It was rumored the world was going to be without incandescent light bulbs soon. We would be forced to buy fluorescents at twice the price. ‘Think of the big picture,’ they said, ‘of the energy you will save in the long run, the good you will do the planet.’
Maybe it was all apocalyptic hype. I haven’t heard much about it lately. But, since I’m all for conserving energy, especially if it will close down a nuclear reactor or two (as if), I coughed up enough money to outfit my entire house in standard bulbs, and bought four fluorescents for the fixture in my bathroom.
Is it just me, or are these not the noisiest light bulbs in the history of light bulbs? I can hear them buzzing over brushing my teeth! My beard trimmer, for crying out loud!
Okay, maybe not my beard trimmer, but they are noisy, and I’m just wondering if any of these green geniuses stopped to calculate the additional noise pollution that was going to be generated when every socket is plugged with one of these beauties.
That doesn't sound good :( I had no idea these bulbs were so noisy!
ReplyDeleteI'm all for saving the planet and going green, too, but I can't help but notice that these bulbs seem dimmer than the traditional light blubs do, too. Did you notice that?
Yes they are noisy and they do not last as long as claimed. The claim of 8 years(or whatever those fine corporations that the courts say are people claim)is based on 3 hours a day usually. If left on continuously that tally's to about one year. I've had incandescent bulbs go that long. I use incandescent bulbs in winter for additional heat and for a while it was my only heat in the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteWhere the CFL's shine (so to speak, heh,heh)is in power usage. I'm starting my garden indoors this year under lights and to get the same amount of light I'm getting from 180 watts of CFL's would take over 800 watts with incandescent. Not to mentions that an incredible amount of heat would be generated. There is still heat generated by the CFL but not as much.
I think they are a step in the direction of using less energy but they are not the solution.
Meanwhile not selling incandescent bulbs in the U.S. will just create a huge black market.
The incandescent industry is already fighting back with more efficient bulbs that last longer. Gouging the public with crappy quality and short life is not going to fly in the future.
A glass jar, some titanium wire and some argon gas and you can make you own.
Hah of course I had to google incandescent and CLF, or what did you expect :)
ReplyDeletein Europe incandescent bulbs will be forbidden from September this year, but they're already very hard to find right now.
So we all use the CLF's (they don't make any noise though) and I quite like the glow, it seems less hard to me.
BUTTTTTT according to a German study, their radiation would be canceroginous...
next evolution seems to be LED's, but they're still too expensive for everyday use...
(all free knowledge, thanks to former JC-drill ;) )
stephanie
Damn Steven, I just cast a distracted glance on your 'blog archive', saw "2012 - 2011 -2010" and I thought
ReplyDelete"How's that possible? I thought I followed his blog more ore less since the beginning, so how could he have written posts 2 years ago?"
And then it slowly dawned that I DO read you since the beginning...
Can you believe it? we've "known" each other for almost 2 years now...
... wow...
or what about the mercury upon disposal? always today. never tomorrow. (ie, we're a bunch of dupes.)
ReplyDeletexo
erin
erin...
ReplyDeletemercury? it's back to tallow for me.