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Got a CFL?


monsoon

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  • 2 weeks later...
WalMart has the best price point for CFL's at any retail store I've seen. Lowes and Home Depot aren't far behind. WalMart is going to be introducing a store brand CFL and has really pushed to get the price point as low as possible.

One of the biggest obstacles to CFL's is to get the consumer to realize they will recoup the higher cost of purchasing these bulbs in energy savings within the first 3-6 months of use (based on 4 hours of usage per day of the bulb.) Any type of CFL that is outside the familiar 'curly q' bulb seems to be more expensive per application.

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That's a great idea! Once you fully convert to CFL then start converting your family and friends, even if it is on your dime. With CFL specials like the one you found it is really a no brainer to give these CFL's to family and such. It is really a win/win situation as you save money by burning CFL's thus reducing the amount of energy your home consumes and they last much longer than their counterparts.

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Has anyone had any problems with their CFL's? I've had 4 blow in the last month and none of them have been more than 2 months old. A far cry from the 7 years they are suppossed to last. Do brands make any difference? I would think it wouldn't really matter. If the box says 7 years, I expect it to last 7 years.

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Has anyone had any problems with their CFL's? I've had 4 blow in the last month and none of them have been more than 2 months old. A far cry from the 7 years they are suppossed to last. Do brands make any difference? I would think it wouldn't really matter. If the box says 7 years, I expect it to last 7 years.
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I'm not sure brands do matter. I've had pricey CFL's go out just after a few months while cheapo CFL's I bought several years ago are still going strong. My father-in-law even had a CFL flood light that didn't even work when brand new right out of the box and it was a rather pricey brand name model.

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Read a web article on MSNBC that Japan has a 80% usage rate for flourescent bulbs, while penetration in the US is still just at 6%.

Incadescents are still big money makers for stores (especially smaller chains and independent stores), as they are cheap to manufacture and even at .99 for a 4 pack of 60W, the retailer is making good margin and still has incentive to merchandise these moreso than CFL's where markup is considerably less based on competition.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...
well, the article states that even with the mercury the environmentalists still support them. I have them throughout my house and heard the horror stories about mercury contamination with these bulbs.. there does need to be more education about how to clean up after a broken one and a recycling program that's easy for most consumers to access. I think the major retailers like WalMart, Target, Lowes, IKEA, etc should band together and create a national recycling/education program for these bulbs.
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Yeah, I've thrown away two over the course of ten years. Right in the trash. Of course, that's what people have been doing with flourescent bulbs for years.

Jeez, these things have come a long way, though. the first one I installed was in the basement ten years or so ago. It was a two peice unit, cost close to twenty dollars. The theory was when the bulb burnd out, you replaced it, but kept the ballast. It had five U shaped bulbs instead of the curly cue. The one I replaced it with a few years later had the same bulb design, but was one peice (and cost ten bucks).

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I thouroughly researched the drawbacks to the 'cfl' bulbs. I, and many of my friends who have installed them, are fully aware of the risks if they break and the extra hassle to recycle. Fortunately, I can now recycle these bulbs in my city at the hazardous waste disposal sites. Granted, I only use this site once or twice a year. However, the quote about not taking dead CFL bulbs to recycle concerns me.. is that saying if it's not convenient that all regard for recycling is thrown out the window? It is important that we all make sacrifices to help our planet and shrink the footprint that our lifestyles leave on her. If it means keeping an small box in a closet to go to the recycling center every so often, is that really that great of a sacrifice to keep recyclable products (and I'm referring to everything recyclable, not just cfl's) from going in the landfill??
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Do you know for sure that your city's sanitation dept. doesn't offer some type of recycling service for the CFL's? You may not have to keep them. If a service isn't available, you should push your city officials to adopt one since the penetrations of these bulbs is just going to increase.

And just to make a statement about recycling, I think everyone should look at EVERY ITEM that potentially is going to the landfill and question if it could be recycled or reused. I have made it a point to change my lifestyle so that I generate minimal trash, even if it means having to allocate some space/time to deal with this. This is a small price to pay to help minimize our footprint on our planet..

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Do you know for sure that your city's sanitation dept. doesn't offer some type of recycling service for the CFL's? You may not have to keep them. If a service isn't available, you should push your city officials to adopt one since the penetrations of these bulbs is just going to increase.

And just to make a statement about recycling, I think everyone should look at EVERY ITEM that potentially is going to the landfill and question if it could be recycled or reused. I have made it a point to change my lifestyle so that I generate minimal trash, even if it means having to allocate some space/time to deal with this. This is a small price to pay to help minimize our footprint on our planet..

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Phillips sells heir bulbs with "soft white", "bright white" and "daylight" descriptions for color temperature.

I tend to like the "bright white" better. It's a little harsh if you use them everywhere, so a few softs mixed into 2-bulb fixtures helps.

I do not like the "daylight" CFLs. It's a sickeningly blue-ish, neon-y light. Ended up sticking the ones I bought in utility closets so that I didn't need to look at them too much.

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I like the daylight bulbs, and in fact have one at my desk. It really helps brighten me up. The problem is you need a good amount of light to do it. One fluorescent tube just isn't going to cut it. And that is one of the problems with fluorescents - you need so much to get a really effective equivalent of light.
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that President Bush signed into law (along with other energy efficiency standards) a ban on incadescents. The 100 watt is to be banned starting in 2012 working our way down to the 40 watt in 2014. All light bulbs sold must use 25-30% less energy by 2014 and 70% more efficient by 2020.

Article about the US Banning incadescents.

However, there has been a bill introduced to repeal this action. At the moment, it has only been introduced and not scheduled for any debate or vote.

Bill to repeal the Ban on Incadescent bulbs

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that President Bush signed into law (along with other energy efficiency standards) a ban on incadescents. The 100 watt is to be banned starting in 2012 working our way down to the 40 watt in 2014. All light bulbs sold must use 25-30% less energy by 2014 and 70% more efficient by 2020.

Article about the US Banning incadescents.

However, there has been a bill introduced to repeal this action. At the moment, it has only been introduced and not scheduled for any debate or vote.

Bill to repeal the Ban on Incadescent bulbs

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