Green Basics: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 08.30.07
courtesy strobist.com
Commonly referred to as CFLs, compact fluorescent lamps or compact fluorescent light bulbs, the energy-saving bulbs have escaped the stereotype of buzzing, flickery, washed-out lights to become one of the poster children for consumers taking action in the modern green movement. The bulbs, which can replace incandescent, halogen and other electric lights around your house, use between 60% and 80% less energy than their incandescent counterparts, making them an increasingly popular way to cut energy use without having to make any radical changes, like replace your lighting fixtures or rewire your house, in many cases.
In addition to using a fraction of the energy, compact fluorescent light bulbs have a much longer usable life than incandescents, typically lasting between 6,000 and 15,000 hours, compared to 1,000 hours or so for incandescent bulbs. Recent improvements in technology (more details on that in a sec) have improved both the light quality and versatility of CFLs -- many now emit a more pleasant "soft white" light and work in dimmable and three-way fixtures. All of this adds up to a bulb that can save the user upwards of $30 over its life and save 2000 times its own weight in greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of a filament lit up with electrical energy, there are two main parts in a compact fluorescent light bulb: a gas-filled tube (also called bulb or burner) and the magnetic or electronic ballast; those with magnetic ballasts tend to flicker more, so electronic ballasts are being used with increasing frequency. When you flip the switch, electrical energy, in the form of an electrical current from the ballast, flows through the gas, causing it to emit ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light then excites a phosphor coating on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light. Far out, huh?
One of the most contentious points about widespread use of CFLs is that they contain small amounts of mercury. However, because CFLs use so much less energy than their incandescent counterparts, compact fluorescent light bulbs are responsible for less mercury contamination than the incandescent bulbs they replaced, even though incandescents don't contain any mercury. How does that work?
The highest source of mercury in America’s air and water results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, at utilities that supply electricity; incandescents burn way more energy, so, on a macro level, require much more energy to be produced. When that energy comes from fossil fuels, like coal (which most of America's energy does), it causes more mercury to be emitted. Additionally, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) have made a voluntary commitment to cap the amount of mercury used in CFLs: "Under the voluntary commitment, effective April 15, 2007, NEMA members will cap the total mercury content in CFLs of less than 25 watts at 5 milligrams (mg) per unit. The total mercury content of CFLs that use 25 to 40 watts of electricity will be capped at 6 mg per unit."
Still, concerns exist about the mercury escaping from broken CFL bulbs, as safe disposal requires storing the bulbs unbroken until they can be processed. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published guidelines on how to clean up after CFL tube (remember, that's the "bulb") breakage and recommends that, in the absence of more specific local guidelines, CFLs be double-bagged in plastic bags before disposal. To properly dispose of the spent bulbs, CFLs need to be recycled by somebody that knows what they're doing; often, that's with the retailer or manufacturer from whom the bulb was purchased. If those options aren't available to you, click on over to earth911.org to find a local CFL recycler. Though the mercury is unlikely to harm you or your family, let's be clear about this: do not, we repeat, DO NOT toss your CFLs in the trash; putting them there greatly increases the chance of the mercury vapor escaping upon breakage, first exposing you and then the air and water around the landfill to the gas, which is bad news. So be careful with the bulbs, please.
Despite this cautionary tale, CFLs are still the way to go until LEDs become more common (but that's another post). Manufacturers are improving the quality of light (this is done via the phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb; mono-phosphor lamps emit poor quality light, so the solution is to mix different phosphors, each emitting a different range of light. Properly mixed, a higher-quality light is emitted), and many more options for dimmable CFLs are becoming available; Environmental Defense and One Billion Bulbs both have lists of the dimmable bulbs.
For more information on CFLs, check out Wikipedia's entry and Energy Star's resources, which includes a handy, downloadable sheet on proper disposal of CFLs [pdf]. Environmental Defense has a useful widget to help you find a bulb based on what kind (3-way, dimmable, etc.) and where you need it. GE's FAQ page might help answer your questions, and Eartheasy has a list of the features of different CFL configurations (spiral, triple-tube, dome, etc.). Here at TreeHugger, we've worn ourselves out keeping up with CFLs; evangelizing their use, watching them in the news, working to dispel the mercury myths and providing user tips is barely the tip of the iceberg. Check out our How to Green Your Lighting guide for more, or type "compact fluorescent lightbulb" into TreeHugger's search engine and go nuts. Whatever you do, don't be a dim bulb: go with CFLs now and the planet and your wallet will thank you later.
