Gail McQueenProfessional Home Economist |
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Ban Incandescent Light Bulbs?
The following is a post by David McQueen that appeared on the EhMac.ca web forum concerning the future ban on incandescent lights in Canada. I think it raises a lot of interesting questions. I use compact florescent bulbs in my basement where I work. They go on in the morning and go off at about 9:00 or 10:00 at night. In that use, I may actually be getting some energy saving. They are a florescent light, so they have a built in ballast. Placing them in a location where the light goes on and off all of the time could actually use more power. There is a surge required to start them up. So putting one in say your bathroom could actually up your bill. I bought some cheap CFL's that were downright dangerous. They over heated in the socket. So now I know. There is no such animal as a cheap CFL. I do not like the fact that CFL's have mercury. This is a toxin we are trying to get rid of. I am willing to bet that most people do not safely dispose of the bulbs once they do burn out. Plus, what is the environmental cost of driving your one burnt out CFL to the hazardous disposal site? The longevity of these bulbs, from my experience, is over rated. Some have lasted a long time but others went quite quickly. The house I live in is now 12 years old. I have some incandescent bulbs that have never been changed. They have a ban in Europe on incandescent bulbs. It is being circumvented by importing them as energy efficient heaters Apparently they do pass all of the tests for efficient electrical heaters. This is is Canada. No heat generated in my house for 9 of 12 months of the year goes to waste. If it is not coming from a light bulb, it is coming from a stove or a drier or the furnace. The insulation technology today is such that you could have a home heated by the sun during the day and the incandescent light bulbs at night. Safe, affordable, maintenance free. If you are using all of the energy that your house produces, it does not smatter if it comes from a dedicated heater or from a bulb. One is just as efficient as the other if you are using electricity to heat. I worry about the effect of not having full spectrum light over time with CFL's. I have not seen any studies to indicate anything, but up until now, though you may work under florescent lights, once you leave work, you are back to full spectrum lighting. I am not that crazy about having all lights in my environment flicker at 60 cycles per second. I remember in high school playing basketball in the gym and the florescent lights disorienting me once I started really running around. I do not now how many people are sensitive to this, but I cannot be the only one. I really do not like the lack of choice such a ban would imply. LED lighting is coming along. I saw them offered for sale for the first time in my local big box hardware store over the weekend. They are still really expensive. On the upside, I understand that they do not have the disposal problems of CFL's. The price will go down over time. I think as that happens, people will switch on their own, bypassing the CFL revolution entirely. I am seeing a lot of "green initiatives" that really boggle my mind. They are bumping up costs for no good reason and are really short sighted. This seems to be one of them. A lot of money is going to be spent both by government imposing the ban and by individual home owners complying with the ban, for something that will solve itself within the next five years of so. Just leave it alone. In this case, if you leave it alone, it is going to go away. Just my $.02 Canadian |
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