I’ve posted before on The Truth About Energy-Saving Light Bulbs. It’s clear the battle lines between the manufactures and consumers are being drawn and the situation is changing a bit, so I thought it was time for another post.
Being Lied To
Do you notice how this has changed? Before we were told CFLs were 80% more efficient than ordinary incandescent bulbs. In my earlier post I explained how, even based solely on electricity consumption, this figure was an outright lie. By the time you took into account things like manufacturing and transportation costs, as unlike standard bulbs CFLs are pretty much only made in China, and disposal costs because these bulbs need special handling and transportation due to the toxic materials they contain, it’s unlikely there was any energy savings at all with these bulbs.
Not to mention being told by the manufacturers that it was safe to have mercury in our homes! Can you imagine that, someone else telling us this? Who wants toxic heavy metals in their home in any amount? And for what reason exactly?
Can you believe this, they almost got away with putting toxic materials in nearly every home worldwide? Are people gullible or what?! But this is okay, isn’t it — now we know CFLs are a piece of crap, we can throw them all away and buy the next round of consumer products.
Do you notice they’ve stopped with all the propaganda? At least in the shops here in Amsterdam, they’ve quietly moved the bulbs made from toxic materials to the side in favor of other technologies. They’ve also stopped telling us in such a deceitful way the newer bulbs are so extremely efficient like they used to.
Now it’s more like, here, buy this bulb because it’s the law.
They’ve also quietly stopped telling us the newer bulbs last longer. What they’re now doing is making standard light bulbs that burn out much faster than they did a few years ago. We just discarded a bulb purchased 15 years ago, and have been using daily in a floor lamp for about the last 5 years. How long has it been since we could buy a standard light bulb that lasted 5 years? There’s no reason standard incandescent bulbs can’t be made for a longer life, in fact if you search the Internet with Google you will see a number of places selling these bulbs in countries like China where they’re still legal.
To be very clear on this, there is absolutely no evidence beyond wild claims from from manufacturers that expensive bulbs pay themselves back in energy savings. Remember when cigarette companies used to claim their products were safe and not addicting? As long as no one can come up with absolute proof to the contrary, they can claim whatever they want.
The Demise of the 15w Bulb
Supposedly they started with the phasing out of 100w and 75w bulbs, as well as all frosted bulbs. They also assured us stores would continue to be able to stock older bulbs, and they would continue to be available for a while.
Boy, I haven’t seen any stores stocking older bulbs, have you? If you ran a store, would you want to keep low value stock like that laying around?
It’s this frosted bulb bit that’s the hidden detail. This seems to have a number of unexpected consequences. The first is 15w bulbs have totally disappeared from the stores, apparently because they can’t be made unfrosted.
Well we can all understand, at least from an emotional point of view, why they would ban 100w and 75w bulbs, right? Because they use so much electricity? Why do they need to ban the one incandescent bulb logical for someone who needs a small energy efficient light for a small space? After all, for someone who does want to lower their electric bill, and wants to replace a higher wattage bulb with a more efficient cheap one, a 15w bulb would be the logical way to do it. Is this too much competition for other supposedly energy saving light bulbs?
The Big Consumer Ripoff
Ten years ago light bulbs could be had for 10 or 20 cents, purchased in a package of 20 or so bulbs from a discount retailer.
Especially as the price of oil is going up, the true manufacturing and transportation costs of these new bulbs is really showing itself! These days it’s hard to find a light bulb for less than about €1 (around US$1.35), about a 500% mark-up from a few years ago. These prices are only going to go up if the manufacturers of the newer technologies are given a monopoly on the market.
It’s not acceptable to just lower the price a bit now, and take a loss, maybe put them on sale. Maybe a government subsidy here and there to distribute free or discounted bulbs. As consumers we have the right to access to cheaper technologies, as protection against future prices rises or market manipulations. If the new lighting technologies are so great, let them stand the test of time!
It’s not just incandescent bulbs that are becoming unavailable, it’s fixtures and devices like timers, switches and motion detectors. These are now becoming packaged with newer bulbs and fittings, forcing you to use a particular brand or type of bulb.
When CFLs first came out we were able to get them for free. Special promos, all of them. We didn’t know about the mercury and other issues so now, all we have is CFLs.
We need to get rid of them but wisely and now the question is how. I’m thinking of LEDs. We have a few bulb, super expensive and not very good light. A week ago we purchased a small LED desk lamp for $18. We are using it as a bedside lamp and it works a charm. I wouldn’t have a problem trying more bulbs now that a year has gone by since purchasing the first ones.
How are they made? Do they have dangerous components like the CFLs? Where do I go to get info like that?
I really appreciate you putting info like this out for us Patrick. Trying to track this data down is not easy and understanding it is no walk in the park either. Having someone to give it to us and explain it as will is hugely beneficial. THANK YOU!
Hi Jo,
If you have CFLs, I would suggest keeping them as long as they are working. While they do contain mercury, and this isn’t a good thing to have in your home, you aren’t really in any serious danger. When you decide you really have to get rid of them, why not go back to normal light bulbs? I understand they don’t have a date yet for phasing these out in the US.
Just be sure not to buy any more CFLs.
They collect LED lights as chemical waste here in the Netherlands. I’m not sure what they contain that’s toxic, but at least here you aren’t supposed to just throw them away. I don’t think there’s anything about them that’s dangerous like CFLs.
LED lights work okay as a desk light or as something like a porch light where you just need to see it, but not depend on it for lighting up an area.
LED lights are not very good at lighting up a room or any outdoor area. If you point your desk lamp at a far wall in a dark room, you’ll see what I mean. It’ll just create a fuzzy bright spot on the wall, but won’t really help you see anything.
