PermaKent Permaculture Ideas of J. Kent Hastings

Jeffrey Yago, in an article at Backwoods Home, describes how inefficient incandescent bulbs are being phased out in some states by 2010, and federally by 2012. But there are problems with the most common replacement.

In past articles I have also described how the more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps being promoted to replace these incandescent light bulbs are all imported from China, and are burning out years earlier than their advertised eight-year life. In addition, compact fluorescent lamps contain a small amount of highly poisonous mercury, which is a hazardous waste and a banned landfill substance. So if incandescent light bulbs are being banned, and if the more-expensive compact-fluorescent lamps have manufacturing quality and disposal concerns, what type of lighting will be in our future?

C. Crane’s LED Light Bulbs page compares the economics of LEDs to traditional and compact fluorescent bulbs. [Update: LED breakthrough.]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 5:07 am and is filed under Carbon Dioxide, Energy, Pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.