'Green' lightbulbs poison workers

[mtnbkr]

They're not much better than the indoor bulbs.  The difference is they have a plastic shield to protect them from the elements.  We don't turn out the ones for the ground floor entrances, so we don't run into the problem of them warming up.

Chris

[HankB]

I use CFLs in my outdoor yard light - it's on a photocell, so it goes on at dusk and off at dawn. They generally last about 3 years, and living in central TX, cold conditions aren't the concern they were when I was up in MN.

Table lamps in my home all have dimmers, so that pretty much limits me to standard bulbs. (I haven't monkeyed around with "dimmable" CFLs.) The ceiling lights are "downlight floods" so CFLs aren't well suited.

And anyway . . . I dont care for the quality of light CFLs emit.

[Firethorn]

Really?  You think?  That's what I do.  My point is that there are a wide variety of types and specs for CFL and you have to find the ones that work for you. 

The quality part was mostly to desertdog.

I've been pretty happy with the CFLs in my house as well.  However, making them mandatory doesn't make much sense.  When the CFLs are outside in the cold, they take forever to warm up (until they warm up, they don't put out much lightt) and they burn out pretty quickly.  I was unaware of this when I put them in my garage, and I burned out a couple in just a few weeks. 

I stuck a couple CFLs in my unheated ND garage, they've lasted over a year now.  They are farily dim when they start up, but provide enough light for what I want to do.

[zahc]

Some All CFLs don't put out very good quality light.

CFLs are absolutely worthless. The purpose of a lightbulb is to provide light. Call me crazy, but that's my primary criteria in choosing a lightbulb. The color rendition of CFLs is terrible. The "white light" they output is a poor illusion. They basically use a cocktail of phosphors to generate peaks at several wavelengths. This suceeds in making the bulb itself look white but obviously destroys the color rendition of whatever it is you are trying to light. It's basically a marketing trick. You are paying not for a full spectrum light but for 5 chosen frequencies. I tried using them, honestly I did, but I gave up and went back to Reveal incandescents. Clearly some people don't care. Maybe it's because I have a darkroom and pictures up, but there's no way I can abide in CFLs. I can't imagine anyone who cares about their interior decorating using them either. White LEDs use a similar phosphor trick to appear white, but most of them still have very poor color rendition. There are some high-CRI LEDs on the market with special, less efficient phosphors that are a better approximation of a full spectrum, but they are still expensive and less efficient. The technology required to create a full spectrum of light seems to be a trick that our best scientists still haven't mastered. Maybe in the future someone will come up with an inexpensive way to create a device that outputs a full spectrum of light, maybe even approximating an ideal black body.

[Iain]

Guess I'm just not a true connoisseur of light.

[Firethorn]

CFLs are absolutely worthless. The purpose of a lightbulb is to provide light. Call me crazy, but that's my primary criteria in choosing a lightbulb.

My CFLs provide plenty of light, heck I saw some 500 watt equivalents a couple months ago. 

As for color rendition, unlike most incandescents, flourescents are rated on their color index.  The better flourescents are better than incandescents - filament bulbs have been tested, but the results are typically not advertised.

Then again, maybe you're just a connoisseur, able to see things I can't.  And no, I don't care about interior(or exterior) decorating that much, though I DO buy the high-CRI bulbs.  I primarily appreciate the fact that my lights don't add much heat to my un-airconditioned house.

[Marnoot]

Yes, a true photophile can see teh wavelengths!  Seriously though, I've only had an issue with the color rendition from uber-cheap CFL bulbs. Get some decent ones, save some money on power, and heat the house up less in the summer.

CFLs are certainly not suited for all uses. Motion detector lights, lights that are usually only on briefly (closets, bathrooms, etc), and others are not good uses for CFLs. Frequent on/off cycles wear out the CFL bulbs much faster (as with any bulb), and you lose the cost savings. So we have incandescents in the bathrooms and halogen flood lights in the back yard.

[makattak]

Hmm... I'm now curious.

My wife owns turtles and has bought me a lizard.

How will reptile owners heat their pets habitat once the government outlaws filamint lights like England did?

Pads are nice, but that's kinda hard for AQUATIC TURTLES that need to sun themselves....

[Iain]

If you like I'll take a trip down to the petshop tomorrow. Do you think I'll find a suitable bulb?

(I'm tempted to introduce the concept of sig/avatar bets)

[makattak]

If you like I'll take a trip down to the petshop tomorrow. Do you think I'll find a suitable bulb?

(I'm tempted to introduce the concept of sig/avatar bets)

I bet you will. My question was not serious, but rather I was pointing out that there will have to be "exceptions" to the rules.

Also, we must waste so much energy in our pet room: water filters, heat lamps, sun lamps, heating pads...

Maybe we should outlaw pets, too.

[Marnoot]

Maybe we should outlaw pets, too.

Don't worry, PETA's hard at work on this front. 

[makattak]

Don't worry, PETA's hard at work on this front. 

>.<

I keep forgetting when I say outlandish and sarcastic things that there are people who actually HOLD those positions.

I'll just stop giving the loonies ideas now.

[freedom lover]

How will reptile owners heat their pets habitat once the government outlaws filamint lights like England did?

I haven't heard of a bill that would do that here. Do you have a link?

[makattak]

I haven't heard of a bill that would do that here. Do you have a link?

Again, my question was not serious. As such, I have no link to a pending bill to outlaw filamint bulbs.

Oooo... there's a way around the thermostat settings proposed by California from the necro thread, too... Heat lamps!

[KD5NRH]

I haven't heard of a bill that would do that here. Do you have a link?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Energy_Act_of_2007

[Waitone]

The reason why China and other such nations are able to compete with the US is because their unskilled labor + machines is cheaper than our skilled labor + machines.

Gotta disagree.  US companies send production to the China's and India's of the world because the indirect cost of production is waaaay too high.  Send production to China and you eliminate costs associated with health. environmental, safety, and litigation.  Oh, and don't forget taxation.  We have the charming tradition of taxing capital gains twice; once at the company and once when profits are distributed to the owners (ie: stockholders).  Outsourcing is a market adaptation to intrusive government.  And it is about to get much worse.