Letters to the Editor
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What about with sensors?
I have IR/motion sensors in a number of places in my house, and (as far as I know) they don't work with electronic ballasts, which is what CF's have. Are there CF's now that work with sensor light switches? Or vice-versa? Any news on dimmable CF's that actually work?
I think I'll have to wait for LED's to come down in price a bit before I start using them.
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There are many kinds of CFLs...
...I assume, because my experiences have been very different from those described above.
(1) Bulb life: the very first CFL that I bought, about a dozen years ago (when they cost $20 each and weighed about a pound) lasted until last summer. That's eleven years. Maybe the cheaper, lighter, smaller CFLs of today last proportionately less time, but I've never had one burn out in less than 4-5 years.
(2) Color: I know lots of people who claim to be very sensitive to the "blue, flickering" light of flourescents. Solution: I don't tell them that all the lights in my house are CFLs, and they don't notice the difference. As one commenter suggests, buy the "soft white" kind, replace the lights one at a time (as your incandescents burn out), and odds are you will never notice the difference, either. (Maybe you should get a friend to change them and promise not to tell you.)
(2a) Flickering is not, repeat, NOT an issue with CFLs, at least not any that I've ever used.
(3) That freezing porch: I replaced the outdoor porch light with a CFL the last time it burned out, and it works fine. In Michigan. In the winter. For five years and counting.
My own gripes about CFLs (and, let's be honest, there are some):
1) They take 1-2 minutes to get up to full speed. During those seemingly endless 100 seconds or so, you (or your sensitive SO) will curse the darkness. I've read that some newer bulbs are "instant-on." I'll believe it when I see it.
2) Though they don't burn out for years, the light output does slowly and steadily degrade. A "75-watt-equivalent" CFL will put out more light than a 75-watt incandescent at first, but after 5 years it will be putting more like 50 watts' worth of light. (Solution: if it is in a critical light area, like the kitchen, I rotate it out to a lesser-used hallway, and put a fresh, new CFL in the kitchen.)
Finally, a suggestion: if your house, like ours, has a lot of recessed/enclosed light fixtures, be sure to check the CFL package to make sure the bulb you buy is certified for enclosed fixtures. Not all are.
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CFL's burn out in seconds when I use them with dimmer and sensing switches
Just before the advent of CFL's, to save energy I replaced as many of my wall switches as possible with motion sensing ones. Enter a room and the lights go on, leave the room and they go out. The cfl's blow in seconds in that application and in many dimmer switch applications.
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what about my daughter's EZ Bake oven?
She made me a cake today--beautifully lopsided, icing-smeared, delicious creation that wouldn't have happened with a fluorescent bulb. I use them outside, too, and in a few places in my house for colored or mood lighting, though about 90% or so are fluorescents
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You dismiss mercury pretty easily
Pablo, you mention that the CFL has about 4 milligrams of mercury as compared to mercury thermometers' 500 milligrams as though it is of no concern.
You can't get mercury thermometers any more. Local agencies have drives to collect them. They are obviously a big deal.
The average household had what? One or two mercury thermometers per generation? That's 1000 milligrams of mercury per generation per household.
But we'd need what? 20 CFLs every three years, which is like 600 CFLs per generation? That's 2400 milligrams of mercury per generation per household.
Why is that not a big deal? Not to mention, I have broken one thermometer but about 15 light bulbs in my life.
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CFL Bulbs
Hopefully they'll solve the dimmer problem soon, otherwise there's going to be some people that will resist the change, and I wouldn't blame them.
I've been trying out various CFL bulbs since they first appeared on the market, I've never been able to live with the light produced, finding it cold and harsh.
The current generation of CFL's is the first to generate a spectrum approaching the warm glow of incandescents, consequently I've replaced nearly all our bulbs, but some were on dimmers and I found the CFL didn't work well or at all with dimmer switches, I burned out two bulbs immediately.
I have started to see bulbs marked dimmer compatible, but only on a few bulbs here and there and not in the wattages or sizes I needed so I haven't tried them yet.
Speaking of wattages, how about some standards, one company's 11-watt/60-watt equiv bulb is another companies 14w/60w bulbs. Is the 11 more efficient that the 14? or are they measuring differently?
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More Guilt
The manufacturers of the "new" bulbs would love you to toss the old ones because they produce this product for PROFIT not for politically correct reasons. Green is using less electricity period. It is not leaving your lights on for phantom security sake, decoration for the neighbors etc. or because now that we have these more efficient bulbs well then we can just go on and light any and every damn thing. Wake up and use some daylight and maybe go to bed a little earlier.
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I've changed all my bulbs 6 years ago…
… and the first one broke the other day - it was in a lamp that is on almost uninterruptedly. My electricity bill went down a dramatic 23 % (I checked several times, this is an average). In Europe, there are several qualities of these bulbs. The “soft tone” ones are as warm as the old bulbs.
About the flickering: the one limitation these new bulbs have is they are not suitable for lamps with dimming. That's where they flicker.
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Math?
Perhaps my math is off, but if a standard bulb is 5% efficient and a flourescent bulb is 3X as efficient, then the flourescent bulb would only be 15% efficient. This would mean the flourescent bulb would only save 10% not two thirds as stated in the article.
Either the flourescent bulbs are more than 3X as efficient or they save less than two-thirds. I'd be curious to know which is true.