If you’re interested in switching to “green light,” check out this comprehensive but digestible CFL buying and use guide. [Danny Lipford]
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I replaced about 3/4 of the lights in my house with CFL and while I haven’t been scrutinizing the energy bill I can definitely notice a difference in the amount of heat given off in my office, where my gaming computer resides. The lack of heat means I don’t have to run the AC to cool one room down from time to time, which is a definite plus.
I have a small den where my PC resides along with a TV and other heat producing components so I’m tempted to give these a shot just for the cooling reason alone. I’m curious though, if they break or die exactly how am I supposed to dispose of them? I don’t know of any mercury waste management facilities.
i heard a while back that home depot and walmart(and maybe other retailers) would be offering recylcing drop offs.
This may be a state by state basis though since each state has different laws about handing mercury.
my google spidey searches couldn’t find anything current tho this effect. However, there are private local recycling centers in different parts of the US.
I have swapped out most of the lights in my apartment with CFLs, however I am having one problem with them:
The bathroom. Ive gone through three CFLs in the past year in the bathroom fixture (one of which actually blackened and deformed leaking the mercury out). Since then I have switched back to indandescents in that fixture.
I believe there is something wrong with the fixture, but the maintenance person says there is nothing wrong. He says it was probably an issue with heat becoming trapped. (Keep in mind I was using one 30W CFL in a fixture meant to hold four 60W bulbs)
Anyone else know of anything that might cause this?
@Goatweed: If you have a nearby Ikea, I hear they’re recycling bulbs now.
We have replaced all but some overhead flourescents (kithcen,laundry rooms) with the CFLs,including outside lights since we always forget to turn them off.On my outside lights the CFLs have lasted 2+ years while the regular bulbs only last a few months.
The heat is noticable in the house also. I have a lamp near our thermostat and regular bulbs always added 5+ degrees to the current reading and the CFLs have no effect. Also our bathrrom has a 5 light fixture,with regular bulbs we only kept 1 or 2 bulbs in it since the heat would make it unbearable, now it is filled out with CFLs with no extra heat and a ton of light,only difference is they take about 30-45 seconds to reach full brightness.
Recycling?! The incandescent ones? For rebate or for ecological ones? (This is news to me so wondering…Thanks!)
Cool article–thanks for posting. There’s this other site, too, that does a good job of itemizing the different kinds of CFLs to find the right one for a particular job:
[www.environmentaldefense.org]