Lasting 10 years or more giving a warm and beautiful light similar to incandescent. What a total load of (pardon the language) horse shit! I have foretold nothing but problems with Compact Fluorescent bulbs from their inception. I recoiled from them in horror that they were the "Green Initiative" product for the future. In the UK they are shunned upon and the retailers are forced to have recycling programs with the recycling fee built into the price of the bulb.
In North America (at least Canada) there has been little, if any, education on these products.
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| Compact Fluorescent and Circular Fluorescent Tube |
There are also the other style that uses a round tube that connects to the ballast via a 4 pin socket which is a completely replaceable bulb. They aren't very expensive, and convenient that you can replace them without replacing the ballast as well, but again, that's not the issue here.
The one problem is actually not the light they produce, or the amount of energy they use, or in the case of the CFL, save. They use a small amount of energy to produce an incredible amount of light.
When you used to buy the old Incandescent light bulbs you'd look at the bulb and say, "Oh I need a 60W light bulb, or a 40W light bulb, or even possibly a 100W light bulb." But in today's world that's no longer true. In fact, it never should have been. Today, as always, light is measured and always has been measured, in Flux Lumens. A lumen is a measurement of visible light produced from a source, such as a candle, or a light bulb. The average 60W Incandescent tungsten filament light bulb produced between 600 and 850 lumens of light. A 17W Compact Fluorescent light bulb produces the same amount of light output.
A 100W light bulb is around 1000 to 1200 Flux Lumens, and a 23W CFL produces the same amount. That is why the packaging still says, "60 Watt Replacement only using 17 Watts". That sounds great doesn't it?
But lets dig a little deeper into what else the packaging says;
One - Do Not Use Outdoors
Well that's interesting. Why not? Well it's actually very simple. Fluorescent lamps are not designed for cold temperatures. In fact, anything below 2°C (35.6°F) is not good for a Fluorescent lamp as it will cause the light to not reach its full potential light output and will even reduce the lifespan of the light. Incandescent lamp for the win. Because Incandescent uses a Tungsten filament that arks electricity and heats up by resistance, it is not affected by colder temperatures. In fact, colder temperatures sometimes actually help the lamp by dissipating the heat away from the bulb.
Ever wondered why the CFL bulb outside seems to have a faded amount of light coming out of it? Yes, the cold is causing it to produce less than its rated Lumen output.
Two - Do Not Use With Dimmers
Wait? No dimmers? That's not good. So I am stuck using this lamp at its full intensity even when I want to have a subdued light? Yup! Go ahead, throw it on a dimmer and watch the lamp flicker and sputter. You can get Dimmable CFLs but they do not work the same. Sure, they can dim, but I've seen many start to dim, then begin to flicker and sputter as well. NOT what I'd call a very good way of dimming at all!
Another win for Incandescents.
Three - Do Not Use In Damp Locations
Alright, this should be a no brainer! Not even Incandescents can you use in a damp location. However, people do. I have seen many CFLs in damp locations, completely exposed to the moisture. That's not a good idea! They are not
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| The Tungsten Incandescent Lightbulb |
Four - The symbol Hg means this product contains Mercury. Please dispose of properly in accordance to state laws.
Wait... Mercury?? As in that liquid metal you found in old thermometers? Actually, worse. That metal is really bad and highly toxic, but in CFLs and other Fluorescent products (Tubes and other various lamps) it is in VAPOUR form. The Mercury is how the lamp makes light. However an Incandescent bulb uses Tungsten for the filament, and Tungsten is mildly radioactive. Don't worry, it's less than the background radiation that is present all around you all the time!
So lets see...
It's not supposed to be used outdoors... Not on dimmers.. Not in damp locations... And CONTAINS MERCURY?!
So far I am still not seeing the great deal in these lights. Sure they use less energy to produce a fair amount of light, but at what cost?
Here's the problem I have found in my own experience with any and all fluorescent lighting. For one, when the bulb reaches its end of light, it'll actually rupture...
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| End of Life CFL Rupture |
Here I will explain it to everyone. This hole will allow the remaining Mercury Vapour to escape from the bulb and into the air of your home/office/room/apartment. This mercury vapour is extremely toxic and hazardous to your health. Mercury poisoning is something that we all must be aware of and to watch out for the symptoms of. I am always monitoring myself for these symptoms, as I work a lot with Fluorescent light bulbs. Honestly, Mercury Poisoning scares me more than high voltage electricity!
At least with electricity, I can protect myself from it by wearing proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). A broken Fluorescent light bulb, however? Mercury vapour gets out into the air we breathe.
The sad thing here is that I also see many Fluorescent tubes (you know the ones I'm talking about) in offices, schools and even in homes that have burned out that have similar holes and ruptures! They burn out and that mercury gas escapes.
