We’ve decided it is time for us to embrace a more ‘green’
lifestyle – both for the economical reasons and for the ecological reasons too.
Light bulbs are an example where both reasons come into
play. We well realized that incandescent
and halogen bulbs are not a good choice except for the fact they are
convenient. Screw it in and flip the
switch for instant bright light.
Expensive, hot bright light.
We decided it was time for a change. But to what?
The choices are between CFL (compact fluorescent lights) and LED (light
emitting diodes). Time for a bit of
research so to make the best choice as there are pros and cons to both.
CFL light bulbs PRO:
they are cool burning light, they last longer than incandescent, they
are easy to find and relatively inexpensive to purchase, they are four times
more efficient and last up to 10 times longer than incandescent use 50 - 80%
less energy than incandescent.
CFL CON: they are
sensitive to frequent on/off cycling. Their rated lifetimes of 10,000 hours are
reduced in applications where the light is switched on and off very often (like
a closet), they need to be on at least 15 minutes, they take longer than other
lights to become fully lit, and you have to buy special CFL to use on a dimmer
switch, they might not fit into lamps with a small/shallow area for a bulb.
And the biggest con… All Fluorescent Lamps and Tubes
Should Be Recycled or Disposed as Hazardous Waste due to their mercury
content. That means you do NOT throw
them in your household trash. Lowes,
Home Depot, and IKEA accept CFL bulbs for recycling…but it varies store by
store if they will accept the long tubes.
And if you break one remember that there is mercury in
compact fluorescent bulbs:
- open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more
(mercury can be breathed in)
-put on gloves to clean up (mercury can be absorbed thru
the skin)
- use a wet rag to clean it up and put all of the pieces,
and the rag, into a plastic bag
- place all materials in a second sealed plastic bag
Another thing, those big florescent tubes (T12) are no
longer being made. “This July, U.S.
lighting manufacturers will cease production of many T12 lamps in order to
comply with Department of Energy (DOE) regulations. First announced in 2010,
the DOE planned to phase out magnetic ballasts used in T12 lamps in favor of
more energy-efficient T8 and T5 lamps.”
That means those of us with florescent tube lights in our
homes, basements, shops, and garages will soon have to buy all new light
fixtures and make repairs to our ceilings from those replacements. The smaller T8 and T5 bulbs do not fit in the
T12 fixtures.
The other choice in efficient lighting is LED bulbs. I’m still not totally clear on how they work
but I do know that there is nothing ‘burning’ – filament or gases as in the
incandescent and CFL. So they don’t
really ‘burn out’ or fail. What happens
to them is that they get dimmer over time.
LED light PRO: they last up to 10 times as long as
compact fluorescents, they are very durable, cool to use so the room does not
heat up with use, no mercury, they use only 2-17 watts of electricity (1/3rd to
1/30th of Incandescent or CFL). Because
of their extremely long life, they are excellent choices for areas that are
hard to replace bulbs.
LED light CON:
they cost $24 to about $36 per bulb (!!!!). One report I read states there is development
of a cheaper LED that in a few years should bring them down to roughly the cost
of a CFL bulb. Also, they are very
directional in their light and aren’t a good fit for general lighting (like a
table lamp).
I made our first change because of our can lighting. I really worried about the heat build-up and
the possibility of an attic fire.
Because we have a LOT of can lights I went with the CFL spot lights. It would have cost $500 plus to replace all
of them.
My next changes were in a couple of light fixtures. They were made for halogen lights but were
way too hot; one actually made the fixture ‘crackle’ and the other made
Himself’s small office hot. Any time I
get a good coupon or find a sale, I snatch up bulbs to replace (still need 2
more for his office).
I’ve tried putting CFL bulbs into most of my lamps, but
have several that the bulbs are just too large to fit within the space
allowed. And Himself doesn’t want CFL in
his personal lamps because he doesn’t like the ‘warm up’ time. When he wants light, he wants it now.
To handle the issue of disposal of the florescent bulbs,
I’ve put a special collection area in my recycling center to handle them. I hope to soon have all the light bulbs in my
home switched over to green light.
