You know what worries me more than GHG emissions?

[cybercoma]

I'll be stocking up on incandescents for my outside lights. Fluorescents are useless in cold temperatures. I have fluorescents and incandescents in my unheated garage because of that.

CFL bulbs use electronic ballasts which start reliably down to 0 degrees F. The old magnetic ballasts were unreliable in cold temperatures. They also had lead in them.

[cybercoma]

in fact our teeth are more polluting that CFL's.

Are you basing that on the above list provided by mdancer? Because a filling can last 30 years or more and CFLs maybe a couple of years, depending on use. If you have 20 bulbs on the go every 2 years, it adds up.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs will last anywhere from 8000-10000 hours. Under normal circumstances that means they'll last up to 10 years.

[sharkman]

in fact our teeth are more polluting that CFL's.

Are you basing that on the above list provided by mdancer? Because a filling can last 30 years or more and CFLs maybe a couple of years, depending on use. If you have 20 bulbs on the go every 2 years, it adds up.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs will last anywhere from 8000-10000 hours. Under normal circumstances that means they'll last up to 10 years.

ah, I was basing it on my usage, I've had a couple crap out on me I guess.

[M.Dancer]

ah, I was basing it on my usage, I've had a couple crap out on me I guess.

We've been using them for a few years. The only incandescent buls I have left are in the frisge and stove. Never had a mini go.....

[cybercoma]

ah, I was basing it on my usage, I've had a couple crap out on me I guess.

Your personal usage is not typical of the average. People give more weight to anecdotal evidence than facts because we're storytellers by nature.

A number of factors could have affected your usage. If you used incandescent bulbs instead, they may have burned out in a matter of months instead of 2 years. If that's not the case, then it's possible the bulbs you bought were defective for one reason or another. Most of the major manufacturers (Philips, Sylvania, GE, etc.) actually want you to return the bulbs to them so they can test them if they expire too soon. Unfortunately, I think you have to do it at your expense. The information should be on the product label or on the ballast part of the bulbs themselves.

[cybercoma]

Home Depot actually carries dimmable CFL bulbs that are shaped like floodlights for use in potlights, too. That's one thing most people aren't aware of, you can actually buy dimmable fluorescents.

[Figleaf]

Governments have been doing a really crappy thing to citizens for years now around 'green' issues.

Citizens want governments to protect the environment we all share and ultimately derive our livings from. This is a perfectly reasonable desire on the part of citizens who want to go to their beach and actually be able to swim, or ride their bicylcles and actually be able to breathe, or who want their kids to someday see an elephant or polar bear in its natural habitat.

But rather than responding sensibly to this perfectly sane desire of citizens with measures that work without disrupting lives and incomes, what do governments do? They consult industry groups who urge them to do nothing, and they impose feckless, usually punitive, measures on the individual.

I begin to think it's deliberate... the message is don't push for green legislation 'cause every time you do we'll steal your time or ruin your comfort.

This latest lightbulb punishment is about the most extreme I've seen in a long time. Look at the list of demerits and the policy becomes inexplicable:

Flouresent lightbulbs:

-contain poisonous mercury;

-contain plastics made from non-renewable petroleum products;

-give shitty light;

-cause headaches and eye strain;

-are dangerous fire hazards;

-don't work with energy saving dimmers or some timers; and

-are MUCH heavier so shipping them burns more fuel and thus produces more GHG.

The governments (AND the silly environmentalists who've abetted them) should be ashamed.

[cybercoma]

Flouresent lightbulbs:

-contain poisonous mercury;

-contain plastics made from non-renewable petroleum products;

-give shitty light;

-cause headaches and eye strain;

-are dangerous fire hazards;

-don't work with energy saving dimmers or some timers; and

-are MUCH heavier so shipping them burns more fuel and thus produces more GHG.

The governments (AND the silly environmentalists who've abetted them) should be ashamed.

Did you just make this stuff up off the top of your head?

1) It has been shown in this thread that there is only trace amounts of mercury in these bulbs. Far less than the mercury that's found in fillings even.

2) Many manufacturers use recycled plastics

3) subjective and most companies make different colour ranges so you can get the type of colour rendering you're looking for.