So now that you are aware of these small facts of Fluorescent light bulbs and with the government forcing a ban on the importation and sale of Incandescent light bulbs in excess of 60 Watts (and soon 40 Watts), you wonder... What other choice is there?
Well, that's where these come in..
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| LED GU-10 LED A19 LED GU-16 Base Par16 |
LED technology is actually quite old. LEDs have been around for a very long time,
Do you remember the old stereos with the light bar that would light up the louder the music was? Those are LEDs. Clock Radios, well guess what. LEDs..
That DSL/Cable Modem of yours uses LED indicator lights.
That technology has been expanded upon to bring us the lighting technology of the future! LED bulbs!
These are incredibly good! You can get these in pretty much any colour you want, use miniscule amounts of energy and produce tremendous amounts of light! The middle bulb in the above photo is a A19 E26 Medium Base 9.5W (yes 9.5W) 2700K (colour temperature similar to a Incandescent light bulb) LED bulb. It produces 810 Flux Lumens of light which means it creates almost 86 lumens per Watt. If you imagine a 60W light bulb produces 810 Flux Lumens, it creates only 13 Lumens per Watt.. That is not very efficient!
Also, LED lamps will last you a long long long time. We're talking into the next decade before it reaches its end of life.
The average LED bulb today is rated to last between 25K to 40K hours.
The way an LED light fails is actually pretty simple. When the bulb reaches end of life the light output slowly dims, and eventually the bulb fails entirely. Yes there are ones that will end up blinking when they reach end of their life, but most times they will dim to around 70% of their lumen output before failure.
There is no harmful chemicals in LED bulbs, nor is there any need to wear a hazmat suit if you drop one. I have dropped many of them and most often than not, they bounce or just land flat on the ground.
You see, LED bulbs are usually made entirely of plastic and metal. The Metal is usually the ballast surround (yes it uses a ballast) and the dome protecting the LEDs is usually plastic, however there are some that use GLASS to cover the LED which is either frosted or clear. Frosted gives a much softer light than clear, which is more designed for spot lighting than flood lighting.
Incandescent E26 A19 replacement bulbs more often than not are frosted to give a warm soft glow vs a spot lighting.
The image I posted above has both an A19 E26 Medium Base (known as the Edison Screw Base) that replaces the typical A19 light bulb. These are used everywhere you can imagine. Table lamps, desk lamps, hanging fixtures and more.
The GU-10 lamps are more of a spot lamp and are used in Track Lighting, Pot-Lights, very very few desk lamps and accent lighting. The GU-10 is very similar (identical) to the MR16 which is also used in similar scenarios. The big difference between a GU-10 and a MR16 is that GU-10s have a built in step-down voltage transformer. In fact, all LED lamps have this other than MR16s. LEDs are low-voltage and use no more than 12v for the light, which is why they have a ballast. A LED will short and burn out instantly at line voltage (120v or greater).
This is also why they do not generate a lot of heat. In fact, leave a 9Watt LED bulb on all day then remove it in from the fixture, and it is very warm to the touch, as all electrical things do generate heat, but compared to the 60W light bulb it replaces, you'll be able to remove it with your bare hand with no discomfort at all.
Other lights, such as the Par-38 lights, or LEDs of higher wattage (20+ watts) which produce incredible amounts of light, will get warm to the point that you'll find a tiny bit of discomfort when unscrewing them, but nothing compared to the heat of the lamps they replace.
CFL bulbs get immensely hot as the ballast has to step up the line voltage to 600v! Yes, 600 Volts! Fluorescent lights require a very high voltage to ignite the Mercury to 'burn' and create light.
There is a huge difference, right? 600v is extremely dangerously high voltage, while 12v is the same voltage as a car battery.
Ever stick your tongue on a 9v battery? 12v isn't significantly higher than that..
They can catch fire! I have seen this first hand, and I am sure you have too. Maybe not so much them catching fire, but definitely the charred marks around where the glass bulb attaches to the ballast.
Almost every single CFL bulb I have replaced after burning out is either very charred, like this, or mildly charred (dark browning of the base) compared to the bright white it was when it was originally installed. This is something that has been reported on by many news outlets in the world happening. However many of the problems is mostly blamed on "GLOBE" light bulbs, which is a manufacturer in China. Snopes.com is a great place to find out very good information regarding claims that are either true, or false...
Now I'm not trying to scare anyone regarding these bulbs, but I want you to be as informed as possible. For one, do not buy GLOBE CFL bulbs if you are going to buy any CFL bulbs. Why? Simple, they are very poorly made. You get what you pay for after all. The cheap bulbs = cheap construction, and can easily be problems down the road!
