorescents?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/what_about_merc.php
And then one smart-ass remark:
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Yes, those scary firemen, and librarians, and public teachers
Ted Apr 23rd 2009 at 11:09 am 11
Not only do they use more power due to the “power factor” warning science ahead –> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor but what happens to all the new fires created when the ballasts start going bad. They are just more “grease for a squeaky wheel laws” that we get time and time again without doing proper research.
DPWally Apr 23rd 2009 at 11:57 am 12
Ted: Non-compact fluorescent bulbs have been around for decades. If ballasts catching fire was an issue, we’d know about it by now.
Kevin Andresen Apr 23rd 2009 at 12:12 pm 13
My kitchen is lit by 11 embedded 75 watt incandescent flood lights. They compete with the air conditioner in the summer (I’m replacing all with CFLs this year) but they save me money on heat in the winter. My sprawling apartment has only one zone; the 75 watt bulbs’ being where I start my day along with their radiant position on the ceiling saves me money on the combined gas & electric bill. (They warm me up quickly in the morning; unlike the baseboard water heat, which provides almost no useful radiance.)
I also have a lava lamp that I only use in the cold weather; I’d miss it. It was a rescue.
Nicole Apr 23rd 2009 at 12:21 pm 14
Just from an electrical point of view, CFLs are a waste if you’ll only be in the room a short time as the energy needed to start the ballast reduces its lifespan to the point of where it can cost more than using an incandescent. Stick with them in rooms where they’ll be on for 15 minutes or longer. Or make sure your bright ideas last at least 15 minutes.
Mark in Boston Apr 23rd 2009 at 12:21 pm 15
Have you noticed all the ads that essentially say “Celebrate Earth Day by buying our product!”
mrtoad Apr 23rd 2009 at 01:24 pm 16
CFLs are better for the environment. No, they shouldn’t be used where they’ll turned on and off a lot. Fine. LEDs will probably replace everything in ten years. Agreed. IN THE MEANTIME, be responsible and use CFLs wherever you can. You’ll save money, you’ll help keep electricity costs down, and you’ll keep the environment clean. You should be recycling ALL your bulbs anyway, so CFLs are no more trouble than incandescents. And yes, the right kind looks good.
Ted Apr 23rd 2009 at 03:00 pm 17
DPWally What is going to happen is like rechargeable batteries. The batteries aren’t failing any more then they used to, but since there are a lot more our there then there were 20 years ago, it’s become an issue. All florescent lamps have some type of ballast to provided the high voltage needed to excite the gas. Some are old magnetic transformer type, more recent are electronic, but there are still large coils of fine wire, that when they short, will burn from time to time. Just now, it dawned on me that there’s going to be people shocked too because they take them apart and fool with them to see what’s inside, and that will be an issue also. The mercury inside is not too harmful unless it’s a a gaseous state. The mercury will find it’s way into the land fills because after a short time, people will no longer dispose of them at the centers, they will just toss them in the garbage. No flame war, just $.02 more.
Soup Dragon Apr 23rd 2009 at 05:19 pm 18
In Europe, the CFLs are also force-fed to consumers. That is pretty dumb in boreal countries like Norway, since in the winter we need the heat from the incandescent lamps anyway (most houses have electric heating), and in the summer we don’t need nearly that much artificial light. I use the CFLs for outdoor lights only.
tofor Apr 23rd 2009 at 09:24 pm 19
This law effectively is forcing people to move to a technology that is already becoming obsolete. LED lights do not have the drawbacks that CFLs do, and will slowly and properly replace the incandescent bulbs *when* and *where* they are appropriate. Maybe I can’t use CFL because I need instant-on light. Or maybe I just prefer the light of an incandescent bulb. The federal government should have *no say* in what type of lamp I choose to put in my house.
Mitch4 Apr 23rd 2009 at 09:39 pm 20
For some geeky reason, I got a few LED cluster bulbs before any CbFL. They just weren’t bright enough. I’m sure they’ll get better, but for now I’m squinting in disappointment.
Dr. Shrinker Apr 24th 2009 at 12:59 am 21
I replaced all the can lights in my kitchen with CFLs and frankly, they just plain SUCKED. Took 10 minutes to get up to a decent illumination level…food all had a sickly greyish tinge…and worst of all, 2 of them were burned out within a couple months.
Luckily I had saved the incandescents…not much of an energy savings if you’re replacing the damn bulbs every few months (the incandescents had lasted for several years).
Powers Apr 24th 2009 at 06:56 am 22
Dr. Shrinker, sounds like you got a bad brand of CFLs. There are good ones out there.
Pheidias Apr 24th 2009 at 09:16 pm 23
I’ve been using CFLs for 23 years, since I read about the Philips “Earth Light” in Whole Earth Review (probably). It had an improved mix of phosphors to give a better color of light than the standard tube fluorescents available at the time. It did not last as long as promised, but it was a start. CFLs have improved tremendously over the years. Early on they were too big to fit in most lamps, took a long time to come up to full brightness, and had a generally awful color temperature.
But they lasted a long time (unlike the Earth Light) and saved electricity, and once they invented the twisted tube and miniaturized the electronic ballasts, they are small enough to fit even in my green “banker’s” desk lamp.
I now use them in almost every socket, except those on dimmers - they don’t quite have that right yet. I even have them in both outside porch lights, and they turn on even when it’s 5º F or colder.
The full-spectrum Verilux are expensive, but have a bright white light. The standard-issue CFLs are for utility use only - the recessed light in the bathroom, for example. I find the Bright White CFLs with a color temperature of about 3500K are good for reading at the dining table. The Daylight color temp (6500K) are a little too harsh for my taste.
Over the years I can remember only a few that burned out a ballast and let the smoke out of the case. Usually the lamp itself goes bad, like all fluorescents. The only other drawback I have found is that until they reach full brightness, CFLs emit a flood of infra-red, which overwhelms the TV remote control.
Size Apr 26th 2009 at 10:58 am 24
It’s worth pointing out that coal-fired power plants also release mercury into the environment. The reduced electricity use therefore more than offsets the mercury in the bulbs, which with appropriate recycling shouldn’t be much of an issue anyway.
Cidu Bill Apr 26th 2009 at 01:52 pm 25
Okay, honestly, I’m going to assume that in the end most alternatives are equally harmful to the environment in some way — so I’m basing my judgment on the fact that one also has the potential of releasing neurotoxins in my home and one does not.
tofor Apr 27th 2009 at 11:09 pm 26
I actually bought a CFL today off a discount rack (It’s GE brand). This whole conversation got me curious enough. I have been around CFLs, but never really tried them out for myself.
This does nothing to negate the fact that I don’t want the government making this decision for me.
Cidu Bill Apr 27th 2009 at 11:19 pm 27
I equate CFLs with ethanol: a good idea on the face of it, but made mandatory without thought to unintended and unexpected consequences.
tofor Apr 28th 2009 at 10:04 pm 28
Bill-Don’t even get me started.