Compact Fluorescents

[feralkid]

I have no idea what you are trying to ask. Please try agian.

The question is two-fold:

He's wondering why the slow descent into full-on nutter; testing the waters after an earlier ban?

 

[a777pilot]

The question is two-fold:

He's wondering why the slow descent into full-on nutter; testing the waters after an earlier ban?

I still don't understand.

What is a "full-on nutter"?

I have never been banned here. Other sites, yes.

But thanks for trying to clarify.

 

[her209]

Take it to Home Depot or Lowes where they recycle CFLs or other flourescent lights for you. Seriously, there isn't any reason not to recycle them. Enjoy the mercury dripping into your water table!

Exactly. Do these people complain that they can't just dump their motor oil into the drain too?

 

[monovillage]

I have a 10 gallon galvanized trashcan that i rigged a latch on. I put all my hazardous waste in it including CFLs and every couple/few months i take it down to the Hazmat waste location in my town to dispose of it. I've never looked into what they do with it after they take it.

 

[a777pilot]

I have a 10 gallon galvanized trashcan that i rigged a latch on. I put all my hazardous waste in it including CFLs and every couple/few months i take it down to the Hazmat waste location in my town to dispose of it. I've never looked into what they do with it after they take it.

They put it in a land fill.

 

[woolfe9999]

There's another thread on this subject on the front page of this forum.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2177909

 

[MovingTarget]

Remember for Democrats choice only applies to scraping a baby out of a uterus.

troll, troll, troll your boat.... :thumbsdown:

 

[cliftonite]

Remember for Democrats choice only applies to scraping a baby out of a uterus.

"A bill calling for light bulbs to become gradually more efficient beginning in 2012 and ending in 2020 -- what critics are calling a ban -- passed in 2007 with bipartisan support and was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush."

I guess the republicans feel the same way.

 

[piasabird]

Old light bulbs cost like $0.10 to make and have no mercury. Kind of stupid to get rid of something that works.

 

[bobdole369]

OK, our Congress Critters in their wisdom have decreed that we shall henceforth use compact fluorescents lights vice anything made here in this country.

Question: What do you do with those CFL's that burn out?

I just replace it and throw it in the trash.

Being that they burn out faster than incandescents (at least the walmart ones) I've been chucking them in the dumpster, busting them on purpose and increasing the toxicity of the neighborhood in the process.

I was really hoping they'd get rid of that bullshit. Dimmed incandescent saves more power and money and doesn't toxify your home. And the light is much more pleasing.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Personally, I prefer to color of incandescent bulbs. CFLs are very cold in comparison.

 

[her209]

Personally, I prefer to color of incandescent bulbs. CFLs are very cold in comparison.

CFLs are made in different temperatures and lumen output.

 

[Jaskalas]

That's the spirit. Poison your own environment to prove a point that nobody can tell you what to do.

The CFL makers are doing that. Mass production of a hazardous material for public use. They WILL be disposed of in the trash, in the millions.

 

[werepossum]

Personally, I prefer to color of incandescent bulbs. CFLs are very cold in comparison.

Incandescent bulbs do have better color rendering, being essentially black body radiation. Personally I prefer a bit cooler (bluer) light and find the color rendering of CFLs quite adequate, but you may wish to look for warmer CFLs. They are available in 2700 degrees Kelvin, which is essentially incandescent. CFLs will never have the broad spectra of incandescent bulbs, but the better quality tri-phosphor REE CFLs should be satisfactory to almost everyone. If you are one of the few that find the light from high quality 2700K CFLs annoying, you can always buy halogens for the next few years. By the time halogens are phased out, RGB LEDs should be reasonably affordable.

CFLs are not a place to buy the cheapest Chinese products available, but the better ones are surprisingly good.

EDIT:

The CFL makers are doing that. Mass production of a hazardous material for public use. They WILL be disposed of in the trash, in the millions.

There is more potential for toxic materials in our landfills with CFLs, but I could make a case that more mercury amalgam in a modern landfill is less harmful than more mercury loose in the environment due to the additional coal-fired electricity generated.

