Incandescent Bulb Phase Out? Most Americans in the Dark

Iria

The First Annual SYLVANIA Socket Survey, commissioned by lighting technology company, OSRAM SYLVANIA, a division of Siemens AG, highlights (pun intended) some bad, and mostly good information. While many Americans know many of the advantages of compact flourescent bulbs, 78% are unaware that standard incandescent bulbs will be phased out beginning in the year 2012.
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Source: Tech-Ex

Matth

So, America acts against incandescent bulbs, and woe betide you if you have a secret stash of bulbs of mass power usage.

Will they also give up the gas guzzlers?

Before the CFL is embraced as the energy saving angel, the drawbacks need to be addressed.
1. Heat sensitivity, and while appliance lamps will be exempt, there are also issues with enclosed lamp housings.
2. Slow starting, though some are better than others on that
3. Interference, with remote controls, or radio - the CFL is a high frequency device built to a painfully low budget.
4. sensitivity of individuals to flicker anbd quality of the light.
5. One piece CFLs are NOT GREEN, as a perfectly good electronics package is discarded when the tube fails. *

* My experience with 2 piece, however, is not good, beginning and ending with a Mazda with 3 Us, that I later found out (bad news for a radio ham) was notorious for interference (and it was BAD!).
It didn't last all that long, failing suddenly with a fritz that suggested the electonics had cooked - by that time the spares could no longer be found for the style with 3 Us, so I binned it and furiously croosed Mazda off my list.

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Mary had a little lamb,
Her father shot it dead
Now Mary takes her lamb to school,
Between two crusts of bread

Judas

While those points are all TRUE for cheap CFLs... they are completely ALL false for GOOD quality CFLs.

But you missed one single drawback, Mercury, even in thier minute amount.

Frankly i'd rather skip the CFL and go straight LED.


just a fyi:

I've a 250watt CFL (i beleive it's 65w draw) which is not covered, outside, that takes the wind, the rain, the snow, the heat, the direct sunlight. I've had it for quite some time.

in retrospect to your points:

1: Doesn't have heat sensitivity, the coiled tupes while warm to the touch reguardless of it being 45*C or -45*C (actually the colder temps keep the surface cold to the touch)
2: Slow starting doesn't excist with these EVEN in the winter, when it is -45*C out, there is instant light, ontop of that, while it's not maximum brightness under that kind of condition, it's still extremely bright, give it about 30 seconds and it'll be full power, otherwise in normal conditions, the light is full power instantly.
3: The amount of interference coming off this thing is less then that of a wireless phone, remote control, laptop, or my cloths dryer, In all honesty, we are being bombarded from space with more interferrance then the one i've got.
4: Yet again doesn't occur with this one, the quality brands have a constant sustained light, flicker free. Not to mention the quality cfls give you different Kelvins of light, which produce your own color of light that you would want, from blue to white to yellow to redish.
5: Not sure about the one vs two peice, i'm guessing this unit i've got are single peice..... and by green....? IF a 250watt is only drawing 65watt.... that's quite comparibly green.

So far the light has been working nearly a full 15 months fairly non stop.

The CFL is a Turolight Genesis

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