Awesome! Yea, we got the deal of the century with the CFLs, small wonder since it was PG&E promoting them.
You are absolutely correct about the LED light and how it doesn’t have a “distant” glow. That’s actually a positive attribute in my book, particularly in the bedroom. If I want to stay up and read, or get up in the middle of the night, the light from my LED lamp won’t disturb Mike. I want to get one for his side of the bed this month.
On the whole though, I really want to reduce the amount of light we use. The boys bedroom had a single LED bulb in their overhead fixture and it is plenty bright enough for their room which is about 13′ square. It’s bright enough to read comfortably. Though, for the sake of convenience, I want them to each have their own lamp eventually.
I also find the quality of the light to be more “comfortable”. I’m not quite sure how to explain that, but my eyes don’t feel as stressed as they do if I’m working under a CFL or incandescent bulb.
We were just this morning speaking of bulbs. 2 of the incandescent bulbs we purchased lasted 1 day..yes!…1 day!…and another a few hours longer, many others short lived. I had attributed this to buying them at the Dollar General Store where I believe the dish soap is watered down, I know the batteries last about a minute, etc. And now the bulbs are worthless. My future black market career in light bulb sales is over before it began.
Yikes anonymous struck again..sorry it was me talking about bulbs and acting like a dim one.
PS/ This morning another bulb went out as we sat at the breakfast table, the burned out one having been replaced by an LED. This time my husband said, “It shut off because it’s hot”. Sure enough it blazed again a short time later. Seems the LED don’t do well in the recessed light fixtures…
Jo: If you replace all your CFLs now with LEDs, and it’s not really necessary, you’ll be wasting your money. In a few months or years you’ll figure out the LEDs don’t work well and you’ll go out and buy something else. The best thing is to just wait as long as possible with what you have, and only buy what you really need to.
Cynthia: I think we’re all screwed — no matter what!
I may have it wrong as to the bulb that got hot LED or halogen?
We stockpiled free bulbs a few years back..they were passed out everywhere…passed out- that describes their performance- free has a price.
Never liked them, that they take a while to brighten-
Off to work in the dark my husband almost tripped & spilled coffee on his shirt. Ironing a 2nd shirt- now that’s a tragedy!
I do think people have hibernation in them..let’s go w/ that & like my chickens use the sun as our sleeping & waking guide when we can…
I drive my family crazy because I like dim lights.
Cynthia,
You know what gets me about ‘free’ CFL bulbs? It’s that government subsidies paid for them all. You know, the same governments that don’t have enough money to pay disability benefits or social security?
In fact I think it’s a normal thing for governments to pay subsidies sometimes, and I think it’s normal that businesses should sometimes benefit. I also think it’s normal that ordinary people should benefit sometimes.
The problem is we now live in a world where the expectation is only large corporations can benefit from subsidies, whether it’s CFL bulbs, commodity crops like corn, ethanol or factory farm meat production. For everyone else, all we hear is the government has run out of money.
Government or should I say, Those in Government who write up subsidies usually have their palms greased before hand with promises of tremendous kick backs.
And that is just the tip of the ice burg as I’m not going to ramble on about all the corruption and failures of “programs” via “Government”.
I have flax to grow this year and if need to I can press the oil out and use it for lamp oil. Indian Dogbane will make a nice wick.
If I get offered free light bulbs as a choice or an option to regular filament bulbs I’ll take them,but that is only because I choose to take them. Not because I am forced to use and buy them through means of stopped production via “Law” from
a “Government” that is always “broke”.
As I mentioned above. I’ll be pressing and using flax oil and indian dogbane wicks for lights since I’m having one choice forced upon me with out even my consent on the issue.
Wow…thanks for this post. I was completely unaware about mercury in CFLs…and I consider myself environmentally-conscious! I can’t believe that there isn’t more important placed on getting these to toxic waste landfills. I’m going to stop purchasing these, and I’m willing to bet if people knew this a lot more would stop buying them as well.
The original Edison Light bulb lasted 2,500 hours. By the mid 1920’s you could purchase light bulbs that lasted 5,000 hours.
The companies making them decided they weren’t making enough money so they redesigned them so they would wear out earlier. They did this gradually so the consumer wouldn’t notice. Up until A few years ago, light bulbs lasted 1,000 hours. Now they last 750 hours and the prices keep going up.
A lot more mercury is going into the environment producing these light bulb because coal is being burned to produce the energy to melt the glass to make a new light bulb. (The coal ash is what is being disposed of unsafely because it isn’t being considered toxic waste).
We a law to force the light bulb companies to increase the life of their bulbs. At the very least to what they were in the 1920’s before the Cartel.
The oldest light bulb still in use was made in 1895, it was installed in a firehouse in 1901 in the U.K and has been in continuous use since then.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjjCtBviqrw
They put in a quality filament. We will save a lot of coal waste products from being dumped in the environment, if we made light bulbs like these.
Great comment John! Lots of great information. Thanks too for the link to the video.
I have a 100watt bulb i bought from “jobs for handicapped” on the phone twenty years ago. it has been on every day for twenty years. i am writing this comment by its light right now. i buy bulbs at the store that last a few months at most. what is the deal!!! does anybody know if that phone sales outfit still exists. why is this bulb lasting so long?
i think john “april 6 13:57” partly answered my 5:14 comment
Growing up in the 1960’s, a 100 watt incandescent bulb would last an average of 2 years. By the 1970’s, a 100 watt bulb would last 6 months. In 1991 when cfl’s were becoming popular, we bought 10 bulbs at $20 Canadian each. The package said they would last a minimum of 7 years. Out of the 10 cfl’s we bought, 6 were burnt out within 2 years. Also, there was no difference in our energy bills when using cfl’s. Big scam IMO…
unfortunately patrick not everyone lives in the us