The Green Basics series of posts appears every Thursday here at TreeHugger; we're writing them to provide basic information about important ideas, materials and technologies for new greenies, or for those who just need a quick refresher.
It's worth noting that the health concerns about the mercury in a broken bulb are overblown. With no special care, the mercury disperses to ambient levels in a few hours. So long as you don't shove your face in the space where the bulb broke and suck deep, there's no health concern to be had. If you live near a coal-burning power plant, in fact, that mercury suck might actually be healthier than going outside.
Led bulbs are right around the corner!
I use the common CFLs, as pictured above, in lamps all over my apartment but some light fixtures won't accept the "twisty" bulb. Do CFLs come in other shapes and sizes? I can't seem to locate any other kinds in the stores.
(To the previous commenter)
CFL energy-saving light bulbs are available in all shapes and sizes at my website, www.greenlightsusa.com.
Thanks for the extremely informative article, Collin! If everyone in the U.S. used CFL light bulbs, it'd be like taking millions of cars off the road.
Best regards,
Eddie Chu
Founder, GreenLights
GreenLights
LOVE OUR PLANET. LIVE GREEN.
www.greenlightsusa.com
Nobody really talks about how awful the light is from a CFL! I’ve tried numerous types and they all make your home look like a ugly waiting room!
The quality of light is horrible. We all spend so much time choosing colors to paint our walls, picking out the right color furniture, and then we bathe the room in ugly light and distort the color. Check out the color brown under a soft white CFL. It looks greenish grey!!! My favorite incandescent bulb is the GE Reveal. I have them in every room now. Colors look wonderful, and your home feels warm and natural. Just use the lights a little less often, and turn them off when you are not in the room. That will save you money! It’s a wash then!
To bad over 70% of CFL's are made all the way in China were they have no environmental standerdes for making them the worst are there any made in the us. If so contact me at jimmymak9177@gmail.com
I bought the new Wal-Mart brand of CFL bulbs and there cheaper they don't flicker when you first turn them on they turn on like a incondecent bulb. I figure whats the difference except there all made in China and there cheaper.
I understand these bulbs have mercury in them, I haven't found any local place that will take them, how can I avoid having them end up in land fills?
**Author's comment**
Hey there, amr,
Check out earth911.org -- they'll help you find a CFL recycler near you.
Thanks!
-CD
We replaced our normal light bulbs for the CFL kind earlier this year thinking we'd be saving money and helping the environment. However, what I didn't know was that in high humidity areas they're lifespan shortens dramatically. We live in South Florida. Every single one of the bulbs died within a few months. That was a lot of wasted money there. Considering that these bulbs are probably more environmentally damaging to manufacture, and they don't last as long as promised, I hardly see how this helped the environment at all. And it was just a lot of money down the toilet personally. I think LED light technology looks much more promising. I'm going to stick to my regular old light bulbs till those are available.
Here’s a short critique of the bogus argument that there will be a reduction in toxic mercury into the environment with CFL’s due to the energy reduction from coal plants:
(1) The EPA figures are incorrect for several reasons. The basic one is that they assume 100% of electricity in the US is from coal plants. Not true. 50% of electricity does not come from coal plants in the US and coal plants are now mandated to reduce their mercury emissions by between 70% and 90% in the next several years.
(2) Places like California produce little energy from coal plants, so CFL energy reductions will not cut much mercury there.
(3) The 5mg of mercury generally claimed for CFL’s is largely a goal and not the current reality which can be 300% to 600% higher, depending on the manufacturer. The EPA assumes just 4mg.
(4) CFL’s are made in China with energy from mostly very dirty coal plants that emit much more mercury than US coal plants.
(5) CFL’s made in China spill as much mercury into the environment as goes into the CFL’s.
(6) CFL’s are delivered here on ships using bunker oil, the worst mercury producer of the fuel oils. Incandescent bulbs are still almost all made in the US.
(7) There is no recycling program in place or planned that could handle the number of CFL’s proposed. And after many years, even the industrial recycling programs only handle 25% of the mercury from fluorescent lights.
(8) It is likely that if any major recycling program is set up, the CFL’s will be shipped back to China for reprocessing.
Thus, a massive CFL program will put a massive amount of toxic mercury into the environment and very likely into our kid’s bodies. And the EPA says that a sixth of them already have too much mercury in them. Given the danger, it might be wise to believe the EPA in this case.
