Why are energy saving CFL bulbs failing in American homes?

You should be able to find adapters, or smaller bulbs at the larger hardware chains.

A friend of mine was able to find replacement CFL bulbs for his chandelier lights, and they even work (to some extent) with a dimmer switch.

You can definitely find a better selection at major hardware stores versus the major discount stores. All sizes, wattages, and adapters are readily available at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Right now I'm debating replacing my few remaining incandescents before they actually burn out, figuring that the electricity savings will be more than the cost of the discarded bulbs. Our homebuilder installed all incandescents but I'm fully stocked on CFL's awaiting each burnout.

Mark your calendars. I agree with what ComSen said.

Having said that, I have replaced about 3/4's of my incandescents with CFLs. One other thing I would add to the detractors is that they tend to take a little while to get to max brightness (warm up). What I have done in my bathrooms where I have multi-bulb fixtures, I am putting in 2 CFLs & 2 standard bulbs. Also CFLs can sometimes cause noise in my studio (RF interference). But I have been able to get around this. That is the one place I have them on a dimmer, but I never used it to dim anyway so It matters not to me.

i guess guys....such an inconvenience to worry about your own children. im glad your taking the time to switch but in 50 years when the lights go completely out...you'll be wishing you had switched everything over. CFL's are such a pain in the ass i guess...so next time you look at your kid or young relative...look them right in the eye and tell them the air they breath will never be as clean as the air you are breathing right now.

phrozen: What are you talking about? They are replacing their lightbulbs. They may not have adopted 100% but they, at least, are doing it on some of their lamps.

Your whole rant is both misplaced and ill conceived. Find an appropriate target for your venom.

bulborama.com eh? You must be loving a thread like this were you can legitimately shill your wares!

good luck.

look them right in the eye and tell them the air they breath will never be as clean as the air you are breathing right now.

Thanks finalcut, I had stopped monitoring this thread. Phrozen, whenever anyone is so adamant I have to do something to save my children, or the children I have to seriously question their motive. You don't know me. You don't know what all I have done to cut down on energy usage. And I am not going to defend myself. Don't get your angel-wings all bent.

Regarding color, if you know what color temperature is close to incandescent (2600?), you can get a CFL that is close to that. One problem though is not all bulbs have that listed. Some say full spectrum or other non-descript words.

I thought LED too but they are too directional for general use room lighting. They make little spots of light but even with diffusers aren't anywhere near the light output of CFL/incandescent in large applications.

So I'm putting in CFL where they fit, slowly replacing fixtures where they don't fit and using LEDs for reading lamps or gooseneck lamps on our desks.

I read that same article yesterday, and as a result did some research of my own.

While each CFL bulb does contain a significant amount of mercury, that becomes less of an issue if the bulbs are disposed of properly, and not just sent to the landfill with the rest of your trash. Unfortunately, it looks like proper disposal is at the very least a pain to find a place, and could also cost you a fee (at least, it does at any of the disposal places near me, from the research I've done).

Still, even if you send the bulb to the landfill, the difference in energy consumed between a CFL bulb and a standard incandescent bulb results in greater mercury released to the atmosphere from the extra coal that is burned in order to power the incandescent bulb. This is less true in countries that get less of their power from coal, but here in the US, it's definitely true.

There's also the issues with the color of the light. Personally, I greatly prefer the warmer tones of incandescent bulbs, but that may be a difference I need to just learn to deal with.

Finally, there is the issue with switching fluorescent lights on and off. I'm not sure how or even if this applies to CFLs, but if you're only going to have a light on for a brief amount of time, CFLs may be less economical than incandescent bulbs due to the increased energy required to energize such a bulb, but moreso due to the increased wear from turning such bulbs on and off.

Like many things, this issue isn't as cut and dry as we're led to believe.

I doubt seriously that a large percentage of these will be disposed of properly. We are putting a lot of faith in individuals.

Finally, there is the issue with switching fluorescent lights on and off. I'm not sure how or even if this applies to CFLs, but if you're only going to have a light on for a brief amount of time, CFLs may be less economical than incandescent bulbs due to the increased energy required to energize such a bulb, but moreso due to the increased wear from turning such bulbs on and off.

I do not believe that this startup usage is as big an issue as many believe. I recall seeing some television show that tested standard fluorescent tube startup versus incandescent. The result was that the the startup energy consumption was not significantly greater than the running consumption. It might have been 50% greater in the first second or two, but it is not worth leaving a light on to avoid that nominal usage.

I doubt seriously that a large percentage of these will be disposed of properly. We are putting a lot of faith in individuals.

