People 'hate' certain light bulbs?

whatever

Yeah, but how am I supposed to dispose of them, since they have mercury? I currently have 3 bulbs that don't work (switched the house over this year), and won't throw 'em in the trash.

So us tree huggers were right, and all those CF bulbs I snuck into my friends places were doing some good after all?

I demand prostitutes and hashish by way of apology.

CFB light bulb?

Is that like the ATM machine or the DVD disc?

How many light bulbs does it take to change the world?

/can't believe no one else did it first

Compact fluoros rule... excellent way to cut your electric bill big-time.

FarkinFarker: People 'hate' certain light bulbs?

Many people have a preference for a certain type of lighting. I greatly dislike flourescent lighting. It lacks the warm glow of incandescent lighting.

I've got those all over my house, thanks to the previous owner. The turn-on delay is annoying, and often forces me to stand and wait to enter a dark room, rather than stumble in while it's still dark and trip over something. But they do last a long time. The strange thing is they tend to burn out in groups. I had 3 working just fine in my ceiling fan until the other day when they all burned out at once.

I don't even pay for my electricity (included in rent) and I still use CFLs in all my fixtures. They're barely more expensive than incandescents and they last for goddamn ever.

I have about 14 installed, and several extras in the pantry. Sam's Club has a pack of 8 for less than $10. GE brand, good deal.

Plus, they feel great going in.

/The light socket! What the hell did you think I was referring to? Get your mind out of the gutter. Sheesh.

Avicenna: Is that like the ATM machine or the DVD disc?

You need to see a shrink if that really drives you up the wall

/Go swirly!

Q: How many gay men does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Just one, but an entire ER to get it back out!

/clickdrag

Is that like the ATM machine or the DVD disc?

Or the PIN number for the ATM machine?

Funny you mention ceiling fans. I don't use them in ceiling fans since I'm certain the movement/motion of the fan breaks the bulbs.

Other than that, I switched over the entire house.

Beemer
Yeah, but how am I supposed to dispose of them, since they have mercury? I currently have 3 bulbs that don't work (switched the house over this year), and won't throw 'em in the trash.

Throw 'em in a box or bag, and either wait for your local trash collection concern to pick up household hazardous waste, or, failing that, take them to a place that will accept them.

Because something's a little more difficult doesn't mean it's still not a better idea.

On a related not, I bought a six-pack of CFLs without realizing they were the "Daylight" variety. The light really does look light daylight. It's a little creepy in my basement stairwell.

I use them all over the house, just not in bathroom fixtures, lights over mirrors and reading lamps.

Unavailable for comment

We have about 5 of these at my house. I'd use more if not for the turn-on delay and the 5 minutes to get to full brightness.

The dorms on my college campus have started using these. They seem great to me. There isn't any turn-on delay in ours though.

8. In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers-100 million in all-one swirl bulb.

Go Wal-Mart!

I put CFB's everywhere in my house. I got eight 60 watt equivalent for $12 at Sam's Club.

It seems like 1 or 2 reasons, explained 10 different ways.

I use CFBs everywhere in my house that isn't on a dimmer(they don't dim). A few of the older ones I have flicker on, but the new ones I have had advertised a quick start technology that makes them almost impossible to tell apart from regular bulbs, especialy in fixtures where you don't see the bulb. And yes, you save a noticible amount money on your electric bill by using them

8. In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers-100 million in all-one swirl bulb.

And this counts as a reason not to hate them why?

Every light in the house has CFL bulbs in it. At $9 for a 6-pack (Home Depot), it's priced a little high, but we've had sub-$90 electric bills all summer long - and thats while running the A/C at 75-77F.

I have them in a few fixtures and I need to get more. I just replace them as I go. On a side note - they are infinitely better than they were just a year or two ago.

This article is useless without output spectrum and audible noise comparisons between incandescent and CFL bulbs.

Hmmm, combining # 6 and # 7...
6. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

7. Last year, U.S. consumers spent about $1 billion to buy about 2 billion lightbulbs-5.5 million every day. Just 5%, 100 million, were compact fluorescents

... means that there's already been 1.3*100 million million cars off the road. 1.3*10^14 is a fairly large number.

