You've heard the advice about compact-fluorescent (CFL) bulbs: replace your frequently used lights with these, and you'll save money, energy and reduce global warming pollutants.
Well, I'm going to tell you to stop taking this advice. Instead, replace all your lights with CFLs.
In the old days when they cost $15, the original advice was fine. Now that you can purchase them for as little as $2 or $3 apiece, that advice no longer holds. It now makes more sense to replace them all.
“But they woe-on’t last as lo-onng,” you’ll hear people whine. Let’s do the numbers.
Assume that you have a 60-watt light that you switch on five times a day for two minutes each time (ten minutes total per day). You replace it with a 15-watt CFL that costs $3. Because of frequent switching, let’s assume its lifetime is hugely reduced by 75% to 2000 hours instead of 8000.
Your annual return on investment for that bulb is 5%-15% depending on your electricity rates and, dang, it will only last you for 33 years before you have to replace it. It might not be the 50% return you’ll get from some of your other fixtures, but it’s still a no-brainer. For a couple hundred dollars you can probably change out your whole house (a little more if you buy more expensive dimmables and 3-ways; visit www.efi.org for a good selection of bulbs). What are you waiting for? The climate to change?
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Steve Offutt, Arlington resident and Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects
How are we supposed to know this stuff?
I've had flourescent bulbs break. I've done nothing to properly protect myself or the environment during clean-up.
Now these CFL's also pose dangers. While I appreciate the facts about the power plant, it really seems pretty obvious to me that a power plant is bad while it would NEVER dawn on me that a lightbulb is bad. (In fact, couldn't this be an arguement for non-point source pollution in that we KNOW how to take care of one power plant but we do NOT have the ability to regular hundreds of thousands of lightbulbs that go into the hands of unsuspecting consumers.) And, yes, the boxes might give instruction on how to handle, but the bulbs will far out last the box, which I'd have recycled seven years ago.
It is all very frustrating.
Posted by: Eric | August 03, 2007 at 08:39 AM
False.
Please see this earlier posting for information on mercury in CFLs
http://www.arlingtonclimateblog.com/climate/2007/03/reduce_mercury_.html
Posted by: Steve | July 03, 2007 at 11:56 AM
I was told that these CFL bulbs are WORSE for the environment since their disposal creates more pollutants. True or False?
Posted by: frank | July 03, 2007 at 10:52 AM