A question of bulb: CFLs or incandescents?
(NOTE: Since it was announced in our community education bulletin that I will be teaching a course on home energy savings in the home in a month or two, people have already been contacting me with questions. Here are some sample questions and my answers. - LP)
We are struggling at our house w/ CFL [compact fluorescent] light bulbs. They are 3x as expensive, give off lower quality light, and last < 1 year rather than 5-7 years promised in legislation and on packaging.
It depends upon the quality of bulb and its environment. About 10 yeas ago I installed CFLs in our three outside light fixtures on the front of the house. I've had to replace only three bulbs since. These lights go on and off once a day, are on 1-6 hours/day (depending on the season), and use 1/4th the energy. They have been a great investment.
Similarly, replacing the floods in the kitchen with CFLs have paid off. Our 65-watt incandescents used to burn out all the time. I replaced them with the CFL equivalents. They last much longer and likewise use only 1/4th the energy. These are turned on and off all the time, so don't quite last as long as the CFLs outside, but still much longer than the 65-watt incandescents. The downside, however, is that they take about a minute to come to full brightness.
My wife complained at first, but we are both used to them now. And the light is definitely better than the green-tinged fluorescents found in nearly every chain retail store and in too many offices and school classrooms.
I see in the newspaper that effective today light bulbs that are less energy efficient will be illegal.
Yeah, but not right away. First to be banned will be 100-watt incandescents. Who uses 'em anymore?
How much difference do you think it really makes for a household to shift to CFL?
Using CFLs will cut your lighting bill by up to 75%.
Is there a better alternative bulb in our future, and if so, when will it be available? LED?
Yes, but LEDs are still quite expensive now and the manufacturers still need to create a bulb that mimics the light type and color temperature of incandescents. That's coming, however.
Meanwhile, CFLs have improved dramatically. For a slight price premium, you can now buy instant-on CFLs. And many come in a choice of three color temperatures: daylight (blue hue), standard (white hue), soft white (yellow hue). Home Depot, Menards and Lowe's all have displays with lights showing the three color temperatures. Most people prefer the soft white because it best mimics today's incandescents.
This is frustrating for me because I don’t want to be irresponsible, but CFLs are a pain in the you-know-what (we’ve had two break, and the clean-up in a household with children is a nightmare).
The mercury in CFLs is a concern, but it's very small and probably less dangerous than eating fish from our rivers. As a kid in science class I remember our teacher pouring liquid mercury into our hands so we could see how it puddled and moved. We had mercury thermometers back then. Our silver tooth fillings also contained mercury. And many of our vaccines contained tiny amounts of mercury. Did all this mercury affect us? Perhaps some it did, which is why we're so careful with mercury now.
Anyway, the concern about trace amounts of mercury is certainly warranted, but the mercury spewed from ancient coal-fired power plants is far greater a danger to our children.
Eventually, mercury will be taken out of CFLs entirely (hopefully), but in the meantime manufacturers are trying to minimize it as much as possible.
All that said, current CFLs do have one downside: You cannot use the regular ones in sockets controlled by dimmers. Yes, there are dimmable CFLs, but friends who have bought them tell me their performance leaves something to be desired. I assume those problems will be solved soon as the technology continues to improve.
My mother's kitchen used to have eight 65-watt incandescent floods generating 520 watts every moment they were on. Energy overkill! Plus, they were on many hours a day and kept burning out. Although they were on a dimmer so they could be turned down, the dimmer was always set to the highest setting. So I took out the dimmer and replaced all the bulbs with 14-watt CFLs. Now when the lights are on, the total power used is 112 watts, just a hair more than a single 100-watt incandescent. And they don't burn out.
Your advice would be appreciated (and in the meantime I may stock up on whatever old bulbs I can before shelves are cleared).
Except for uses where current CFLs clearly don't work, such as on dimmable circuits, incandescents are a thing of the past. So if you like history and love high electricity bills and support mercury/soot/CO2/toxic waste-spewing coal-fired power plants, then by all means stock up on incandescents. In 10 years your kids will love you for it! (Not.)
Labels: CFLs, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, home energy savings
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Hi Leigh,
Here is a little information that you might helpful that I have cobbled together from various postings.
The law to phase out traditional incandescent light bulbs was promoted as a simple, almost painless, change when Congress first passed it and Bush signed it. By requiring that light bulbs use at least 25 percent less electricity, starting in 2012, the nation would use less energy, manufacturers would invent more efficient types of bulbs and the planet would be spared millions of tons of carbon emissions every year.
The "old fashion" styles can still be sold, as long as they meet the new standards ... in fact, 10 percent of the halogen incandescent sold last year met the new efficiency standards.
Five of the major light bulb manufacturers are already selling new incandescent bulbs that give off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb using about 30 percent less energy.
But the Republican-controlled House did not like losing the "Freedom" of being able to choose ... so they fought for a delay. According to E&E, the House appropriations bill
“Eliminating funding for light bulb efficiency standards is especially poor policy as it would leave the policy in place but make it impossible to enforce, undercutting domestic manufacturers who have invested millions of dollars in U.S. plants to make new incandescent bulbs that meet the standards,” a group of dozens of lighting manufacturers, efficiency groups and environmentalists. . . .
The "must-pass" legislation that President Obama signed delayed the implementation.
Regarding US production of light bulbs, to the best of my knowledge prior to President Bush signing the legislation, no “Edison bulbs” were being produced in the US … (FYI … Ohio used to be a major producer of light bulbs predominately at General Electric Nela Park campus in Cleveland) … but because of the new legislation, CFL bulbs are now being produced in Pittsburgh and a few other states.
Osram Sylvania has retooled its current St. Marys, Pennsylvania incandescent factory to produce new energy saving incandescent bulbs that will meet the standards.
In 2011, TCP—one of the world’s largest makers of CFLs—is opening a new factory in Ohio to help meet the new demand.
GE recently invested $60 million to create a Global Center of Excellence for linear fluorescent lamp manufacturing in Bucyrus, Ohio—an action that will double the number of jobs at that plant.
But the big job producer is Cree. President Obama toured their North Caroline facility in June.
Others include Lighting Sciences Group Corp in Florida, and Philips Lighting (the world’s biggest lighting company) to produce the next generation of efficient LED light bulbs.
Earlier this year, on the MN Political Roundtable, I detailed on the Republicans efforts to evoke Freedom is costing American jobs.
Good luck with the class.
I have used CFL's for years because they are less expensive. That being said, there is a part of me that does not like the forced conversion. What is next, regulation on when to blow our noses? Where does the “We know what is good for you…” nanny state end? Herbert Spencer said it best: “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of their folly is to fill the world with fools.”
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