I Am Trying, But, I Am About To Probably Say Something Not So Pc Of Me!

My dislike of CFL's has nothing to do with beauty.

CFL's have mercury in them, a very toxic chemical.

CFL's have caught on fire in my home probably sending mercury vapor through my home.

The new green florescent lights will catch fire when the tubes are not inserted properly or the fixture gets bumped and jars them loose. The old fashioned kind never did this on me. If the connection was loose the light simply did not come on. I had to replace all 4 of the new green fixtures in my garage because they caught on fire. Actually 3 of them did and I was not taking a chance on #4.



I use incandescent bulbs to keep my water pipes from freezing underneath the house.

I've used incandescent bulbs to keep the engine warm on my vehicles in the winter.

I've used them to keep animals warm on cold days.

I use them in unheated outbuildings because they come on every time and work every time. CFL's have to be at a certain temp before they work properly.



I am very pro environment. I get angry at city folk who move out into the country then bulldoze all their trees into the nearest creek while loudly proclaiming that they are green and us uneducated country folk are not.



Those politicians who passed these laws banning incandescent bulbs will not have to live with the consequences. They have "People" to clean up a broken bulb. They have never had to be at work at 5:45 AM in a blizzard or when the temp is -25 no excuses accepted. They've never had critters they are trying to keep from freezing. No they will always have a warm home and the privilege of staying home in bad weather.

There are globes of the fluorescent light bulbs if you prefer. The thing with fluorescent is that you can leave them on longer at no extra cost. If you leave it one for 4 hours it cost the same as the old style light bulb burning for one hour. Most people still use them like incandescent light bulbs, turn on then turn off. The fluorescent are made to leave on almost all the time. I use fluorescent for years now, because I don't have to worry about turning off the light all the time.

Glowy - I don't hate them because I am forced to use them (although my husband sure is stubborn about them!), I hate them because they are UGLY - LOL!! If there are globes available, I have not seen them, but I am happy to hear that!



I just don't like the government GOVERNING everything - this is probably a poor analogy, but I notice within my children's schools that they are "ruled" to death. One kid wear flip-flops or even open toed shoes and happens to fall on the playground and get hurt - all of sudden there is a rule - no open-toed shoes at school. One person breaks something from misuse, now no one can use it - the majority pays for what the minority does? I just don't get it! I also think there is this misconception that we can prevent every "bad" thing from happen if we make rules and laws to cover everything - but you won't ever cover everything! Not only is there a decline in people taking personal responsibility, but also in the government, local, state, federal and allowing people to take personal responsibility. (but that's a whole other can of worms! LOL Sorry for the digression!)



As for the school recycling, we don't have the parents go to some center, twice a year, we have volunteers with a large recycling receptacle at the school taking collections from students and parents all day long - then they turn in HUGE amounts of the stuff together! Otherwise, you are right - extremely inefficient and counter-productive!!!



THANKS Glowy for commenting - if being Green is hippie stuff then I must be part hippie - I can't throw anything away that can be recycled - LOL!

Sorry, Dot. Hippie here... : )



I have had CFLs in my house for years now, and even leaving them on is better than having the others on...I have switched to LEDs in a lot of places in my house. And they're even better now that you can have the different colors to make a more natural light. And. In my bathroom, I have CFL globes. They hide the ugly squiggly stuff in a globe so it looks just like my regular lights did, and I don't have to go watch my energy use meter flying so fast I can't read the numbers.



I agree that the government shouldn't be able to control things like what lights we use, but it's more principle. Don't hate the lights because you don't want to be forced to use them. : )



Oh. And my kid's school does the recycling thing. One of my friends was telling me that she did this, and she saved stuff for a month, and waited for almost an hour for the center to take her stuff. She made $3 for the school, and wasted ten dollars in gas to do so. Go figure...

Wow, I had no idea! Thank you Aether71!



I just think there is more to this mandatory Fluorescent Light bulbs than just energy efficiency - I have always gotten the impression that disposal of Hazardous Waste was also a big issue!



This also brings up something that truly bothers me and I believe is part of our economic issues we are dealing with today - small business owners - it is becoming more and more difficult for them to survive in an environment that continues to make it TOO costly for them to stay in business and compete with big business!



Thanks again for the comment!

there are other things to be concerned about with the mandatory Florescent light bulbs - they contain mercury. That puts them on the Hazardous Waste list and must be disposed of as such. If you own a business, this is going to cost you more time, more energy and more money.