That is probably true. I have no idea how I would do that where I live. If it is any more difficult than putting out the weekly recyclables, most folks will probably not do it (even if they knew how).

I did a little digging and found this site that helps.
Earth 911
It gives disposal and recycling information by zip code.

The energy usage isn't as big of an issue, but it's more that turning fluorescents on and off tends to cause greater wear on them, thereby decreasing the life. As life plays directly into this mercury issue, as well as cost, it's pertinent, I think.

That Earth 911 site you link is the one I went to yesterday to find disposal/recycling information. Unfortunately, the only place in my city that doesn't charge a fee for disposing of CFLs is about 30 miles away, on the opposite side of town. GRR!

I read the same article you mentioned. In doing some research on the web, it seems that all flourescent bulbs contain mercury, a toxic substance. If they are manufactured to pass the TCLP test, they are not considered hazardous waste material if broken and may be disposed of in regular trash. If they fail the test, they are considered hazardous waste when broken and according to federal (and most state) regulations must be disposed of at a facility that can handle it. Another thing, is the rules are different if you use the bulbs in a business, or in a household. Under federal law, households are exempt from the hazardous waste rule. I don't understand why the same bulb would be hazardous if a business uses it, but not if you use it at home. see http://www.almr.org/support_files/stringency3.html

I don't understand why the same bulb would be hazardous if a business uses it, but not if you use it at home.

Probably volume. Businesses will generally have more fixtures and will run those fixtures more hours per day than the average home. Therefore, they will create far more potentially hazardous waste in the form of these bulbs.

I wouldn't call myself crunchy-creative, but fluorescent light gives me a headache and makes my eyes more tired than non-fluorescent light sources. Most office environments I've worked in have been horrible for that reason. I therefore prefer not to put fluorescent lighting in my home. I haven't tried CFL bulbs yet, but it'll be interesting to see if it's a better alternative to fluorescent lighting.

The problem is not fluorescent lights, it is bad ballasts.

Older fluorescents were built around a standard frequency that allowed for a noticeable flicker (and hum) from the electronic ballasts used to manage the bulbs. Which could become a persistent annoyance to people sensitive to that flicker.

(Good quality) CFLs (and newer long fluorescent fixtures) are built with higher frequency ballast circuitry, where the flicker and hum of switching power back and forth to produce the light, should be well outside the range of human perception, and easier to deal with on that score. The color range may still be different than natural light or incandescent bulbs though, so it sometimes helps to see the lights on display before purchasing a set, if you can.

ah, Cary, that might explain why CFLs don't bother me, but the lighting in most commercial buildings does. and, yeah, i'm a crunchy/creative head case.

Personally I like CFL's because they save money and I don't have to change bulbs as often. That is good enough for me. That said LED's are probably the lighted way of the future.......just waiting for them to be viable.

Hear, hear! I'm usually on the front end of the curve to try new things. So I invested in these bulbs and I am not happy. The light is very . . . unsatisfying. It says 100 watts but it's so dim. And they don't fit well into any of my fixtures so I have naked bulbs in many places. Add to that they are, in fact, dangerous if broken, and I'm regretting I jumped to get on this bandwagon.

Nice article about the LEDs. There are already a variety of bulbs (another link) available, although I think this is the coolest. There's some really cool stuff out there. My only concerned is disposal. Unless we can get wide spread use of TDP. Then it's all good.

I wonder if there is a quality factor to the bulbs. I've been using CFL's for years now and to be honest haven't notice a difference in the quality of the light. When I first started using them I did notice there was a warm up effect, although I don't think I notice it now. Now to be honest I really am not the type of person to notice this sort of thing and I don't have incandescents to compare it to.

To be honest I think somebody like ConsumerReports should do some testing.

I used the same bulbs, and had the same experience.

Some of the concerns expressed in the comments here (manufacturing costs, disposal problems) are legit, but size and color never bothered me. Disposal won't be an issue for awhile, so I'm taking the cross-my-fingers-and-wait approach.

Startup times are maybe a second slower, but if that alone bothers you enough to not save over 75% on the energy costs, well...

Bela, I have to agree with you about this:

People value familiarity over efficiency.

We Americans are, I feel, especially prone to nay-say something which deviates from the norm. We also tend not to like being told by the government what we should do which in some cases is pigheaded of us. The instance of our not using more CFL bulbs than our wealthy, global counterparts is a case in point.

I buy nothing made in China, light bulbs included.

That must be pretty hard to do. I can pick any 20 random objects around me and find the Made in China stamp, including this keyboard on which I am typing. Thanks for the tip though.