4) Subjective and anecdotal. For ever person that is bothered by them, I can show you several that are not. Expensive lamps for people who have a hard time reading under regular lighting used 6500k fluorescent lamps for years. Funny that people would be given prescriptions for these lamps, if they make it so difficult to see.

5) Bulbs that are CSA approved do NOT pose a fire hazard. Philips lightbulbs, for example, are made from a plastic that will not burn or drip. The problem is when the bulbs expire the electrodes continue to fire, that's why you get blackening at the ends of the tubing. Philips bulbs do not continue to fire after they expire. CSA approved bulbs do not pose a fire risk.

6) False. There are bulbs that work with dimmers, down to 10% lighting.

7) The packaging for CFLs is much larger. In the space you would normally get 144 regular bulbs, you only get about 72 CFLs. A compact fluorescent bulb is not 2x the weight of a normal lightbulb. Regardless, the bulbs are changed 1/10 of the time regular bulbs are changed, which means retailers will be ordering 1/10 as many bulbs; therefore, less gas will will actually be used in shipping.

[Catchme]

This latest lightbulb punishment is about the most extreme I've seen in a long time. Look at the list of demerits and the policy becomes inexplicable:

Flouresent lightbulbs:

-contain poisonous mercury;

-contain plastics made from non-renewable petroleum products;

-give shitty light;

-cause headaches and eye strain;

-are dangerous fire hazards;

-don't work with energy saving dimmers or some timers; and

-are MUCH heavier so shipping them burns more fuel and thus produces more GHG.

The governments (AND the silly environmentalists who've abetted them) should be ashamed.

Much less mecury than many many other things.

The plastics on the body are used for 10+ years, 20 in my case. While the plastic wrapping on the incandescent bulbs gets used by uyou every couple of moths say nothing of the bag to bring them home.

Absolutely not, they give great light.

So do incandescents give eye strain, and the CFL do not give the headaches of overhead lights.

Have never had a problem, nor have I heard of fires from CFL's.

Uh, the ones I have ever used do work with timers and just got a dimmer compatable one for my dinning room.

Uh the much heavier analogy does not work when you consider the shipping costs for all the candescents used in 10+ years.

[Figleaf]

Much less mecury than many many other things.

The plastics on the body are used for 10+ years, 20 in my case. While the plastic wrapping on the incandescent bulbs gets used by uyou every couple of moths say nothing of the bag to bring them home.

Absolutely not, they give great light.

So do incandescents give eye strain, and the CFL do not give the headaches of overhead lights.

Have never had a problem, nor have I heard of fires from CFL's.

Uh, the ones I have ever used do work with timers and just got a dimmer compatable one for my dinning room.

Uh the much heavier analogy does not work when you consider the shipping costs for all the candescents used in 10+ years.

There are many more lightbulbs than many other things.

My incandescent bulbs come in recylclable paper packaging. And the bulbs themselves seem to contain no plastic. Flourseents come wrapped in plastic and each one has a huge lump of plastic for a base.

They give crappy light. It doesn't start until half an hour after you flip the switch, it's flickery, and too blue.

Fire: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/sto...-bulbsmoke.html

The per unit shipping cost of one bulky clunky fluorscent has got to be at least 5 times that for an incandescent.

But look, if people want fluorescents, I say let them have them. If they are better, surely everyone would switch on their own eventually, right?

[cybercoma]

Relating to that article you posted, that was a complaint about a single, very uncommon brand of lighting. The most common bulb brands (Philips, Sylvania and GE) do not smoke the way those bulbs did. In fact, the article states very clearly that the company added that as a FEATURE of the bulb burning out. The reason they did this, is that when fluorescents burn out, the electrodes used to continue to fire. All the major brands I listed above, have a feature in them that stops the electrodes from firing when the bulb expires. They also typically make the plastic bases out of a material that doesn't burn, create toxic smoke or drip should the bulb catch fire for unknown reasons.

The company that people were having problems with was Pur-Lite, a brand I've never even seen. Canadian Tire's normal supply of bulbs comes from Sylvania. These Pur-Lite bulbs were probably a value brand they decided to carry.

Shawn Paulsen, spokesman for the province's Department of Public Safety, said the Pur-Lite bulbs were designed to turn brown and release smoke when they burn out, a feature that was changed in 2006 because of consumer complaints.