Think Those CFL "Green Bulbs" Are Good? More Than Mercury To Worry About

[tombogan03884]

whats your price per kwh?

here is our local pricing.  

http://www.smud.org/en/residential/rates/Pages/rates.aspx

I've never not been a tier 2.  between power tools and aquariums, I use alot of power.

Darn, I had to dig out the bill,First time it's been over $25
$25.12
Delivery Services $17.92
Supplier Services  $7.90
Here we go, way on the back.
Hidden amungst a bunch of other stuff,
I found
SUPPLIER SERVICES DETAIL                   90.00KWHX $0.087800
So, to answer your question $.09 / KWH

[Big Frank]

Mine is 7 cents for the first 600 KWH and then it goes up to 13 cents. Running the A/C is expensive but worth it. And CFL suck.

[billt]

Even cheap regular flourecent bulbs mess people up!  Anyone who's ever sat in an office or school with the ones that give people headaches and such knows what I'm talking about!

This is the part I'm not getting. Fluorescent light is fluorescent light. It is all produced the same way by the same electrical process. The only difference is the CFL, as it's name implies is "compact", containing the small, disposable transformer within the bulb itself. I would have liked to have seen a meter reading from his little "dirty meter" when placed next to a standard 2 or 4 bulb, 4' Fluorescent fixture. You know, the kind that have been installed in offices, schools, and hospitals worldwide since the dawn of time. I can't believe none of these people conducting these tests didn't think of comparing them to standard fluorescent fixtures? Or perhaps they did and got the same or worse readings, which of course would diminsh the panic factor of the "dirty meter" they were using.

I don't doubt fluorescent light may alter an electromagnetic field in some way, shape, or form. What I'm not buying into just yet is that this can be directly related to poor health. That's the problem with any and all of this "green" $h!t. People are much too quick to jump both on and off the bandwagon. I'll shelf this one for the time being in the same section as the melting polar ice caps that are going to force the good citizens of Hilton Head to invest in a submarine fleet.   Bill T.

[tombogan03884]

I would agree with Bill except that they have been arguing the health effects of living near Power lines since I was a kid.
While I agree that, like global warming, there is a certain "Hype" factor, I suspect that this has a much firmer basis in fact.

[jaybet]

Fourescent light makes all women look like Nancy Pelosi. It is evil.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

Fourescent light makes all women look like Nancy Pelosi. It is evil.

BURN THE EVIL BULBS !

                                               

[billt]

I would agree with Bill except that they have been arguing the health effects of living near Power lines since I was a kid.
While I agree that, like global warming, there is a certain "Hype" factor, I suspect that this has a much firmer basis in fact.

I've heard the high tension power line argument as well. It pops up from time to time, then disappears for a while much like the whole, "cell phones cause brain cancer" argument that got some traction a few years back, then it slipped back into oblivion as well. I've developed an attitude that if it's bad for you it will be PROVEN bad, and it will always STAY bad. A bit like smoking cigarettes, chromium in the water in Hinkley, California, or living under the "Love Canal". But I'm leery of these on again, off again "hazards". As I said people have been living under power lines and with fluorescent lighting ever since I was born, and long before that. While they may perhaps cause eye strain or even headaches in a small group of people, I doubt they'll kill you. And if they will they are going to have to come up with something a little better than a "Dirty Power" meter to prove it.  Bill T.

[jaybet]

If it's bad for you it probably tastes good!  Like bacon flavored.

[tombogan03884]

They can't possibly be bad for you.
They don't taste good,
They are not fattening ,
and they are not immoral.

They must be good for you. 

[MikeBjerum]

While serving on our community's utility commission, and three years as chairman, I fought cfl's in our city.  As part of a conservation plan we would hand them out free to residents.  I tried and I tried to convince our city administrator and full time employees that this was a bad thing, but they were sucked in by the greenies and the government programs that they would rather sign off on than fight.  At the end of my tenure the state has forced us to combine our conservation program with that of our major suppliers and other communities.  So, now we are not only making stupid decisions, but the overhead cost of the program eats up what we used to spend on the entire program.

Do the research on cfl's, and you will find that the amount of energy they take to produce and recycle eats up all the savings in energy.  Also, you need to get the full life claims to even break even on the increased price.  I have never had one in our home last that long, and the warranty process it more costly than just buying new.

Explain to me how if mercury in the air is bad, and if dropping an oral or rectal thermometer in a clinic causes  total evacuation of the room or building to clean up the mercury, how is it ok to put 25 mercury containing vessels in every home in the nation?   How is it a good thing to possibly break one of these things in a home where the mercury will go into the carpet where babies play?

This week GE closed the final incondesent plant in the United States!