Iria

Source: News.com
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The U.S. Senate is examining ideas for phasing out incandescent lightbulbs in favor of more energy-efficient types of lighting, a move that could help curb greenhouse gas emissions and electrical consumption.

Rayder

This is all well-and-fine, but they need to make a 3-way econo-bulb that actually fits in a 3-way lamp.

Judas

true that rayder...

canada has officially called it quits on tranditional lights

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Vikingod

Its about time. I've gone with the energy efficient bulbs in our house and cannot understand why anyone wouldn't. They are getting cheaper by the day, last forever, and use way less energy. In fact, my bet is they are cheaper than regular bulbs when you concider how long they last. Our electricy bill is down 20 bucks a month, and we have cheap electric, it would be easily 40 in the rest of the state.

EcPercy

I have one flourescent light I have been using since 2000. It runs every night and sometimes all day we well when we are home.

I am getting ready to replace all lights in this house with newer flourescent bulbs. I have various styles of bulbs though so it will be costly initially.

Tipstaff

I heard about that. A straight out ban on traditional bulbs by 2012, right? If this is the route they are taking then they need to start educating people on the energy efficient bulbs a little more than they have been.

Quite a lot of people don't realize that you can't just replace standard incandescent bulbs for energy efficient CFL (compact florescent) ones. They don't work in every lighting system. For instance, in lighting systems that have a traditional dimmer, if you use a CFL bulb in it you will hear a constant loud hum unless you turn the system all the way up for a few minutes to full charge, and then turn it down (you can use them in dimmer systems that are made specifically for florescent, but they are expensive). Or in the case of touch activated lamps (where you touch the base to turn them on) you absolutely cannot use these new bulbs in them because of the way they pass electricity through the system and the bulb.

Actually.. that's not entirely true. You could use the energy efficient bulbs in a touch sensitive lamp... that is.. if you wanted a strobe light.

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mkk

It's a shame how slow the sensible alternatives have been adapted. But rather than a ban a huge tax could be adapted on any type of lighting below a certain level of efficiency, regardless of the technology used. Tax funds that could then be put on energy efficiency research and education. It could be implemented much sooner than a ban too.

Iria

Not just that. All CFL bulbs have traces of mercury in them ... in fact, in Calif. there is a law that says you can't just toss them ... which is correct, cuz you don't want it in the landfills. But ... they don't have a collection method in California, and the law has no teeth. I'll bet most people don't know they shouldn't just throw them in the trash ... and some sanitation workers are concerned about possible issues with breathing in fumes from broken bulbs.

Tipstaff

Yeah. There's about 5 milligrams of mercury in each bulb. At one point there was a big concern about how to properly dispose of them, and some companies, such as Home Depot, has setup recycling programs. 'Course, this is another thing that they need to clarify with the public. According to the Canadian Government you are supposed to contact your local municipalities for information on how to properly dispose of them, however it's should be the same as if you were disposing regular florescent bulbs, or any other sort of chemical products such as paints, cleaners, and batteries. In my case I have to call the city to have them pick it up, or I have to take it to the nearest garbage depot.

The problem is that if the city, hell, if Canada is pushing to switch to these bulbs then they need to come up with a better plan for recycling them, because people will just throw these bulbs out in the regular trash to avoid the hassle. At the moment I think there is talk about doing some sort of recycling project for batteries, so I don't see why they couldn't just add light bulbs to that program... if the do a program that is.

Edit: took a bit of oogling, but HERE is the page on the Canadian Governments site.

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