Mercury Vapor From Broken CFL bulbs

Post Reply New Topic

Get 6500K color temp cfl lights. or all so called daylight cfl. they make a room look sort of whiteish-blue and they do not flicker as far as i can tell. I did try the yellowish ones they were a pain nasty looking color from them. Like with computers displays faster is better ie 85 hertz/cycles per second. Not sure the rate on cfl anyone know i have heard from they could do 120 hertz or even 200 ?

CFLs look like they cost more to make than the old bulbs. I don't know if they are or aren't becasue I can't find any info on that but if they use more materials and more energy to make them and they're more toxic, then, they're a bad idea.

Also, our CFLs don't last very long. Another thing is that if the light burns out it still uses electricity if you leave the switch on.

Here's an interesting study on fluorescent lights and autism

Funny this was on the news about say erm yesterday on news 24, & they said a totally different story to it than been dangerous, it contains a small amount of mercury, & how to dispose of it & how to handle it if it smash's...

Than run for your life's...

Flu lights buzz due to the fact the company who has them has the old metal baring ones... other words they have dc motors..

* forgot to add..

we got 2 of them new led lights in the back kitchen & they buzzz like hell.... like old flu's did... My mother thought I was hearing things coz she can't hear it, I know its some dc motors that cause the buzz sound...

halogen replacements

CFLs seem pretty solid to me - I've dropped them from about 10 feet up onto a solid floor and they didn't break. I wouldn't worry about them smashing - they're tough. Disposal does worry me. So many people just trash their old CFLs, and the environmental mercury caused really concerns me. Sure, if they were recycled it wouldn't be an issue, but we all know how awful people are at recycling, even if they're spoonfed it with kerbside pickup (actually the only worthwhile way to do it anyway, otherwise you burn more fuel taking your recycling to the dropoff point than is saved in the first place).
CFLs ought to save a lot of electricity if they last. The problem is that without a very constant current, they burn out a lot faster than they're rated for. Our electricity supplies are not nearly as constant as the ones in test facilities. They spike all the time, and so the lifespan of CFLs is reduced enormously below what they're rated. How that affects overall energy savings, I don't know. My gut is they're still better, but not by as much as we're told.

I can see the flickering if I concentrate on it. But it doesn't bother me particularly. Similarly, I can see the flickering of 60Hz and below CRT monitors, and I can hear all of them. I just tune it out. But I do understand how some people might not be able to do so. I worry that the approximately 2% of people who can see CFL light flickering (many, many of them on the spectrum) are going to be badly affected by a major switch over to fluerescent lighting. It already seems like this would make many offices difficult for autists to work in, and many office jobs are ideally suited to us. Some form of continued availablility of incandescent bulbs is absolutely essential.

I work in an office and find the fluorescent lighting bad enough there, I get rid of it when possible (I'd rather work in the dark than in those lights), even though they do have shades on them... to then come home, a place of rest and relaxation (supposedly) and have to deal with them flickering and whining then too would just drive me mad. I don't think I could stand it.

It's not the mercury that irritates me, it's the flickering, the noise, and the un-natural light and distortion of the spectrum that does my head in.

Well, I hate to be the contrarian here, but CFL bulbs (generally) consume 1/4 as much energy compared to their incandescent equivalents as we know. Let's look at some details though...

-Incandescent bulbs have lead in them. Everytime you toss one you are adding lead to your local landfills.

-CFL bulbs do have mercury in them, yes. About enough to fit on the dot of this letter i, which is well within the limits of OSHA regulations stipulate. The regular fluorescent lighting that we all grew up with has far more mercury in it than CFLs. As someone pointed out, it's recommended that you open your windows for about 15 minutes if you break a bulb so that any vapors can dissipate. Also don't vacuum as another pointed out. Get some tape and . If you're really paranoid about CFL bulbs, try buying the A shape bulbs. These bulbs still have the familiar pig tail coil to them, BUT they are encased in a glass bulb that is identical to your regular incandescent bulbs. It might still break, but being encased in a protective shell there is a little more portection. Again ->look for CFLs in an "A Shape".

-With respect to the environment and mercury, mercury dissipation into the atmosphere is one of the byproducts of burning of coal (the primary source of electricity in the states). More mercury is released into the environment by the use of an incandescent bulbs, than if you were to throw away (ie not recycle) your CFLs (though you should recycle your CFLs anyway as much of a pain in the rear as it may seem). In other words lighting with incandescents releases more mercury into the environment than lighting through CFLs.

-The light from LED's is not as soft and pleasing as the light from CFL and incandescents (yet). Also LEDs are less efficient per lumen than CFL. That means it takes more energy to get an LED bulb to emit an equivalent amount of light as a CFL. LEDs will absolutely have their day, there is no doubt in my mind about that. However, that day is not today (perhaps in a decade).

-To those who's bulbs go out early, well I've had incandescent burn out before their time. Haven't we all? So what else is new? HOWEVER, if overall reliability of all your light bulbs in the aggregate is a concern (as it is mine), when it comes to CFLs I've had the best luck with GE or Sylvania, not some of the generic brands. Avoid those. Also, the bulb pays for itself in less than 1 year, so anything beyond that and you are already ahead of the game financially. As the cost of energy goes up the time to ROI on the bulbs will only grow shorter and shorter and the decision to switch progressively smarter and smarter.

In my apartment I use CFLs almost exclusively (only the entryway and bathroom lights are still incandescents). It cut around $10 off my electricity bill. I have had no sensory problems with them, and they don't flicker either.

I fully support them if you can handle them, no question. It's just the outright ban thing that annoys me... some of us do have genuine problems with them and if you ban them outright that's going to cause major, major problems for a percentage of the population, contrary to what lighting companies will try and tell you.

I figure my carbon footprint is low enough anyway, I can have one little luxury...