CFL problems

[ef9]

I had bad luck with the ones from Costco, those burned out within a year (this was on Oahu). Over here, I used only ones from Home Depot and WalMart. The Great Value brand CFLs take a second before the light comes on. Very irritating.

[dcl]

Ours came from Costco, I remember buying a lot of them at the time as we were switching over and they were a good deal. We are down to just a few of those left, so I will try a different store next time around and see if we have better luck with them.

[asly]

Thanks Hooligal for the tip on the collection box location at Home Depot. I didn't know they had one. It would be nice if they posted that info as well at the location where they are stocked in the store along with education as to why you should drop them in the collection boxes.

[gtill]

The active toxin in CFC's is mercury, recently declared a toxic heavy metal, and banned by the EPA. In it's most lethal form (dust), it causes major havoc to our bodies. The dust also will act as smoke to a detector, so if your smoke detector goes off and you're around, you have ingested an unhealthy dose. Worse yet if you follow up with a regular vacuum cleaner you have spread it throught the house and it is a persistent chemical, it never breaks down and requires a HEPA vac, and entire house wipe down. These used to be the requirments (at great cost)until it was discovered that it would save fuel by lower electric use and saving a few bucks a year and helping minimise global warming trumped human health. Plus how many bulbs end up in our unlined open dump by the ocean.
Dumping a broken bulb, unless it's well wrapped and double bagged is only spreading the toxin, rinsing it in the sink puts it directly into the ocean where it's headed anyway! Which will poison our fish, but help the Save whatever crowd stop the nearshore fishing.

[mdd7000]

The amount of mercury in a bulb is a little less than the size of the ball in a ball point pen.
Think of how many people (maybe many on this forum) who played with mercury from a broken thermometer when young with their bare hands. Yes, it is dangerous in large amounts, but all of you here are still alive?

Now that we know better, we can take precautions - recycling them properly is the best manner.

[Obie]

Put another way,if you ingested the total amount of mercury in a cfl, it would be less than eating a can of tuna fish.

[mdd7000]

quote:

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Originally posted by Obie

Put another way,if you ingested the total amount of mercury in a cfl, it would be less than eating a can of tuna fish.

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Well said, and probably true.

[jerry]

Like all fluorescent bulbs, CFLs aren't designed to be turned on and off repeatedly with short on cycles. That will shorten their life. Also, you need special CFLs if you want to operate them on a dimmer.

A better option, more expensive up front but cheaper in the long run, are LED lights. The problem with them is the brighter ones are still very expensive, but getting cheaper and brighter all the time.

Jerry

[MarkP]

"Well said, and probably true."

Just rattling your cage, but in a perfectly logical world (Yea, right!) the truth part would be all that mattered, whereas in our world an admission that something sounds good and might not even be wrong is still a positive statement.

[kani-lehua]

the coquis haven't been chirping up here and have been replaced by the shrill of another smoke detector going off.



"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

w. james