lights

we've started to replace some of the light bulbs in our house with cfls (compact fluorescent lamps). if you don't know what i'm talking about, you either don't watch non-dvr'ed tv, listen to the radio, or you're dead. otherwise i know you've seen those commercials with the talking light bulb and the talking curly white thing.

i'm not going to explain the whole cfl thing, but i will post this sweet commoncraft video about new light bulbs. enjoy.


here's my take on this whole cfl business. if you're an environmental evangelist, your reasons for changing bulbs is clear. but even if you don't quite buy exactly what al gore is selling, you just can't get around the fact that the cfl is gonna last longer, meaning you'll buy less bulbs, change less bulbs, and pay less on your electric bill. that oughta make sense to pretty much anybody, regardless of your political persuasion.

i would be remiss to not point out that cfl's aren't ideal for every purpose. supposedly you get poor results if you can't leave them on for at least 15 minutes a pop. so closet lamps, or any room you don't stay in long may not be worth changing. also cfl's do have a warm-up time. we bought some ge 100-watt equivalent bulbs and they take about 1 second to turn on after you flip the switch. at first you get light about equivalent to a 40-watt bulb and over the next 60 seconds it gradually gets brighter to full illumination. so if you need instantly full illumination, you probably wanna skip the cfl. for almost anything else, go for it! you've really got nothing to lose.

one more thing to mention. don't forget that the cfl's contain a tiny tiny amount of mercury. if you break the bulb you've gotta be careful not to breathe it in. try to ventilate if possible. sweep up best you can, but don't vacuum and kick up more dust. wipe up with a wet cloth and put everything in two plastic bags and toss the works. of course if you don't break it, you need to recycle it. try earth911.org to find out how and where.