Even lower power usage (but still in the future) - LED lights.

I use 'em and all, and I'm no electricity expert, but...

5. The single greatest source of greenhouse gases in the United States is power plants-half our electricity comes from coal plants. One bulb swapped out: enough electricity saved to turn off two entire power plants-or skip building the next two.

6. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

...those seem awfully optimistic.

Oh, wait. Unless they're still talking about one bulb per each of 110 million households. Okay, that I could see.

Now, I could delete this post and hide my stupidity, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one confused.

Old and busted: Compact Flourescents
New hotness: LEDs

LEDs are incredibly efficient. I've got a couple rooms illuminated by them with a couple C-cells. That battery will probably last a couple years. Do the math. CFBs are an improvement, but they aren't nearly as good as the alternatives.

They have improved a lot, even in the last five years. The first ones we got had terrible color balance. the latest are pretty much indistinguishable from incandescent bulbs.

Bo 'n Luke: The turn-on delay is annoying

Replace them with new ones. There should be little to no delay in recent CFBs. At least I don't notice any delay.

Been using them for a couple years now and haven't had to change one yet. Electric bill went down by a few cents a month.

/no, it doesn't make me better than you
//shut up

I bought several CF bulbs (the generic brand) at Wal-Mart and have had several of them fail/burn out in shorter amount of time than an incandescent bulb. $5 down the drain. Stay away from those! I've also had one Sylvania CFB burn out as well. These things are unreliable.

compact flourescent bulb bulbs?

1. If every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people.
. . .

5. The single greatest source of greenhouse gases in the United States is power plants-half our electricity comes from coal plants. One bulb swapped out: enough electricity saved to turn off two entire power plants-or skip building the next two.
. . .
7. Last year, U.S. consumers spent about $1 billion to buy about 2 billion lightbulbs-5.5 million every day. Just 5%, 100 million, were compact fluorescents.

No wonder the author separated #1 from #7 -- we've already done that, and yet we're not accomplishing wthe projected savings. In other news, US businesses will lose $32billion in lost work time from people reading this article.

Yeah, but try reading by one. Flourescent light flickers at 60 HZ, gives me headaches, and generally makes people look like death warmed over.

Like most other hippy green crap, let's just ignore the fact that it sucks and play up the guilt angle.

If the farking Birkenstock-tree-snuggling-SUV-driving-Al-Gore types would just let us build a few more nuclear plants in the US, it'd make much more of a difference.

"Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents "

No, they don't. The light is a completely different temperature no matter what type of CF it is. Go halogen instead. It's a cleaner, brighter light.

Enlightening testimonial. I find that a 40 watt CFB gives off the same illumination as a 60w incandesant. It's true theres about a one second delay, although it's still better than AT&T dial up.

DrForrester
We have about 5 of these at my house. I'd use more if not for the turn-on delay and the 5 minutes to get to full brightness.

Some of the very first ones I bought had a delay, but I haven't had that problem in any more recent bulbs.

What I don't like is that you can't use them with dimmers.

sylaak: Many people have a preference for a certain type of lighting. I greatly dislike flourescent lighting. It lacks the warm glow of incandescent lighting.

The trick is to put one CF bulb into multi socket fixtures. That gets rid of that annoying startup effect, and balances out the spectrum a whole lot. My GF, who thinks my tree huggerism is ridiculous hasn't noticed in two years.

Robert1966: And this counts as a reason not to hate them why?

You can still hate on wall mart. But this IS a magnificent example of the big box doing something envrionmentally responsible. Yes it is to make money. But so what? It is also a great signal that people are finally taking energy conservation a little more seriously, and it isn't just a few thousand guys like me ordering them from specialty catalogs, like they were goat pron or something.

Bladel

"Utility companies should be giving these away during summer to prevent peak alerts."

That would cut into their revenues.

Like the cities who realized 'oh nooosss, the population is using less water, we'll have to raise taxes on water to cover the revenue loss'

avicenna

Went to the West Virginia DMV the other day.

Giant poster on the door read:
"CDL license holders that have expired for six months must retest."

"MVR record is available for five dollars."

/I cried a little

We Say: What esle?

Well said.