By Shena Turlington
Yup, we think about light bulbs a lot. By now everyone’s heard about the energy saved through using compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), but there still seem to be endless questions that prevent people from using them: “Isn’t the mercury bad for the environment? Can’t the flickering give me seizures? I heard the color isn’t the same. What about dimmers? They seem expensive. Which one do I pick?” Get some answers and end the CFL conspiracies.
How much energy does a compact fluorescent save?
On average, a CFL saves 75% of electricity compared to an incandescent bulb, and can last 6 to 13 times longer. Incandescents produce light by using electricity to heat the metal filament inside the bulb. Most of this energy turns to heat and is wasted, and only 5-10% may transform into visible light. In a fluorescent bulb, the electricity is used to heat mercury vapor in glass tubes, causing it to emit UV light, which in turn causes the phosphor coating to ‘fluoresce’, and emit visible light. In short – the energy in a CFL is used to actually produce light, not heat.
Isn’t the energy saved from a CFL counter-productive if the mercury is bad for the environment?
A CFL has about 5mg of mercury in it, which isn’t anything to be scared of unless you try to eat it. Compare this to a thermometer, which has 500mg of mercury, or a thermostat, with 3000mg. More importantly, coal plants are the largest man-made producer of mercury, which is released into the air when the coal burns to make electricity. In 2006 alone, coal-fired power plants released enough mercury that would be contained in 9 billion CFLs. So if we’re using electricity for high-energy lighting, that’s emitting much more (uncontained) mercury straight into the atmosphere. Based on the EPA’s calculations, even if you use coal-powered electricity to light a CFL for five years then smash it at the end of its life to spread the mercury into the atmosphere, you would still be putting 4.6mg less mercury into the air than if you were lighting an incandescent bulb for an equivalent amount of time.
Okay so I’m not going to eat the mercury, but if a CFL breaks, what is the safe way to dispose of it?
Open a window to ventilate the area, then sweep up the pieces into a plastic bag and take them to a recycling center. Check online at www.earth911.org or www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling for local places to dispose it safely.
Recycling the bulb sounds like a lot of effort when I can just throw an incandescent in the normal trash.
Actually, you can’t. Incandescent bulbs are considered hazardous material because of the high lead content in many types of incandescents. These must be disposed of through certain facilities in accordance with the EPA Universal Waste Management policy, just like batteries, electronics, and other hazardous materials. Although fluorescents, compact fluorescents, and high intensity discharge lamps (HID) also fall under this policy, they can at least be recycled, unlike incandescents. Many places which sell CFLs also offer easy recycling facilities. Most likely, your local Wal-Mart, Home Depot or Ikea will recycle it for you.
The flickering of the fluorescent lights in my office gives me a headache, and I heard it can cause seizures.
Flickering is an outdated misconception about CFLs. Old fluorescent lamps have magnetic ballasts and flicker at about 60 cycles per second (60Hz). Compact fluorescents are a newer technology with electronic ballasts, which flicker at a frequency of 30,000Hz-60,000Hz, which is unnoticeable by the vast majority of the population. Some people still claim they are sensitive to this ‘flickering’, although there is no risk of seizure. If you aren’t sensitive to the rolling flicker of your LCD computer screen, you will probably be okay with CFLs.
I don’t like the color of CFLs.
The poor light quality of older bulbs gives CFLs a bad reputation, when compact fluorescents are in fact most often brighter than incandescents and easier to read with. Bulbs now come in a range of colors, from cool blue, to warm red, or full spectrum. It’s important to pick the bulb appropriate for the task at hand, whether for simply illuminating faces, reading, or for achieving true color (which incandescents are notoriously poor at). When purchasing a CFL, make sure the box lists the Color Rendering Index (CRI), which should be above 85. This is more important for color than the temperature (CCT), and indicates how balanced the color components are. An incandescent has a CRI of 100. For a softer light choose one with a CCT around 2700K, and for bright white choose a CCT over 3500K.
Despite everything you’ve said I still believe I’m highly sensitive to the flickering and the light quality of CFLs.
Try replacing the bulb. Older bulbs flicker more and are not as bright. If you truly are affected by CFL lighting, try changing out half the bulbs in a fixture to CFLs and leave the other half as incandescent. This seems to greatly improve light quality for most people, and you are still saving half the energy. You can also try a low energy halogen bulb, which can reduce energy 40%.
What about dimmers? Isn’t it wasting more energy if you can’t dim the light?
There are now CFLs available for both dimmable and 3-way switches.
Where can I find all these different types of CFLs?
Environmental Defense and Goodmart.com have excellent search functions for light bulbs. Be sure to check for a warranty. All EnergyStar bulbs have at least a 2 year warranty, and some have a lifetime warranty.
Aren’t they expensive?
Prices can range from $1 to $15. I’m perfectly happy with my $1 bulbs, but others might want something with better color quality or that fits on a dimmer. Because of the longer lifetime of CFLs, though they are more expensive in price, they are cheaper in the long run.
Can you suggest some CFLs?
The following are some CFLs that scored high in tests performed by Popular Mechanics, which you can find at your local hardware store:
NVision Soft White $6 - best softer light
Westinghouse Natural Light $6 – brightest
Philips Marathon $3 – for softly illuminating faces
MaxLite MicroMax $4.50 – for vibrant true color
So are you ready to change a light bulb yet? According to the EPA, if every house in the US changed only one bulb to a CFL, it would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from 800,000 cars! It makes a difference!