The biggest incandescent light bulb factories have all been shut down already and there is no new investment in opening more of them. With the legislation recently signed by president Bush outlawing most incandescent bulbs, they will become hard to find. Don't forget that electricity made by mining and burning coal releases radon, a major source of carcinogenic radiation. Only one CFL needs to be shipped for every eight incandescent. That was a lot of wasted trips to the store. The lead, and cadmium in the circuit boards are a problem for spent cfls that needs to be solved in addition to the mercury. Incandescent bulbs also contain lead.
I switched over quite some time ago… I have a gold foil lampshade interior which warms up the light color…
Check Out: Http://www.SaveThePlanetSong.org
Best
-Michael Droste
In January issue of Forbes mag, there are two articles concerning "green bulbs" One discusses a broken buld in a childs room that when measured showed 6 x the safe limit of mercury and a very expensive bill for doing a complete clean up of the area...also I don't believe that the average consumer recognizes the enviornmental hazards of dumping these bulbs into land fills. I nour haste to build a better mousetrap, we must consider the inevitable waste that results. People need education first and
solid information not just a new craze....as incandecent are to be phased out...we'd better take a harder look at the billions opf bulbs that will be discarded and how we will handle the new challenges of the better mouse trap.
SOSLIghtBulbs.com recently got this press release concerning mercury content in CFL's. We thought this could be of interest to your readers.
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Use even less mercury with MaxLite’s™ low mercury compact fluorescent lamps. Reinforcing its goal of producing the lowest mercury CFLs, MaxLite™ was one of the first in the industry to participate in the National Electrical Manufacturer’s Association’s (NEMA) initiative, “Voluntary Commitment on Mercury in CFLs.” Participants in the program pledge to limit the mercury content of their self-ballasted CFLs (residential use only) with less than 25 watts to 5 mg. and those with 25-40 watts to 6 mg. per bulb. MaxLite™ CFLs utilize only 1.2 to 2.5mg of mercury per lamp; half the amount present on the tip of a ball point pen, as compared to typical CFLS containing 4 mg. of mercury.
Always ahead of the curve, MaxLite™ has created a unique procedure to control the amount of liquid mercury in its compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). In its burner production, MaxLite™ accuracy is achieved by the utilization of a sealed tool akin to a medical injection tube. This permits defined quantities of liquid mercury to enter it each time the fluid is drawn. Then the identical amount of liquid mercury is infused into the burner. One amalgam dice is placed into the mercury control of the amalgam lamps. The amount of mercury is also fixed as the amalgam dice’s weight is controlled by amalgam manufacturers.
The low mercury quantity is the least amount MaxLite™ deems feasible for a compact fluorescent lamp to maintain a long and productive life.
I walk, drive a Prius, have a front-loading washer, use my own canvas grocery bags, grow my own veggies, recycle like crazy, BUT, 'm with Eddie Chu (mssg above) -- the light from these bulbs is terrible! In a few yrs when that's all that is sold, I may have to go on anti-depressants.
I heard you were supposed to keep cfls on for a certain amount of time. What about bathrooms? Usually I just click on the light and then off within a minute or so. Will this drastically shorten the lifespan of the CFL?
I am very disappointed in the availability of dimmable CFLs. I have tried several brands - all of which were 2 to 3 times as expensive as a regular CFL - and have yet to find one that will function properly. Has anyone found anything on the market that works, or should I just hire an electrician to change out my dimmers for switches?
“And although one dot of mercury might not seem so bad, almost 300 million compact fluorescents were sold in the United States last year.” (NY Times Feb. 17, 2008)
5mg x 300,000,000 = 1500kg = 3306lbs
This is not insignificant for one year’s production and does not include linear tube fluorescents which have more mercury per lamp.
I was just at a seminar and saw calculations showing that the reduction in mercury from power emissions is greater than the mercury in the lamp. This was based on the typical US power generation mix of >50% coal. If we assume that most Treehuger.com readers are like me and purchase non-coal produced power then using CFL’s without proper recycling does increase the mercury emitted into the atmosphere.
Concerns about embodied energy in the manufacture & the environmental conditions in China are legitimate.
Emerging evidence of the direct connection between light and the human hormonal system suggests that the spectrum of light produced by CFL’s has negative effect if it is a part of our nighttime environment.
CFL’s are not a silver bullet but can be useful so we must be considerate in using them widely.
