KEEP AWAY from the Walmart “Great Value” brand! I recently purchased a 4-pack of 23W CF’s: One failed to light, one buzzed and NEVER warmed up, and the other two flicker like strobe lights.

I guess I’ll be sticking to the more expensive brand-name CF’s for the time being…

A big improvement, as are the new combinations phosphors that they are using to “temper” the C.I. (to look more pleasant- like an incandescent bulb.)

I was the first designer to use CFL’s in my lamp designs 17 years ago and the only company that made them back then was G.E. They retailed for $27.00 each and they were a “horror show” aesthetic at the time because of the price, color and unappealing size of the thing. Believe me, they were a real tough sell.

I’m very glad to see that things have changed for the better and that they are now so widely used and accepted.

I’d be interested to see where it says that fluorescent lighting is bad for reading, especially since most offices use fluorescent lighting. The only real advantage for using incandescent lamps in some commercial applications is for colour rendering, and it would only be in specific cases where this would be required.

As for the bluish tinge that comes from some fluorescent lights, warmer lamps are available (3000K- 3500K) which are around the same colour temperature as traditional incandescent lamps.

Michael

Sarah-
>It’s not the high cost, start up flicker or the light quality, but the constant buzzing that is the deal breaker!

None of my CFL’s buzz, not even the older ones. I deal with light quality by using colored lampshades and sconces. It’s a design problem, not a mechanical one.

Chris-
>Are we figuring those btu’s and exhaust gases and particulates in the ledger of ‘green’ actions by walmart?

Do we figure the emissions and energy expenditure for “regular” incandescent bulbs? Perhaps it’s a little lower because of the lighter weight, but the difference is negligble I’m sure. They come from the same general areas, so your point is moot. We have to get the bulbs somehow, and Asia happens to have the cheap labor required to sell them so inexpensively.

>And how dirty are those factories in china? Where do they dump their toxic byproducts – what safety provisions >do they make for employees and offspring…

I’m sure they are just as dirty as the ones producing incandescents, aside from the mercury.

And Sarah, I don’t know what CFLs you’ve been listening to, but mine seem to make a slight buzzing for the first few seconds and that’s it. Really, it’s nothing I’ve ever thought of or noticed until you mentioned it. And frankly, I find it hard to believe that an Inhabitat reader will let some barely audible noise stop them from saving a ton of energy.

Are we figuring those btu’s and exhaust gases and particulates in the ledger of ‘green’ actions by walmart?

And how dirty are those factories in china? Where do they dump their toxic byproducts – what safety provisions do they make for employees and offspring…

The initiative sounds like pr to me, like bs.

My understanding is that the power required to start a cfl is significantly large. If you put one where it will be turned on and off frequently, you are going to use more power, not less.

It is a simple matter of education; teach people to put the bulbs where they are effective and they will save power. However, I have not seen any marketing material that says anything more than “buy this, save power”.

A recent series of power outages puts this problem in scope in another light. The power company tried to re-power several circuits, but they could not because the power-on drain on the circuit was too much. They asked radio stations to request that people go around and turn off non-essential lighting to reduce the drain.

However, I have read that fluorescent light isn’t very healthy to read in. So my home is a mix of fluorescent lighting for hallways, backyard, balcony, front porch and the kitchen but I use full spectrums in the reading rooms and bathrooms.