Why are CFL bulbs called environmentally friendly?
--this article was written in 2006) http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/...
There is an average of 5mg of mercury in each cfl.
If the 100 million "old-fashioned", inherently landfill friendly incandescent lamps were replaced with the new 'green' CFLs:
500,000g mercury (1102lb) would be placed into people's homes.
Modern CFLs typically have a life span of between 8,000 and 15,000 hours, whereas incandescent lamps are usually manufactured to have a life span of 750 hours or 1000 hours.
According to a study done by Sensors magazine,
lamps are ON for an average 52.45% of day (12.72 hours).
Answer:
At least with CF bulbs, there is an option to dispose of mercury properly. When you burn fossil fuels, mercury is released into the ATMOSPHERE. The less power you need for lighting, the less mercury is in the air and the water. The mercury in the bulbs is contained, can be easily recycled at the store of purchase, and is less than the equivalent amount of mercury that would be released by the burning of fossil fuels to light a standard bulb.
I guess, ideally, if all energy came from non polluting sources, than standard bulbs would be good in order to reduce mercury pollution to zero. But as long as we derive the bulk of our power from coal, Any reduction in power used is a benefit in the battle against mercury pollution.
BINGO! Somebody else gets it!
Actually most mercury pollution comes from fossil fuels. Using nn incandescent bulb will produce 10mg of mercury from the power station.
http://www.nema.org/lamprecycle/epafacts...
I'm no expert on the subject, but I see a few flaws in your argument.
First, you assume that the bulbs will be thrown away. I would assume that if people are aware enough to try to reduce their energy consumption, they would probably recycle as well. Mercury is often used in industrial processes, and CAN be recycled. There are several fledgling companies dedicated to the recycling of these soon-to-be-widespread CFLs. A 2-second search gives this page: http://lamprecycle.org/
Second, you forget that burning coal creates mercury. Thus, if you lives in a location that burns a lot of coal, as much of the US does, then using incadenscent bulbs actually creates MORE mercury through the waste of energy. Check out the numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:cfl_b...
Finally, incandescent bulbs waste 90% of their energy in heat, and are less than 2% efficient. Calling anything like that 'green' is a joke, regardless of the alternatives. (CFLs aren't a lot better- being ~8% efficient. LEDs are like 30%, and I am sure they will follow and become the dominant source of lighting in about 20years.)
This is just off the top of my head. Feel free to correct me.
Here is something fun to try. Buy a standard incandescent and a comparable CFL. You can not go by the packaging, lumen output must be matched. Install each bulb into a matching fixture, plug both into the same outlet and measure the current used with an ammeter.
The CFL will actually use more energy.
Uses more energy? Dangerous mercury? Much higher cost?
Why would I want one? Its funny that the people pushing these useless little snow cones have ties to Phillips and GE.
Follow the money.
Supposedly the CFL's last longer than incandescent. I recently replaced all of my incandescents with CFL's because my local Rite Aid had them for dirt cheap. It's hard to tell whether my electric bills are any lower because SCE raised our electric rates from last year. After I brought the bulbs home I did notice in small print that it says CFL's last longest if used 4-5 hours per day.
The mercury in CFL's can be recycled if people dispose of the bulbs properly. It's the same thing with the 4ft and 8 ft flourescent bulbs you see in offices and stores. There's a wonderful machine that you feed the bulbs into and it seperates the glass, plastic, filaments and mercury from each other. How do I know this? I work for a company that disposes of hazardous waste and we recycle thousands upon thousands of CFL's per year along with all sorts of other lovely chemicals. Obviously some states need to make it easier for their citizens to drop off their household hazardous waste. Most places do offer some sort of service if you type in the name of your city or county on a web search along with the words 'household hazardous waste disposal' you will find out where you need to go.
Regarding the broken thermometer. That has to be urban legend because there is no way it costs thousands of dollars to clean up a broken thermometer. I know what our company (we're in California) charges for industrial amounts of mercury and you would have to have more than a 55 gallon drum to amount to thousands of dollars for clean-up.
Ours seem to last a very long time. I am going to check actual current, though. I assumed they drew less power as advertized. Leonardo better not be wrong about these.
I put in CFL bulbs about 4 years ago everywhere in my home and even for porch lights. I have replaced maybe 2 over the 4 years. You must be buying the cheap ones or Lighting of America as I have been told they burn out pretty fast.
The less coal burning and less nuke plants we built the better. Your thinking would have a nuke plan in every city and the waste from that stuff is around forever or there about.
Think about it a little..
I know that a very tiny percentage of used articles containing dangerous materials is disposed of properly. In order to guarantee compliance we need to impose high deposit fees and neighbourhood pick-up depots.
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