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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] CFL testing in progress / another rocket mass heater update

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  • From: Steve Bonney <steve@sustainableearth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] CFL testing in progress / another rocket mass heater update
  • Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:11:27 -0500

It just depends on how you want to consume your mercury. Since the majority of electricity in the US is generated by coal fired boilers (24 generating stations in Indiana alone), any reduction in electricity usage also reduces emissions of mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead, CO, CO2, SO2, NOx, heat and airborne particulates. Reductions in demand also reduce coal mining, mountaintop removal, water usage and pollution, and generation of coal ash.

I am on my second "set" of CFLs, having replaced all the yellow CFLs with daylight CFLs. We have about 50 of them in our household and we are getting the equivalent of light from a 100 watt incandescent while only consuming 23 watts. Even though we are conservative with lighting usage, our household has created a significant reduction in our electricity usage by using CFLs.

We have never broken one in over 10 years of use, and we send spent CFLs through a hazardous waste disposal program.

For work lights, I use LEDs. Before that I consumed a lot of incandescent bulbs in drop lights because of the fragile filament. I use a few LEDs in other applications, and as soon as LEDS are available for general lighting at affordable prices, I will gladly replace all of our CFLs with them.

In the meantime, I consider the use of CFL bulbs to have a considerable environmental advantage over incandescent bulbs, and using them is a strategy that anyone can adopt to conserve resources and reduce pollution.

Steve Bonney
Sustainable Earth


On 12/11/2011 10:27 PM, Bob Waldrop wrote:
My cfls have been shining for 6 years, without a glitch. We have managed to
not break any either. The light is very similar to incandescent.

Obviously people have different mileage, but we like ours a lot. They were
bought off the shelf at Home Despot. Probably the cheapest ones on the
shelf, although I don't remember the purchase in that great of a detail. We
bought them all at the same time, because we had our house rewired, and
while none of us were around, towards the end of the project, they
disappeared all our previous CFLs (no idea what they did with them) and put
in new incandescents. They said that was a code requrement (new lights
anyway). So I went out and bought new CFLs for all of our lights, including
the bathrooms and closets. That's hmmm. . . . that's a dozen or so CFLs.
Six going on seven years later, they are still burning brightly.

Bob Waldrop, OKC

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 6:36 PM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] CFL testing in progress / another rocket mass
heater update

On 12/11/2011 7:09 PM, paul wheaton wrote:
What's the real deal on cleaning up safely after you break one of these
flourescent bulbs indoors? This kind of thing drives me nuts.
Move far, far away. :)

I just read something that suggested that the mercury toxicity from a
broken bulb is no different than eating a tuna fish sandwich. And my
thinking was that that was actually TWO reasons for never using a CFL.

Rather than saying

"oh, I broke a CFL, so I guess I should skip that tuna sandwich
I was gonna eat and then I'll be the same"

I think the message should be

"If enough of us stop using CFLs maybe some day that will make
tuna less toxic."
I am on the same bandwagon.
I have a huge supply of incandescent bulbs in storage for use when
needed. I like the work lights. They have sturdier filaments, thicker
glass, break resistant shape and a rubberized coating to help shockproof
them. Usually used as trouble or work lights I am sure they would work
fine for a long time as desk illumination...

I quit eating all tuna because I could detect some toxicity, i.e. I
noticed...something funny after eating a can..
Trader Joes and Whole Foods may indeed ofer low or no toxicity tuna,
quite possible. I just quit and switched to sardines and herring, no
toxicity..


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--
Steve Bonney
Sustainable Earth
a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership organization
to promote sustainable farming and food systems





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