The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America’s New York City chapter has hosted a series of seminars called “Bye Bye Incandescent”. Some of the presentations have been posted if you want further information.
Good article. I'm waiting avidly for your post on LED bulbs, bring it on!!!!
Last night I switched on the bathroom light, and was rewarded with a flicker, a pop, and then the CFL bulb exploded and showered me with glass shards. I am being polite as I describe this because I am extremely angry. As a parent of one of the increasing number of neurologically damaged children I am a little sensitive about mercury exposure!!! Who knows what the mercury levels were??
I am really beginning to question the wisdom of CFL's.
Additionally, none of the CFLs we have purchased has lasted the 6 to 7 years projected. We are averaging only around 1 year per bulb. That's not that great.
Who Saved Watt?! is a public record of individuals replacing incandescent bulbs with CFs. It's goal is to promote simple pragmatic conservation and attempt to make an aggregate total of the total watts saved.
I think the light from a CFL is awful! As an interior designer I must say that the light they produce is ugly. It is harder now to create a warm space. NO MORE CFL !!
we better be sure on the type of [url=http://www.fruitengine.com]specialty lighting bulbs[/url] we are using at home. remember, these things are very dangerous especially to children.
I would like to use more CFL's in our home but I have run into a bit of a problem. The remaining rooms in our home that do not have CFL's are rooms where we need instant light for many short periods through out the day. I have some CFL's in the house ( manufactured by commercial electric) which come on at near maximum brightness almost instantly. The local stores no longer carry this brand and all the CFL's I have bought recently seem to take a minute or more to 'warm up' to full brightness making them useless in many applications around the house. Why do some CFL's take longer to come up to full brightness than others? Is there any way to tell which bulbs brighten up quickly? Any recomendations? Thanks
I'm all for saving the planet, and going green to accomplish this monumental task, but lets call it like it really is.... I'm not saving any money going green, when the power/energy companies raise their prices to compensate for their losses as a result of my energy efficiency. No matter what I do, the prices go up.
I stay away from the cheap CFLs made in China.
In my experience in the past, particularly "Lights of America" brand have always burned out really fast and one got hot enough to start to melt the plastic.
The ones I'm using from Sylvania, GE, Panasonic, and Westinghouse have been consistently long lived and reliable.
Quality control and quality checks make a difference.
Also, after 8pm, we switch to low blue light sources for better sleep during the night -- blue light prevents melatonin:
"... the sleep hormone because it makes one drowsy. It normally reaches its maximum concentration during the night. Light causes the pineal gland to ..."
https://www.lowbluelights.com/sleep_tutorial.asp
That means no white fluorescents after 8pm if we want to fall asleep easily by 11 or so. We like the GE "post light bug light" CFLs -- note how little light emitted between 400 and 500 nanometers, the range that suppresses sleep:
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/eighth/gecflbl.gif
Spectrographic analysis of a GE 14 watt Bug Light CFL.
These are ordinary CFLs but yellow-filtered with a plastic cover -- this is not the ugly pure yellow of the open-coil yellow CFLs but more of a "gaslight" soft warm color.
Or you can wear yellow glasses, or buy cheap theatrical filter gels (yellow #10 from Rosco), or amber LED lights, for evening use, if this is something you want to try.
CFLs aren't wonderful but they reduce coal burning.
There's far less mercury in the CFLs than in the amount of coal burned to produce the excess electricity incandescent lights would require for the same amount of light, and the CFLs go into recycling, not into the air like coal plant smoke.
The "$2000 cleanup" story is a PR press release, not news:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&q=%22%242000+cleanup%22+%22compact+fluorescent%22&btnG=Search
This keeps showing upl, more than a year after it was first being rolled out -- by one of the coal industry funded PR sites, emphasis on opposing the mercury emissions rulemaking. There's far mercury going into the air to make electricity -- that's reduced by using CFLs, cutting coal profits.
May 1, 2007 ... Steve Milloy, junk science peddler and loser, has a new crusade: he is opposed to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/compact_fluorescent_lights_are.php
Look this stuff up and do the math yourself, they play to what people find it easy to believe but they're not doing this for _your_ health, but for their industry's financial health.
I love CFL bulbs and the energy savings they provide, but disposal is a bit of a hassle and has anybody else heard that CFLs heat up wiring in your walls making them a potential fire hazard?? If so please comment
does anyone know when LED light bulbs will be avaliable