Incandescents burn hotter, use more E, but don't compact fluorescents MERCURY make them dangerous/health, envi

Question

environment??

That's a permanent heavy metal introduced systemically into landfills and eventually ground water and right back into US and it stays put and is a lethal heavy metal.

Are compact fluorescents well-intentioned but not well-thought-out?

Answer 1

Yes and no, but keep in mind that mercury exists in the environment even without our help.

Since most of the energy waste for incandescents is lost as heat, I can only imagine that the heat loss has to be made up for in a cold climate (i.e. if your lights are heating your house, you don't have to run the furnace as much).

Sure your electric bill goes down, but your gas bill goes up (in the winter).  Of course, in the summer you save on air conditioning.

Answer 2

It's true what Rivergirl said about the additional mercury released by burning coal.

Some places are starting to recycle compact fluorescents, though, because of the Mercury.  This will probably take some time to spread to all places, but it is starting to pop up here and there.

Answer 3

No.   Compact fluorescents reduce the total amount of mercury put into our environment, even when you take the disposal of the bulb into account.

Here in the US, we generate most of our electricity with coal - which contains traces of mercury. The compact fluorescent bulbs save quite a bit of energy. Even though the bulbs contain a small amount mercury, they reduce the total mercury emitted over their lifetime. (Teeny bit added from compact bulb minus lots of mercury reduced from lower electric generation equals less mercury overall.)

For more info on compact flourescent bulbs, and details on how the US EPA recommends that you dispose of your bulbs, check out the websites below.

Good question.

Answer 4

It does not look like you have looked at ALL sides of the arguement.  You have not taken into consideration that our Nations power grid is fed mostly with coal powerplants.  That coal realeses huge amounts of mercury into our enviorment.  There is only a slight amount of mercury in the bulbs and if disposed of properly, pose no threat to our enviorment.

Answer 5

the extra coal used to power an ordinary bulb would emit more.

also, that's why we recycle.

Answer 6

I agree, adding all that mercury back into the system just after making some progress in cleaning the mercury out of our rivers may not be the best of ideas.

They also take about 10 minutes to warm up properly. We have found there are certain areas in our house where the compact flourescents work better and some that are more suitable to incandescents.

I don't feel the compact bulbs should be removed from the store shelves but I really dislike the proposed mandate that we only use flourescent by 2012 especially since there are still health concerns by some people over the mercury issue. People should be allowed to choose the type of bulb that they want to use. Without government intervention.

Answer 7

Yes there is a trace of Mercury, but keep in mind we have been using the much larger fluorescent tubes for a much longer time.  The new compact fluorescent bulbs have only a tiny fraction of the potential to pollute.