Incandescent bulbs have caused more fires than any CFL bulb. Incandescent Christmas Tree lights? Anyone remember those? They are notorious for igniting up dry trees. Dust falling onto an incandescent bulb that has sat for many days/weeks without being turned on, and poof! You get a whole lot of smoke from them. Halogen bulbs are another one that has caused fires, which is why they are usually plastered with "FIRE WARNINGS" on the lamp. "Keep Lamp Clear of Dust" "Do Not Place Lamp Near Combustible Materials" etc... Incandescent lamps follow the same warnings.
In fact, almost all lights will follow the exact same warnings!
All lights when used properly will give you safe and clean light every time. Be smart on where you put your lights, and remember, when you clean your living space, remember to clean any dust off those old Incandescent and Halogen lamps.
Or better yet? Replace them. Halogen Spot Lights can be replaced by LED lamps which produce very little heat in comparison, last much longer and even work fantastic outdoors. In fact some LEDs are rated down to -45°C!
While at work I decided to take a look at some of the failed fluorescent lamps.. Here is a few of them.
Notice the "Sylvania" branding on them. These are not cheap Gray market imports, but Sylvania products.You aren't incorrect in saying that, but have you ever broken a Fluorescent lamp? Because they are under pressure, they explode! This is a clean break meaning that it was not under any pressure at all. Take a closer look. You'll see a rupture mark where the glass cracked releasing the leftover Mercury Vapour that had not been burned up before the bulb failed. It was after when this bulb was removed from the fixture that the bulb cracked further.
Then the Sylvania Push In CFL bulb. It has separated from the ballast!
Finally the CFL bulb (Spiral). It is a "Marathon" branded CFL and as you can see the ballast has burned and the bulb has fractured. This sort of thing I find really upsetting.
If you or I approached the government with a product that contained as much mercury as Fluorescent bulbs they'd fail our product and condemn it, yet here is a product that is a complete nuisance! It is toxic, it is dangerous. It truly is a step backward instead of forward!
You'd think that because the program I am working with (Energy Efficient Upgrades) I'd be all for Fluorescent lighting, as I am 'upgrading' old dated T-12 lamps to the more efficient T-8 lamps. But I'm not.. I'm condemning the program for being so short sighted!
When there are LED tubes that can work in all Fluorescent fixtures which will contain absolutely 0% Mercury and 0% Lead, I don't understand why they are promoting Fluorescent over LED.
However I will give them credit where credit is due. The old program when replacing A19, GU-10, MR16, PAR Halogen lamps, etc was done with a CFL equivalent (or in the case of the GU-10s and MR16s a lower wattage Halogen) they are now being replaced with a LED counterpart. I am very happy for that!
Thankfully today the Canadian Government has started to phase out the CFL light bulb and is trying to get education programs in place to let Canadians know that these are toxic and dangerous to the environment.
With the current landfill crisis we are having with people just throwing their bulbs in the garbage due to lack of education on them, there is a serious issue with Mercury in our landfill sites.
This is very bad for the environment that they were trying to 'save' with the roll out of the CFL bulb program.
Now before you get all worried about these CFLs that you have in operation providing you light, or those Incandescents that you have.
Use them and use them properly. When they fail, dispose of them properly. Those CFL bulbs should be taken out when cool using dish-gloves (just in case) and wrapped in a brown paper bag. After that take it to your nearest Hazardous Waste Depot or Fluorescent lamp recycler (Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona) and drop it off there carefully.
Incandescents can go into your recycling bin for recycling of the glass and metal.
But instead of making another purchase of a CFL bulb, seriously consider the LEDs. Yes, I know they are not inexpensive, but consider this. They will seriously save you money in the long run.
With LEDs the key is to get the bulb that provides you with the most amount of Lumens for the least amount of Wattage. The higher the Lumen count, the brighter the bulb. Also watch for colour temperature. Halogen bulbs are around 3000K while the Tungsten lights are around 2700K. For Daylight (5000K) you'll find it very very white, and is good for kitchens and bathrooms where you need that light...
As your lights burn out, replace them with LED bulbs. They are getting better and better every day! Philips brand bulbs have a wonder "FLAT" type LED A-19 that provides 360° light output, which is really good.
Either way, just be conscious of the products you use and what they contain.
CFLs were a great stepping stone into the age of energy savings. They introduced a whole new way of thinking when it came to lighting, and provided many homes with a brighter light for significantly lower energy consumption.
Regardless of the problems that CFL bulbs have brought with them, they have entirely changed the thought of consumers on energy consumption and how to save money.
Lights are one of the largest consumers of electricity. Yes there are other items that use large amounts of electricity but they are not used continuously for as many hours as the lowly lightbulb is.
Be Energy Smart... Recycle... Reuse what you can.. and always, be conservative. We don't leave the planet for our children, we are borrowing it from them. So let them have a world that is what we wish we grew up with..
A clean planet.. A beautiful planet..
Until next time..
The GU10 Dimmable Bulbs are ideal for people who want greater control over their lighting.
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