CFL light bulbs

[LS1Hawk]

These things suck, even more so now that I know they're filled with mercury.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=e-LOtKIIKcg

[Blackbirdws6]

All fluorescent lamps contain Mercury, even the compact fluorescent lamps as described. I don't think a ban should be imposed on incandescent light bulbs but they are the most inefficient light source available. 97% of the energy put through a incandescent light bulb is converted into heat, the other 3%....you guessed it, light.

If you wish to speak in lumens/watt (amount of visible light/energy used), low-pressure sodium and high pressure sodium lamps are the way to go. These are HID lamps which you will see in many street lamps (the yellow ones). Low pressure sodium lamps are not used because they wash out all color, High pressure sodium is a bit better but we all love the white light so those go as well.

LED's are on their way but they are expensive and are not at the efficiency levels of CFL's.

Lighting is one of the largest consumers of electrical energy in the US so it's something that should be looked at.

The guy had a good speech though.

-brian

[maroman88]

LOL thats hilarious! and i do hate those light bulbs, makes me feel like im in school or an office, ill never use them in my house. nothing is nicer then the color of an incandescent light bulb

[sweetbmxrider]

after flourescent bulbs burn out, i like smashing them in dumpsters. i have them in my basement/room.

[Blackbirdws6]

Originally Posted by maroman88

LOL thats hilarious! and i do hate those light bulbs, makes me feel like im in school or an office, ill never use them in my house. nothing is nicer then the color of an incandescent light bulb

I bet you if I put a CFL in a lighting fixture where you couldn't see the actual bulb you wouldn't see a difference. They have ones that are close to the color of normal incandescents.

[ShitOnWheels]

We just changed most of our light bulbs to CFLs, and you can't tell the difference in most of them. And they make CFLs for ceiling fan fixtures look like real bulbs, so it's hard to tell, except they take a minute to fully light up, but once they are, 4 45 watt equivalent CFLs are better than 4 60 watt incandescent bulbs.

[The Fixer]

We put a CFL bulb in my kids bedroom 5 years ago and haven't needed to change it yet. They last forever, it seems!

And I like fluorescent lights too, they're much cooler than standard bulbs. We used to have 10 high-hat lights down in my basement through our drop ceiling, and it used to be ridiculously hot with all of them on. I took 'em all out and put in three new 2' square fluorescent units last summer, and it's brighter AND cooler down here. Much better!

[CaysE]

Originally Posted by ****OnWheels

We just changed most of our light bulbs to CFLs, and you can't tell the difference in most of them. And they make CFLs for ceiling fan fixtures look like real bulbs, so it's hard to tell, except they take a minute to fully light up, but once they are, 4 45 watt equivalent CFLs are better than 4 60 watt incandescent bulbs.

I have some of those and some of the twisty looking ones... both have the color of regular bulbs but those covered ones for some reason just do not last.

[Tru2Chevy]

I have CFLs in damn near everything in my house.....cheap PSE&G bills FTW!

- Justin

[jims69camaro]

i replaced all of the light bulbs in the house with CFLs. they can be finicky, they don't like slider or dimmer switches, but the company has replaced every bulb that has gone bad (10 year warranty). i'd rather have then than incandescent bulbs, even though the light changes colors (in my opinion, incandescent is the better looking light).

btw, the initial outlay for the bulbs has already been recouped by the savings in electricity usage.