Now here’s what appears to be a bright idea offered by a California legislator. According to this news article, California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, a Democrat from Van Nuys will introduce a bill to “ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.” 
As much as we all hate government interference in our lives, it may take small practical steps like these to move the energy/global warming agenda forward.
BTW, apparently the bill is actually called the “How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act”. I guess when it comes up for a vote, we’ll have our punchline.
If you look carefully you will find that almost all CFLs of 23 watts (100 equivalents) have a warning on them not to use in an enclosed fixture. They will indeed get too hot and the bulb will fail quite quickly. Lesser wattage bulbs do not usually bear this warning, but using them in an enclosed fixture will probably shorten their life some anyway.
I have been using CFL’s for years now, and while one failed a few years ago probably due to quality control problems, the rest have all equalled or exceeded their advertised life. If you purchase them “on sale” which really means looking for rebates, you can save a bundle on total electricity and bulb costs.
Finally keep in mind that the technology is improving all the time. They are getting smaller and fit in most table lamps now, and come in multiple “colors” so can emit the same light as an incandescent if that is your desire. Then come in globular form, and look almost like an incandescent bulb.
Having said all of this, LED’s are indeed the wave of the future. I cannot imagine purchasing any other kind of flashlight.
I use them in most of our sockets around the house. A couple have gone bad, but I think it’s because they were housed in glass fixtures (with no ventalation). Being as they have a built-on ballast which releases a decent amount of heat, I believe this was the reason for the failure.
The mercury is a big issue. I have no clue about whether it does more harm in a landfill or pumped out of a smokestack, but it’s no good either way… Another potential option (albeit a bit pricey at the moment) are LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulbs: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/led_bulb_replac.php. One of them claims to last 60,000 hours (compared with 1,000 for an incandescent) which works out to 32 years @ 5 hours/day.
You must have gotten a bad batch. I’ve had CFLs in outside lights that run every night all night long and they seem to last forever. I haven’t changed them in a couple years. I haven’t had a problem getting them to fit standard lamps and sockets.
My own experience, as I mentioned on my blog, is that CFLs don’t always last anywhere near as long as incandescents. When CFLs first made their big push in the local stores, I bought a six pack(?)of them. Seems to me three or four of those bulbs burned out within a week. Perhaps the quality control has gotten better now. I don’t know, but I haven’t been impressed with CFLs so far, and I’d prefer to use CFLs to “save money”.
Oh, they also don’t fit in most of our light fixtures.
That’s interesting. Incandescent lights result in 36% more mercury that CFL bulbs. But the mercury from the CFL bulbs is carried with them and gets dumped in to landfills when the bulbs are tossed out.
I am not sure that the greater amount of mercury localized in coal plants is inherently safer than the lesser amount of mercury localized in land fills. Especially since CFLs last so much longer than incandescent bulbs, thereby reducing the number produced for the same amount of light. That means fewer bulbs being tossed.
Seems like further study is warranted.
Hi,
Just a note on those bulbs: They contain a reasonable amount of mercury and are really deadly to fish and wildlife. They’re even listed as universal hazardous waste in California.
I don’t know about you, but I threw my share into the trash before learning this. Not good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:CFL_bulb_mercury_use_environment.svg
Wikipedia says that more Mercury is released by incandescents due to coal power plants….but at least that’s a centralized location and our power generation can change….but you can’t get the mercury out of these bulbs.
Just an FYI.