The Disadvantages of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs and Coming Advances in Lighting
In the pursuit of making our homes more environmentally friendly, the government is telling us that we should take out our incandescent light bulbs and instead use compact fluorescent bulb.
However, I have a number of objections to these bulbs.
First, they are not as bright as the incandescent.
When I replaced old bulbs with new ones that were labeled to have equivalent wattage, I was dissatisfied; the new bulbs made my rooms darker.
I like a lot of light in my rooms.
My second objection is that I have some small lamps in my bedrooms.
You know the kind; the lamp shade has two wire loops that slip down over the light bulb.
I cannot quite get the lamp shade to slip correctly over the swirly compact fluorescents.
Third, last winter I had to replace the bulb in my porch light.
Naturally, I put in a compact fluorescent.
When the weather turned cold, the bulb shone very dimly until it heated up enough to glow more brightly.
And by the end of the winter, the bulb did not work anymore.
It did not have the long life that we are promised for their higher costs.
Finally, my last objection is much more serious.
These bulbs contain a small amount of mercury.
If one should accidentally be broken, it will release mercury into your home environment which is not a good thing at all.
And when one does burn out (like my porch light), we are told not to throw them in the trash but to dispose of them properly.
Do not despair.
A better solution is on the horizon.
This solution is LED low voltage lighting and other low voltage lighting solutions that are being developed.
When LED lighting becomes more commonly available, the light bulbs will look even stranger than the coiled tubes of the compact fluorescents.
LED bulbs are very small but very bright for their size.
You may have seen a flashlight with an LED bulb.
They give off a slightly bluish glow that does an excellent job of lighting your path or working surface.
When used in other applications, they are either clustered together or lined up in a string.
Decorators are now beginning to incorporate them into the decor of houses in a number of ways.
One popular use is as recessed lighting in a ceiling.
This type of lighting scheme uses the bulbs that consist of a cluster of LEDs.
When these are recessed into the ceiling of a room, they illuminate the room with a warm glow and no harsh glare.
The color of this light is very similar to that of the incandescent bulbs.
The other type of lighting arrangement that is popular these days is the rope lights that illuminate areas such as under or on top of the cabinets in the kitchen.
This is more of a mood lighting solution.
With this rapid development of low energy lighting, the government should be cautious and take its time to decide what type of lighting they want to mandate and to not force compact fluorescent as the only option.
However, I have a number of objections to these bulbs.
First, they are not as bright as the incandescent.
When I replaced old bulbs with new ones that were labeled to have equivalent wattage, I was dissatisfied; the new bulbs made my rooms darker.
I like a lot of light in my rooms.
My second objection is that I have some small lamps in my bedrooms.
You know the kind; the lamp shade has two wire loops that slip down over the light bulb.
I cannot quite get the lamp shade to slip correctly over the swirly compact fluorescents.
Third, last winter I had to replace the bulb in my porch light.
Naturally, I put in a compact fluorescent.
When the weather turned cold, the bulb shone very dimly until it heated up enough to glow more brightly.
And by the end of the winter, the bulb did not work anymore.
It did not have the long life that we are promised for their higher costs.
Finally, my last objection is much more serious.
These bulbs contain a small amount of mercury.
If one should accidentally be broken, it will release mercury into your home environment which is not a good thing at all.
And when one does burn out (like my porch light), we are told not to throw them in the trash but to dispose of them properly.
Do not despair.
A better solution is on the horizon.
This solution is LED low voltage lighting and other low voltage lighting solutions that are being developed.
When LED lighting becomes more commonly available, the light bulbs will look even stranger than the coiled tubes of the compact fluorescents.
LED bulbs are very small but very bright for their size.
You may have seen a flashlight with an LED bulb.
They give off a slightly bluish glow that does an excellent job of lighting your path or working surface.
When used in other applications, they are either clustered together or lined up in a string.
Decorators are now beginning to incorporate them into the decor of houses in a number of ways.
One popular use is as recessed lighting in a ceiling.
This type of lighting scheme uses the bulbs that consist of a cluster of LEDs.
When these are recessed into the ceiling of a room, they illuminate the room with a warm glow and no harsh glare.
The color of this light is very similar to that of the incandescent bulbs.
The other type of lighting arrangement that is popular these days is the rope lights that illuminate areas such as under or on top of the cabinets in the kitchen.
This is more of a mood lighting solution.
With this rapid development of low energy lighting, the government should be cautious and take its time to decide what type of lighting they want to mandate and to not force compact fluorescent as the only option.