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May 9, 2007 11:59 pm US/Mountain
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Are Those New Light Bulbs Really Better?
by Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Consumers are using more and more fluorescent light bulbs in hopes of saving energy and money. CBS4's Alan Gionet asked the Good Question: Are those new light bulbs really better?
"I don't have to change them very often," said one man who has put them in all over his house.
He especially likes them in the high fixtures in his home.
Another man told us, "I haven't replaced a bulb in 3 years since I got them."
We know they last much longer than incandescent bulbs. That's one plus. But there are a few minuses to compact florescent lamps known as "CFLs."
First is, you may want to look for the ones with warmer colors. Some of the CFLs can have rather harsh light. That's easily done, since there are new, warmer CFLs coming out 3 days. Secondly, the vast majority are not for use with a dimmer or a three-way lamp.
Those bulbs do exist, but, "To be perfectly honest with you at this time," says Bill Leake of the Light Bulb Supply Company in Denver's LoDo, "They need some work."
Leake says CFLs pose a fire hazard if used with a dimmer switch, unless you add some very expensive equipment.
More expensive at the start, the advantage with a CFL is found in the cost of operating them.
"By the time it's run for six months or so, it's more than paid for itself," says Leake.
The amount you'll save by cutting your use of power will vary with each bulb, but CFLs often use about a quarter of the amount of power needed to light an incandescent that puts out about the same light.
Incandescent lights are very efficient at one thing - that is putting out heat. The vast majority of the power used by an incandescent bulb goes to the generating of heat and the light is like a helpful by-product. Fluorescents put out much less heat and are therefore more efficient.
But fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. Mercury has been shown to cause nerve damage in children.
Viewer Kenneth in Aurora says he's read on the Internet that when they break in your home it can cost thousands to clean up the contamination.
You can chalk that one up to Internet rumor. The hazardous materials and waste management people with the Colorado Department of Health say there's no reason to panic, just open a window. Then clean up a broken CFL with stiff paper and place it in a sealed plastic bag like a Ziploc. Don't use a vacuum they tell us, because that would send mercury particles airborne. Local communities should have - or soon will have, recycle bins for the disposal of CFLs.
CFLs have about half the mercury contained in a standard linear fluorescent light. Businesses have to recycle any lights that don't have a green cap or writing that distinguishes them as low-mercury. Homeowners are under no requirement to recycle lamps containing mercury.
"There's about 5 milligrams of mercury in a CFL," says the Department of Health's Warren Smith. "It about enough to cover the point of a ball-point pen."
If that were to get airborne, it would still be less than the airborne mercury attributed to the creation of power needed to light an incandescent lamp. That's because many of America's power plants are coal fired.
"To power an incandescent bulb over it's lifetime a coal fired power plant is going to emit about ten milligrams of mercury into the air," says Smith. "I would say the CFL is definitely the better environmental choice."
(© MMVII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)