Incandescent or Fluorescent Light Bulb Environmental Impacts.

Well I have been thinking about the legislation that the Canadian government just passed on the ban of incandescent lights by 2012 and it is just plain ridiculous.

Here is my reasoning, although the regular bulbs due emit greenhouse gases, the environmental impact is nothing compared to the high amounts of mercury, cadmium and lead that fluorescent contain . Now you couple this with everyone using them and the breakages, improper disposals in landfills, leaching back into the water system and you have a massive mess.

The Canadian government didn't think this one through very well, if you don't believe me on how toxic fluorescent bulbs are then do a bit of research.

This is just my take, but I do think other will agree with this opinion.



[edit on 21-5-2007 by Realtruth]

yes, yes and most of these lamps have integral transformers, which are tossed along with the (toxic) lamp.


it should be obvious by now:

step one: create problem

step two: propose a (desired) solution

stem three: enforce it - > back to step one


that way you can do as you please forever while everone else is struggling with all these naive folks who will believe anything as long as it conforms to their preconditioned worldview.

i suppose reducing the mercury load will require another few hundred billion bucks that is *if* biofuel induced problems and California style blackouts do not consume all the funding

The new technologies of LED (Light Emitting Diode) are incredibly bright and use very little electricity. I'm assuming they arent horrible for the environment either since they are so tiny and EVERYWHERE

LEDs last extremely long and afaik, the aren't nearly as toxic as flourescent lamps (if at all). let's hope LEDs are a viable replacement by 2012, because i haven't read a single favorable review of LEDs for room lighting yet. pocket lamps are another matter entirely, though.

imho, when LEDs take off, we'll have to rewire for 12V DC in order to use them efficiently. seperated transformers are a waste of resources and money.

So your argument is not to do anything huh?

I have installed those coiled incandescent lights in almost every light in my house ( I think 2 or 3 still have fluorescent bulbs for various reasons) and my overall energy bill dropped by a third.

Disposal problem or not they are the future of lighting.

What I am curious about is would you still be so concerned about standard light bulbs and their environmental impact if changing was not being made mandatory?

So how I doubt it. And, if so your environmental concerns ring hollow.

LEDs are probably the future, not flourescent lamps.

anyway: lighting accounts for 9% of the total power consumption, it would be nice to know how much is actually consumed for (internal) home lighting.

www.eia.doe.gov...


disposal is a nice term for the consumer, i imagine recycling these lamps won't be so nice, though. standard bulbs are a crutch, not more not less, the best way to deal with them is to turn them off when unneeded. i don't know the exact wording of that particular law, but i wonder if lifecyle costs and impact are considered, as opposed to consumption only.


the only positive thing i can say about a ban of incandescent lamps is that it does give an incentive to develop better alternatives.

PS: why do you think are perfectly good transformers are thrown away along with burnt out lamps? would it be hard to amend that deficiency?

[edit on 26.6.2007 by Long Lance]

I was referring to incandescent lights and leds.

image source: http://i.treehugger.com/images/2007-2-15/led_bulbs.jpg


LED bulbs last 10 years, consume less energy than fluorescents, and don't contain mercury. They're $30 - $40 each, but since they last so long and save so much money in energy costs the price is justified.

I'm curious as to why the government and environmental organizations aren't pushing LEDs rather than CFLs...

I guessed the average house would have around 20 bulbs. My perchasing lady says we pay about 30cents US per bulb for 60 watters. PL's are $6 a copy about. So at $30 for LEDs, $6 for PLs and $0.30 for incandescents thats $600 vs$120 vs $6. Most of life is an economic decision and this obviously is too. You and I can understand the payoff in 10 years but explain that to a low income person that is thinking about 10 days from now not 10 years!
The good news is that in another couple of years LEDs may be I'll guess like 20% of what they are now.