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Illuminating Times

2009

Are CFLs really good for the environment?

Enlighten me about compact florescent bulbs(no
pun intended). I am often asked that through out
my daily repair schedule, and I never have a one
hundred percent positive reply to give. It’s a very
complicated thing.
Compact florescent lights, or CFLs, have taken
the country by storm with their promise of huge
energy savings and super long life. Some state
governments have been so wowed by them that
they have passed legislation banning the sale of
the old standby, incandescent bulbs. The all too
familiar, twisty-spirally shaped bulbs have even
found their way into a lot of lamps in my shop,
although with much reservation, for they carry with
them a few stigmas.
CFLs are well known for carrying mercury within
their luminous bodies. This, we know, is a very
bad thing for we are told that a broken CFL is to
be treated as an environmental disaster area. We
are also expected to assume that the average
consumer will gently carry a burned out CFL back
to its place of purchase for proper recycling as
opposed to tossing it into a convenient trash can.
Yeah, right! That’s a big assumption!
Look at the rest of the bulb, too. Note the
enormous plastic housing between the nifty spiral
and the thread. That must have used up a bit of
petroleum product. And what’s inside this little
house of wonders? Slice one open and you see it
is full of circuit boards, resistors, lead, and who
knows what else?

My point is, these are not the simplest things
being touted as the Savior of Conservation. A lot
of energy goes into producing a CFL, not to
mention the packing materials needed to ensure
safe delivery to the consumer. Think of

Autumn

standard bulbs in the simple cardboard sleeves?
Talk about minimal packing! Now think of how that
CFL came packed in a protective plastic shell and
paperboard. More energy used. I wonder, is this
factored into the savings CFLs supposedly offer?
About twelve years ago I bought my first CFL. I
remember paying around fifteen dollars for it. I put
it in a light out by the barn to use as a security
light 24/7. It’s still there! It’s a Made in USA bulb, a
tank of a thing that requires a few minutes to
brighten up when first turned on. At twenty three
watts and twelve years and counting, it has
definitely earned its keep as an energy saver. So
what’s wrong with that?
Alas, you cannot buy this bulb anymore. Folks
wouldn’t buy a fifteen dollar bulb, even if it lasted
a decade. They wanted it cheap and fast, like
everything else. Enter China. Nearly every CFL
bulb on the market today is produced in China,
and is shipped, at great cost to the environment
to us. For a great price, though. I recently paid
one dollar for one at a local store. It lasted a
month. A month! I brought it back to the store and
the clerk just shrugged in an ‘eh...
whatchagonnado’ way. There goes the savings! I
wonder how it was recycled.
In the shop, I find that the CFLs used in my
displays are lasting on average a bit less than a
year. And what a pain to remember where I
purchased them so they can be returned for
proper disposal.
I suspect I am not the only one having problems
with these bulbs. I also suspect they will be
showing up in the landfills by the millions soon, or
even worse, the Trash-to-Energy furnaces.
What’s the answer? There is no easy answer.
Everyone has to decide for themselves. In my
shop I am slowly converting back to incandescent
bulbs. In fact, I have turned off the dozens of eight
foot long florescent tubes that illuminated my
studio(in a horrible way I might add) and instead
use the restored lighting displayed for sale. That
bit of radical thought knocked my electric bill down
over fifty percent! Not only did that allow me to
conserve energy without using CFLs, it made my
lighting I have for sale jump right out at my clients.
I’m not saying don’t use CFLs. On the contrary, I
just want you to be educated about them. Use and
dispose of them wisely. And when it comes to
selecting a specific bulb for a specific need, you
be the judge. Use the lightbulb that best fits your
needs. Just remember, using less energy is the
goal. No matter how you go about that, it’s a good
thing. Illuminate yourself and make wise choices.