How Many Bloggers Does it Take to Screw in a Lightbulb?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 9.07
Feel that you haven't read enough about compact fluorescents? Seth Godin wrote about them last week, and challenged bloggers. "To fight off the darkness, bloggers everywhere are invited to create a post with their own riff on why CF bulbs are cheaper, better politically, harder to market or just plain cute." Seth's website is popular and wow, did he get an amazing response. We looked at a few and some are inane, some are useful additions, some make interesting points, such as if you can't spell it, it has a lousy name. (I got it wrong for months) Tom Fox at Learning Curve says "The first thing I’d do is stop calling them compact fluorescent light bulbs. I’d think of a different name altogether. Something like “Doodley Bulbs,” or “Squiggly Bulbs,” in tacit recognition of the spiral shape many have. It would not be compact fluorescent light bulbs vs. light bulbs, it would be Doodley Bulbs vs. Incandescents, and I’d target mothers with small children. You can grab a Doodley Bulb with your bare hand and not get burned. Doodley Bulbs are safer for infants and children. You can hardly set your home on fire with a Doodley Bulb, but incandescent bulbs are HOT, HOT, HOT! Why do you think they call them incandescent?" See them all at ::Seth Godin
Here in the UK, they are simply referred to as energy-efficient lightbulbs.
Whenever articles in UK magazines or newspapers appear encouraging people to switch to energy-efficient lightbulbs, that's all they ever refer to them as - energy-efficient lightbulbs! What's wrong with that? It describes exactly what they are and it doesn't require a made-up name like 'squiggly bulbs' (which still requires you to then explain that 'squiggly bulbs' are energy-efficient lightbulbs. And what happens if someone makes a inefficient squiggly lightbulb?).
If you asked people here to find an energy efficient lightbulb at their local DIY store, they'd know exactly what you mean. Ask them to get a compact fluorescent lightbulb and you'll probably get a blank look!
I just call them "lightbulbs". And I call incandescents "old fashioned lightbulbs".
Drop the modifiers "energy efficient" & "compact fluorescent" and just call them "light bulbs." Thus old light bulbs will require the modifier so that "incandescent light bulb" becomes a retronym for "light bulb"
More about retronyms here.
Many are curious as to the question of mercury (Hg) contamination with CFL's. A few sources say that the Hg discharge at a typical coal plant that is offset due to the reduced kWhr effects of using CFL's is on mass balance better than incandescents. The reality is that even if the lowest Hg bulbs are compared to the (high) average Hg output per KW its about even. The EPA regs mandate major reductions in coal fired plant emmissions so this counterbalancing reduction will drop. One of the low Hg bulbs has more than the maximun annual exposure dose for an adult. One bulb can raise a quarter acre of landfill to higher than the OSHA exposure limit to a depth of 2 inches. When converted to methyl mercury in ground water the volume of contamination is much larger. Last, you have to ask how much we want to pay neighborhood garbage police to force recycling?
The last place i would put a CFLis in a childs room.
The bulb if broken would disperse a volume of mercury 100s of times more hazarous to a childs health than the lead content of any of the toys from china which have been banned. Yes the CFL would have to break but the toy would have to be eaten. But no matter CFLs are good fro environment... except when dumped into landfills or our garbage cans. Lead bad mercury okay!