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On a dark stormy night two aging hippies in a 1970 VW microbus are pulled over by the county sheriff.
"I pulled you over because we've had complaints that you've been getting lit up, every night. We've staked out the Publix Store and have video evidence for both possession and trafficking."
"You must be mistaken officer, I haven't smoked one since 1968!" said the driver.
"We're not talking smoke here, we're talking about getting lit up, light, LIGHT BULBS, you've been photographed trafficking in light bulbs, a violation in the USA according to the LEA."
RUNAWAY GOVERNMENT MICROMANAGEMENT AND STUPIDITY!
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As 2012 becomes an afterthought, Americans can also add one other item to the past â€" the 75-watt incandescent light bulb.
As of Jan. 1, federal law dictates that 75-watt light bulbs can no longer be produced or imported in the United States. Retailers that still have them in stock can sell them until they run out.
By 2014, traditional 60- and 40-watt bulbs will also be phased out.
The reason for the Thomas Edison invention’s demise is energy based.
“90 percent of the energy the bulb uses is wasted,†said Celia Kuperzmid-Lehrman of Consumer Reports. “What they replaced them with are much more energy-efficient bulbs.â€
Kuperzmid-Lehrman stated that the replacements for the incandescent bulb are also as bright and will save consumers more money over time.
Most screw-in bulbs must use at least 27 percent less energy by 2014.
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They say "90% of the electricity used was wasted as heat." While it may be true that 90% of the output from the incandescant lamp is not visible light, it is not wasted; it is heating your home. If your home or office is heated with resistance electric heat, than the light bulb is more efficient than your electric heat because you get to use the light from the bulb before the light is also converted to heat. Depending where you are in the USA you may be heating your house more than 5 months per year. So when you get these 'more efficient' light sources, your home heating system will just run more to make up for it.
So now that we have brought up the subject of heating the house, we should also mention cooling the home or office. Now we can see an aspect of this light bulb ban that is valid. If you do reduce the amount of heat from a xx lumen light source from 100W to 30W, then you do not need to run the 'air conditioner' to pump out that 70W difference. Multiply that by eight luminaires for a very large home and the result is 560W (more than 2/3 horsepower.) However, taking this government thought process, we should outlaw the use of electric fans in 'air conditioned' environments. An electric fan, by this concept, is 100% waste of electricity. Yes, every bit of electricity that electric fan uses is turned into heat. A typical 'box fan' on high, using 200W will create some heat directly from the 'inefficient' motor. The fan blades turn all of the remaining energy into heat. Though you may feel cooler from the evaporation of sweat, your house is being heated by 100% of the electricity that fan is using. If you do not understand how this works, read up on James Prescott Joule's experiments where he measured work and energy.
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Are Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) the answer?
Not yet. The big problem with compact fluorescent lamps is that almost all of them are made in china; that means no quality control, and no regard for product safety.
CFLs are destroyed a little bit each time you turn them on. If you turn them on and never turn them off (and they were properly designed) they will last many many years. But if you install them in the laundry room or bathroom where they will be turned on and off many times per day, you may find that those mercury laden lamps only last a few weeks!
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the average CFT contains 4 mg Hg. Usually this is isolated from the environment and poses no problem and if recycled is no problem for its total life cycle. However if broken or trashed and broken can release the Hg vapour. By comparison the old 48" tube contains 10-25 mg Hg in vapour and liquid form.
The mercury is there because the vapour conducts electricity and in the process gives off ultraviolet (UV) light. The UV in turn excites the lining of the bulb to give off visible light
Lets talk about the "oops!" factor. What happens if you break one of the bulbs. The Hg is released into the immediate vicinity of your lungs and then ...
Some jurisdictions stop just short of having you call out the Hazmat team. However many of us remember playing with mercury as kids - lots of skin and respiratory exposure and we're apparently okay. Hg, by the way, attacks the central nervous system, and causes eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation. Don't forget our favourite Hg exposure victim - the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.
So what exactly is the long-term effect of the mercury laden CFL'S? When the bulbs aren’t disposed of properly (which most aren’t), the bulbs end up breaking on their way to the landfills, which results in the mercury entering our soil, or running off into the water supply. Once in the water supply, it enters the bodies of fish, which, if eaten by humans, means you are ingesting mercury which doesn’t leave your body very easily â€" it doesn’t get degraded by bacteria.
The worst effects of mercury poisoning in humans are damage to the central nervous system, damage to the reproductive system, and impaired development in children. Mind you, this is only found in bodies with very high mercury content (ie. eating a lot of fish), but the hazard is still out there, and is only increased every time a CFL bulb gets tossed away.
So why did the government decide to put a mandate on installing these bulbs, knowing they contain toxic materials? At the time, the energy crisis seemed like a looming threat, and the optimism about how many CFL bulbs would be recycled must have disarmed any health concerns that arose.
