Light bulb warning...a must read

[1acrefarm]

Quote:
I care alot for the environment but you are doing better than me. I think my family members would shoot me if I did away with all light bulbs. I can't even get my wife to use the carafe instead of using a 900 watt coffeemaker 10 hours or more a day.

 

[Crunchie]

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Both are harmful...that's why I quit. No more bulbs for me. I can't wait for the day that I can move on 20 acres and build a electricity free cabin with an outhouse and livestock roaming around. Seriously, if an outhouse was ok for my momma...it's ok with me.

Can I be your neighbor??

That all sounds good to me....My hubby is a different story, though. He's pretty environmentally conscious and "crunchy" (sometimes more than me, and I'm pretty hardcore

) but he is convinced that he would die without air conditioning (though I think I might have agreed with a couple of days ago when my thermometer was reading 107 outside...yikes!!).

Baby steps will eventually get you pretty far, though, I'm certain. We do what we can as we can....

 

[countryboy]

I have the energy efficient bulbs throughout my household and enjoy the savings. We used to have the old style bulbs but they radiate heat and are more of a fire hazard if something were flammable were to come in contact with the bulb, in competent hands there is little danger in using any type of lighting apparatus with the understanding that accidents do happen but sometimes they do to normally functioning people, it's just the way it is.
there are benefits in having a lighted house with electricity, such as not having to trip on something in the dark or reading a book, poor lighting can harm your eyesight. An electric lamp being knocked over is much less likely to cause a fire then the old way of lanterns and candles and not to mention what noxious fumes that can come from flame lit lighting fixtures.
It would take a great many candles to equal the proper light out put of modern day lighting.

 

[mirime]

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We did too and i"m under 55 (by a few years!) - and the amount of mercury in CFLs is VERY small. I think that the energy saved far outways the danger, esp if people dispose of the burned out/broken ones properly.

 

[Davaroo]

It would take a great many candles to equal the proper light out put of modern day lighting.

Agreed. Unless you're Thoreau and making candles from beeswax or tallow, you aint doing squat for the "environment," anyway. Paraffin, the 'wax' most candles are made of, is a product of the petro-chemical industry. So is mineral oil, soap and just about everything else. DO you wanna guess how much petro investment is in that computer of yours, alone?

I'm not a big devotee of going back in time 150 years. I'll take modern dentistry, solar power and a light bulb any day. If it's a fluoro bulb, then I'll recycle it for processing.
NO big deal.
I've dealt with fluoros for years, broken and unbroken, and have yet to succumb to mercury poisoning. In large quantities, mercury can pose a problem. SO can water if not controlled. There are dangers associated with anything.

There is a firestorm of scare and worry in this technology that, frankly, isn't warranted. DO what you gotta to handle them responsibly, light your way as you live your life and then get on with it.
There truly are bigger fish to fry than wringing hands over the fluoro bulb.

On a side note, something which ended up as back page news is that fluoros are not going to be a debate but a law within 4 years - a federal law. Europe and the UK have already gone that way. So has Australia. We're next.

What oughta to get your goat is that you are going to pay for the switch to compact fluoro's, along with everything else "green". All the new manufacturing costs, legal costs to pass new regulations, special post-handling industries and all the other costs associated with fluoros are coming out of your pocket at purchase time. You didnt think GE or Phillips was gonna cough up, did you?​

 

[Southern28Chick]

Quote:
Both are harmful...that's why I quit. No more bulbs for me. I can't wait for the day that I can move on 20 acres and build a electricity free cabin with an outhouse and livestock roaming around. Seriously, if an outhouse was ok for my momma...it's ok with me.

Can I be your neighbor??

That all sounds good to me....My hubby is a different story, though. He's pretty environmentally conscious and "crunchy" (sometimes more than me, and I'm pretty hardcore

) but he is convinced that he would die without air conditioning (though I think I might have agreed with a couple of days ago when my thermometer was reading 107 outside...yikes!!).

Baby steps will eventually get you pretty far, though, I'm certain. We do what we can as we can....

I can do without AC. If you're out in the heat enough you get used to it. See that's another issue, people are so used to AC that they can't get used to heat. I keep my house at 80. I would keep it hotter but DH (an HVAC service tech) has to have it at 80 or he thinks he's burning up. DH grew up in California...not much humidity. So he's not that used to humidity and that's the only thing that gets to him. I lived my whole life in NC so heat and humidity is no problem for me. Sometimes I wish we never had AC at all. It sucks when you go to the movies and it's 50 degrees in the theater and then you walk outside in 105 degree weather, you end up feeling hotter than it really is. If there was no AC then we wouldn't be used to AC. God gave us sweat to cool us off...I use my sweat.

When I get my 20 acres you can move in with me Crunchie. We'll live the DHs in their AC.

 

[Crunchie]

I've already got 60 acres. We can build some super-green cabins on a couple of lots with our goats and chickens, and the DHs can have their AC, like you said, and then they can feel bad about living in the un-green monster house.

 

[Southern28Chick]

I make my own soap from vegetable oils and essential oils, I make my own BEESWAX candles. I NEVER use Paraffin. Enough said.

I don't care is they make the use of "fluoros" a law...I'll NEVER use them! I'll never use any bulbs again. Debate that...

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
Both are harmful...that's why I quit. No more bulbs for me. I can't wait for the day that I can move on 20 acres and build a electricity free cabin with an outhouse and livestock roaming around. Seriously, if an outhouse was ok for my momma...it's ok with me.

I think I would get major headaches from trying to write a book by candlelight. It would be too much eyestrain.

 

[Southern28Chick]

Quote:
Both are harmful...that's why I quit. No more bulbs for me. I can't wait for the day that I can move on 20 acres and build a electricity free cabin with an outhouse and livestock roaming around. Seriously, if an outhouse was ok for my momma...it's ok with me.

I think I would get major headaches from trying to write a book by candlelight. It would be too much eyestrain.

We don't use our electricity to much now anyway. I have been writing/typing it without any light other than the screen. I'm typing this right now in the pitch black of my backyard because I'm on my deck. Not a strain on my eyes at all.