On cold nights like this, I appreciate the one incandescent light bulb left in my apartment that I use regularly. It's in the lamp next to my bed. It might as well be a mini-fireplace. You can feel the warmth even a few feet away.The surface of an incandescent bulb can reach temperatures of 400 to 550 degrees, which is why they're used in situations where contained, local heating is needed, like chick incubators and Easy-Bake Ovens.
That's one reason compact fluorescent light bulbs are so much more efficient. They don't waste nearly as much energy by radiating heat, helping CFLs use less than a quarter of the electricity of an incandescent.
Yet here in the United States, incandescent bulbs still outnumber CFLs on store shelves. Even though CFLs will save many times their higher initial cost through electricity savings, people just grab the bulb that's the cheapest to purchase. There's also a great deal of inertia - people tend to stick with what they know and are reluctant to change.
It's remarkable that states or Congress haven't moved to follow Australia's example to ban incandescent bulbs altogether. It would save consumers money, reduce the burden on our energy grid, and cut our greenhouse gas emissions. What's the downside?
Hi Miles. It's your cousin Jeannette here. I have changed most of my bulbs to compact florescent (and wait patiently for them to come to full brightness before applying my makeup), but now I hear that because they are made with mercury, the negative environmental impact will be even greater when we start to dispose of them. Any merit to this? Please tell me no!
ReplyDeleteHey Jeanette! Grist's Ask Umbra has a great explanation of why CFLs are better when it comes to mercury than incandescents. Long story short, most of us get our energy from coal, which puts mercury into the air, and incandescents use so much power, they end up putting more mercury into the air than is contained in a CFL. And many communites accept CFLs at their recycling centers, so there's no need for that mercury to enter the waste stream at all.
ReplyDeleteWhew. Glad to have an explanation. There is so much (mis)information out there it is often hard to know what is true! -J
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