BLUEBONNETS, MOCKINGBIRDS AND CFLS

By Ella Tyler and Leslie Ness

Planet Ark, the daily listing of international environmental news stories reported by Reuters news service, recently had an intriguing headline – Texas Mayors Promote Fluorescents as ‘State Bulb’.

I learned that the mayors of San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso and Austin all appeared at a news conference in San Antonio last Friday to kick off a statewide campaign that calls on all Texans to replace their old-fashioned light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). The mayors declared the compact fluorescent the “State Bulb of Texas,” and took turns turning on the bulbs in sockets marking their cities in a huge granite map of Texas.

In addition to promoting CFLs as the state bulb, our mayors are collaborating with Environmental Defense, Texas utility companies, and retailers to encourage Texans to give CFLs as a holiday gift, or to make a ney years resolution to switch to CFLs.

San Antonio’s Phil Hardberger said, “One of the simplest acts an individual can take – changing a light bulb – has a far-reaching effect. If every Texan household changed just one bulb, it would be the equivalent of removing 55,000 cars from the city streets. It would also be enough to light 200,000 homes for a year.”

However, according to Hardberger, in spite of the cost and energy savings, CFLs account for only about 6 percent of all light bulb sales.

With this as a backdrop, I sent our intrepid intern off to find out more about CFLs. Here’s what she found.

Gone are the days when only the most longsuffering environmentalists were toiling away, looking unattractively washed out under their dim, flickering, buzzing, fluorescent lights. Today’s CFLs have come a long way. The flickering and buzzing are long gone. The bulbs come in shades that more closely approximate natural light.

If you are turned off by the CFLs new-fangled, coiled shape, there are products in which the coils are disguised under a dome producing the familiar curvature of an incandescent bulb. Your light bulbs can look normal!

There is now a CFL for almost any lighting need, although it may be necessary to go to a specialty vendor. You can get small, decorative CFLs for chandeliers and sconces, floodlights for track lighting or outdoors, or globe lamps to be used in your bathroom vanity. There are three-way lamps and dimmable CFCs now.

Discussions about how much energy can be saved if each Texan changes only one bulb skip often skip over the fact a single CFL is 75% more efficient than an incandescent bulb.

It seems that CFLs are being touted as part of the answer to all of our problems, but are there any downsides?

CFLs are more expensive, which will be a barrier for some people. But, because CFLs will save money in energy bills, they more than pay for themselves. At today’s energy costs, trading just one 60-watt incandescent bulb for an equally bright CFL saves more than $30 over the life of the bulb. Swapping a 100-watt incandescent bulb for a CFL saves more than $50.

Some are concerned because they’ve heard that CFLs contain small amounts of mercury. A CFL bulb generally contains about 5 mg of mercury, which is about one-fifth of that found in the average watch battery, and less than 1/100th of the mercury found in an amalgam dental filling. CFLs contribute less mercury pollution than incandescents, even though incandescent bulbs contain no mercury, because the biggest source of mercury contamination in the environment is the burning of fossil fuels. CFLs require less energy, thus the amount of fossil fuels used is reduced.

The mercury inside the bulb does not pose a risk unless it is broken, so the bulb must be disposed of as household hazardous waste (not in regular trash) or recycled. The EPA site referenced below has directions for cleaning up a broken bulb.

A few critics have dubbed CFLs ‘the 8,000-mile bulb’ because 90% are made in China. These critics suggest that any energy savings from using CFLs is negated by the energy required to ship the bulbs. Since China makes 70% of all the world’s light bulbs, most incandescent bulbs also come from there. USA made CFLs are available, for buyers who prefer to buy products that are made domestically, at esplighting.com.

The next generation of light bulb is on the horizon. Keep your ears peeled for the Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light (CCFL). Over its lifetime it contains 85% less mercury than a typical CFL (the bulb itself contains 50% less mercury and because it lasts longer, it will be replaced fewer times). With 25,000-hour lifetimes and retail prices of $15, these bulb lasts as long as LEDs yet are much less expensive.

If you haven’t converted, Texas Interfaith Power and Light has some bright ideas about how to make CFLs part of your holiday traditions for Advent and Hanukkah. Read if for the great collection of “Change A Light bulb” jokes.

Consider giving CFLs as gifts. After all, they do keep on giving in energy savings all year round!

For more:

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Where to Recycle CFLs
Texas Mayors Promote Fluorescents as ‘State Bulb’
Do Your Part to Take Care of Texas This Season
Texas State Symbols and Emblems