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  • From: paul wheaton <paul@richsoil.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] CFL testing in progress / another rocket mass heater update
  • Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:01:12 -0700

This post is proof that I still have a LOT of work to do in this space.

http://www.richsoil.com/CFL-fluorescent-light-bulbs.jsp#CFL-bulb-toxicity

Quick summary: CFL greenwashing claims that when you work in coal
plants, the CFL gives off 1.8mg of mercury while the incandescent
gives off 5.8mg. The article painstakingly points out how the REAL
CFL comes in at 68.6mg.

And I have a ton of info that isn't in that article. Reports from
people working at "hazardous waste disposal programs" just throw them
into the same dumpster as the rest of the garbage.

Reducing electicity use is, indeed, the name of the game. Most of my
concern is with the pollution - which I think needs to be cleaned up
at both ends.

By turning the lights off when not in use, I have reduced my power
consumption (and I use incandescent lights) to about $12 per year.
90% less than the national average of $120 per year. I use a bizarre
strategy I call "turn off the damn lights."

Saving power: mending stuff around home heating will typically save 5
to 40 times more than any fiddling with light bulbs. Using a clothes
line or drying rack will save far more.

Fluorescent lights have always been a trade-off. Nothing has changed
except for an ocean of greenwashing. When you take away the
greenwashing and subsidies, you can make a case for a few
circumstances they will earn their keep dollar-wise - but always at a
larger environmental cost.

Always.


On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 1:11 PM, Steve Bonney
<steve@sustainableearth.net> wrote:
> 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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>>
>>
>> -----
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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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> http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
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