Looking at the short term effects of the switch to CFLs, we may not see any real harm done. But on a longer timeline, with an increasing number of the light bulbs being improperly disposed, we are almost guaranteed to see a rising level of mercury in our soil and water. Mercury poisoning has already become a hot topic in recent years, and I fear the more mercury we expose to our homes, and throw away carelessly, the worse it’s going to get.
Personally, I think in years, or perhaps decades, the switch to CFLs will be looked upon with embarrassment. When everyone realizes the long term effects of mercury are equally as hazardous to our health as greenhouse gases are (if not more), we are going to have yet another serious problem on our hands.
THE END GAME:Long ago the late great Paul Harvey asked his audience, "Isn't it strange that one day the United States and the Soviet Union will meet and pass each other going in opposite directions."
The implication here is plain, if you drive a Hummer, it should be seized by the government, so much for freedom of choice. If you use the wrong light bulb, you should be arrested. If you don't conform to the agenda, perhaps we are all expendable as the government shifts from "For the people," to a rule of, "to the people." If big brother doesn't like it, it's illegal
SOURCES:http://www.greenerideal.com/lifestyle/health/6265-cfl-lightbulbs-and-mercury-the-ugly-truth/
http://www.project.nsearch.com/profiles/blogs/75-watt-bulbs-now-illegal-to-make-or-import-in-usa
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_there_dangerous_amounts_of_Mercury_in_fluorescent_light_bulbs_and_how_do_you_dispose_of_them_safely
http://www.secondhandradio.com/Landing/LightBublBan.aspx
Thanks for the read Ock.
I have a bone to pick with CF bulbs. I have a house full of hard wired dimmers and CF's don't dim! Maybe the new LED's do, but I haven't tried to find a screw in version (probably three times the price of course!)
The manufactures seem to have a complete ignorance or disregard for warm color temperatures...I hate cool white and am noticing most LED's tend to tip toward that annoying blue white. we as a society don't need more things to agitate and keep us from being relaxed.
How hard would it be for them to make a warmer yellower color?
Jesus, some people will complain about anything to try and score a cheap political point.
Better, more efficient bulbs are better for everyone. I fail to understand the mentality of anyone who complains about trying to make our country more efficient and modern.
Some of us make our own path and lead,not get spoon fed like sheeple. ;)
CFLs will be obsolete soon anyways with full spectrum LED lights becoming cheaper and better quality. So I think that the dreaded "mercury" problem is not going to be a problem for long. You take in more mercury from the fish and vegetables you eat in a year than a few lightbulbs.
Jeeze, don't you guys remember handling mercury in school (before it was labeled as being deadly and highly dangerous)?
I think it's easier getting a more pleasing color temp with LED than it is CFL. I use CFLs in a couple of places- spaces that I don't really spend a whole lot of time in or need really bright light. My main lighting is done with halogen incandescent bulbs. They're more efficient than normal bulbs and the 60 watt ones seem to last forever- I run my 3-way table lamps in my living room almost all the time when I'm home and I bought the bulbs well over a year ago. They cost a little more than normal bulbs but if you're not a fan of CFL, I'd give them a try.
LED isn't quite there yet but give it a few more years and I think it'll be interesting to see where things go. I like the ability to change colors on the fly, fun for parties or as subtle backlighting for movie watching. The place it will really shine is in new homes because people will be able to do things that people hadn't considered doing with residential lighting before.
I can't stand cfl's, they suck. Take 10 minutes to warm up and put out any light, and when they do it's ugly stark/glaring color. I'm going to buy a 100 year supply of regular bulbs and be done with it.
Home Depot has an amazing selection of LED lights of all types and color temperatures. We have converted all of the lights in our great room/kitchen to LED and can light up the place like a circus with only 55 watts total.
The led bulbs are much better, they don't take forever to warm up and put out light. The color temperature is still way too bright and glaring for my tastes though. I don't like being aware that a light is harsh, I just want the room lit up but I don't necessarily want to notice it constantly. Which I've yet to see anything that comes close to a regular bulb in doing. LED bulbs can be made to put out any color spectrum, so I suppose it will probably get to the point where you can turn a dial and adjust it, at which point I'll probably bite and get some. But all the ones I've seen so far are glaring and have a lot of blue in the color spectrum. What I like are just plain old clear-glass light bulbs, I wish any of the newfangled stuff did the same thing they do.
Chris, try the Philips LED bulbs, the one with the funny yellow panels on the side. They put out the closest thing to incandescent bulb color temperature that I have seen. Too yellow for me, but my old eyes like the higher Kelvin temperature of the daylight LEDs.
Also don't forget that halogen bulbs are still and will be available. Some of them have the halogen capsule inside what looks like a regular bulb with similar color output to the now banned bulbs.
CFLs have gotten some better about color and warm up time, but they don't last nearly as long as claimed so the energy savings might not add up to savings in your pocket.