 

[Jaepheth]

If the government doesn't make you stop using incandescent bulbs, nature eventually will anyway:
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rcr-forecasts-tantalum-tungsten-supply-shortfall-2010-09-09


IMO you won't have to suffer CFLs for long; as LED bulbs will eventually replace them.

 

[werepossum]

If the government doesn't make you stop using incandescent bulbs, nature eventually will anyway:
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/rcr-forecasts-tantalum-tungsten-supply-shortfall-2010-09-09


IMO you won't have to suffer CFLs for long; as LED bulbs will eventually replace them.

I can't believe that tantalum, tungsten and zircon prices are going to increase any more quickly than do Europium and Terbium prices, and anyway I think only tungsten is used in incandescent lamps.

You're certainly right about CFLs though. Already LEDs are roughly comparable to pin-base, discrete ballast CFLs in downlights and sconces. Note though that most "white" LEDs sold today are actually blue LEDs with a tri-phosphor coating, so demand for Europium and Terbium will be only partially eased.

 

[ShawnD1]

CFLs are made in different temperatures and lumen output.

I can't remember what the good ones are called but "cool white" is horrible. Whoever buys those needs to be killed. Also, people with blue car headlights need to be killed.

Maybe the yellow ones were called warm white.

 

[Doppel]

OK, our Congress Critters in their wisdom have decreed that we shall henceforth use compact fluorescents lights vice anything made here in this country.

Question: What do you do with those CFL's that burn out?

I just replace it and throw it in the trash.

They go in the trash, of course. They do for virtually everybody, I'm sure, and always will.

CFLs in the home kind of suck. LEDs are close now to being worth getting and I hope to not buy more CFLs. LEDs are bright instantly and have a better life span.

 

[werepossum]

I can't remember what the good ones are called but "cool white" is horrible. Whoever buys those needs to be killed. Also, people with blue car headlights need to be killed.

Maybe the yellow ones were called warm white.

"Cool white" is generally a single phosphor, 4100K light with poor color rendering (~60 CRI) and is generally more bluish. I personally like the bluish lamps with better color rendering, especially the 5000K "full spectrum" or even 6500K "daylight" lamps with CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90+. These are close to daylight outside. Some people prefer a warmer, more yellow light more similar to incandescent, which is roughly 2700K. (Lights are rated in equivalent black body radiation, but are classified according to perception. Since we equate yellow or red lights with warm objects, like a wood fire, we call that end of the spectrum warm and the blue end of the spectrum cool even though a black body has to be hotter to radiate in blue spectra than in yellow-red spectra. Go figure.)

Usually, lighting quality is more about color rendering than temperature. Cool white lights suck generally because they use only one cheap phosphor blend, not because they are cool.

 

[Modelworks]

They go in the trash, of course. They do for virtually everybody, I'm sure, and always will.

CFLs in the home kind of suck. LEDs are close now to being worth getting and I hope to not buy more CFLs. LEDs are bright instantly and have a better life span.

LED production makes waste products even more hazardous than CFL. Almost every LED requires Arsenic in the processing and that Arsenic is often dumped into the ground. Increase demand for it and you increase the need to dispose of the waste. CFL are tossed into landfills and that will increase. All those lovely chemicals inside the base of the unit will make the water undrinkable.

We are going from something that was 99% recyclable to something that is at best 10% recyclable. We are making lighting more complicated in the parts count and resource usage when we should be trying to simplify it further.

 

[dullard]

LED production makes waste products even more hazardous than CFL. Almost every LED requires Arsenic in the processing and that Arsenic is often dumped into the ground. Increase demand for it and you increase the need to dispose of the waste. CFL are tossed into landfills and that will increase. All those lovely chemicals inside the base of the unit will make the water undrinkable.

We are going from something that was 99% recyclable to something that is at best 10% recyclable. We are making lighting more complicated in the parts count and resource usage when we should be trying to simplify it further.

How recyclable is the mercury, arsenic, etc in the coal that we burn to produce power to run those lightbulbs?

If you recycle 99% of something and need 1,000,000 of them vs if you recycle 10% of something and need 1,000 of them, which has more waste?