People of Earth: Ditch CFL bulbs!

Anybody know why CFLs take a long time to come up to full brightness whereas the straight tube versions turn on almost immediately?

The truth is that until the U.S. converts to clean renewable energy, using CFL's will put far less mercury in our environment than keeping standard incandescent lamps. Most cfl's do have a smidgen of mercury, between 1 and 4 milligrams, about what fits on the head of a pin. By comparison mercury thermometers typically have over 500 milligrams, about 125 cfl lamps worth. Many telephones, scanners, monitors, and other electronics all contain far more mercury than cfl's. While standard incandescent lamps don't contain mercury, they will use 3 times the electricity as a cfl, and cause for more mercury (and CO2) to be released by coal and gas burning power plants than improperly disposed CFL's ever would.

The U.S. EPA estimated that a coal-fired power plant will spew 13.6 milligrams of mercury in our air, to make the electricity for 1 incandescent light bulb, compared to 3.3 milligrams for a comparable CFL. That's 10 milligrams of mercury emissions prevented by using a single CFL bulb. That doesn't count increased electricity used in summer for air conditioning to offset all of the heat made by incandescent lights. If all 270 million compact fluorescent lamps sold in 2007 were improperly sent to landfills, that would only be 1/10 of 1% of all U.S. mercury emissions.

And, if you haven't found good colored ones that quick start and are dimmable, we carry them on our website.

Look at the big picture,
Chrispy
www.NewLeafAmewrica.com

I don’t know the technical aspects of CFL’s but what I do know from my own experience is some of the practical side of them. I have experimented with CFL’s in my garage for about three years now, garage only because my wife won’t allow them in the house due to the long startup time, and I have found that I have to over-rate the brightness to get the light I need to work, For example I have to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb with a CFL claiming 150 or 200 watt equivalent light for me to see the same brightness on my work. The usable reflected light is no where near as good as an incandescent bulb. While CFL’s seem to be more durable than incandescent in my drop-light as far as burning out, the base part of them pops open to expose the supporting electronics and allow the bulb to flop around in the fixture. This can’t be good.

Then there’s the life expectancy claims, they really are trying to fool someone here. I have had more CLF bulbs die in the last 3 years in my garage than I had incandescent bulbs fail in the last 6 or 8 years prior to that, except for the drop-light failures. Even if the CFL’s require less electricity to operate, I believe I’m spending more money on new bulbs than I’m saving. I don’t work in the garage as much as I used to but can tell I’m still buying more CFL’s for the garage than I used to buy incandescent bulbs.

One more point; I’ve read that I am supposed to dispose of the CFL’s a different way than regular trash, however my local trash depot doesn’t have a special receptacle for CFL bulbs, so what am I supposed to do with them besides just place them in my regular trash for pickup and delivery to the landfill?