The new fad isn't the iPhone, or the Crocs. The new fad is Compact Fluorescent light bulbs! During this Instructable I will be replacing the word; Compact Fluorescent, with CFLs, to make it shorter, and less repetitive. As you might already know, CFLs use less energy than a regular Incandescent Light Bulb. Not only do they save energy, they also last much longer! What more could you ask for?
Though the price of the CFL is higher than an Incandescent bulb, the extra money spent is easily saved because of the longer output and energy saved. QuickFact: In the United States, a CFL can save over US$30 in electricity costs over the lamp's lifetime compared to an incandescent lamp and save 2000 times their own weight in Greenhouse Gases.
All Energy Star CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
In this Instructable, I will be making my house, into a house of Compact Fluorescents! That means that every light bulb in my house, will become a Compact Fluorescent! I will show the many stores to purchase CFLs, I will calculate the approximate money saved by using CFLs, and teach you a little bit about how CFLs help the environment!
Not only do we put new CFLs in, we also have to recycle our old Incandescent Bulbs. I will teach everyone how to do that as well!
(Photo by PiccoloNamek from Wikipedia.)
Though the price of the CFL is higher than an Incandescent bulb, the extra money spent is easily saved because of the longer output and energy saved. QuickFact: In the United States, a CFL can save over US$30 in electricity costs over the lamp's lifetime compared to an incandescent lamp and save 2000 times their own weight in Greenhouse Gases.
All Energy Star CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.
In this Instructable, I will be making my house, into a house of Compact Fluorescents! That means that every light bulb in my house, will become a Compact Fluorescent! I will show the many stores to purchase CFLs, I will calculate the approximate money saved by using CFLs, and teach you a little bit about how CFLs help the environment!
Not only do we put new CFLs in, we also have to recycle our old Incandescent Bulbs. I will teach everyone how to do that as well!
(Photo by PiccoloNamek from Wikipedia.)
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Signing UpStep 1: 7 Steps For Purchasing the Right CFL/Stores to Buy Them
What do you want to look for when you are buying CFLs?
1.Well first you have to decide where you will use them. A recommended fixture, is one that is left on 3 or more hours per day. You want to replace the bulbs that you use the most frequently first.
2.Make sure it will fit in your fixture. You wouldn't want to spend money on a CFL, and not have it fit into your fixture!
3.Check to make sure that the CFL is energy star compliant. What is Energy Star Compliant? It is a government that regulates programs and products that help save the environment and save consumers money by using less energy through advanced design or construction.
4.Circline or 2D styles are usually best for most table lamps. These also tend to be the brightest options.
5.Choose the Color Temperature, if listed, that's right for you; for example:
Approx. 2700K = Warm White (looks just like incandescent!)
Approx. 5000K = Cool White (White/Blue, often higher CRI)
6.Does your chosen fixture have a dimmer switch? If so, be sure your CFL choice is labeled to be Dimmable.
7.Avoid using CFL's with photocells unless the control is specifically labeled that is it compatible with CFLs. Timers are an easier option
Nowadays, any hardware store should carry CFLs. They are the new fad of course! The HomeDepot website has a very wide variety of them. Home Depot CFLs
1.Well first you have to decide where you will use them. A recommended fixture, is one that is left on 3 or more hours per day. You want to replace the bulbs that you use the most frequently first.
2.Make sure it will fit in your fixture. You wouldn't want to spend money on a CFL, and not have it fit into your fixture!
3.Check to make sure that the CFL is energy star compliant. What is Energy Star Compliant? It is a government that regulates programs and products that help save the environment and save consumers money by using less energy through advanced design or construction.
4.Circline or 2D styles are usually best for most table lamps. These also tend to be the brightest options.
5.Choose the Color Temperature, if listed, that's right for you; for example:
Approx. 2700K = Warm White (looks just like incandescent!)
Approx. 5000K = Cool White (White/Blue, often higher CRI)
6.Does your chosen fixture have a dimmer switch? If so, be sure your CFL choice is labeled to be Dimmable.
7.Avoid using CFL's with photocells unless the control is specifically labeled that is it compatible with CFLs. Timers are an easier option
Nowadays, any hardware store should carry CFLs. They are the new fad of course! The HomeDepot website has a very wide variety of them. Home Depot CFLs
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Prolonged exposure to the light and 'dirty electricity' emitted from CFLs has been linked with skin cancer as well as a host of other health problems. If they break, they release mercury - the most toxic of all metals which can cause permanent physiological and neurological damage if breathed, touched or ingested. Do your own research if any of this is unfamiliar. Businesses do not advertise this stuff.
Why do the businesses producing CFLs not inform us about these risks? Why are the procedures required in case of breakage not printed on the packaging? (eg opening all the windows and leaving the house for at least 15 minutes to avoid the vapour.)
My guess is: Money. We have been hoodwinked.
Get angry, get over it then do something about it. Incandescent and LED bulbs do not produce dirty electricity, although some LEDs may contain arsenic and lead.
Remove all CFLs and dispose in compliance with your local council regulations for hazardous waste.
A couple of links for the basics:
http://www.youtube.com/v/VS5ogZxoZ2Y
http://www.naturalnews.com/032020_eco-friendly_bulbs_toxic_chemicals.html
here's what can happen if they break it your presence....
A series of difficulties characteristic of mercury toxicity affecting the eyes
- bleeding from the retina of one or both eyes
- dim vision, expecially after exercise
- slow and poor accommodation to changes in vision distances
- Inability to fix one's gaze
- uncontrollable eye movements
- eyes drawn to one side
- imaginary geometric figures appearing in the visual field, which migrate in a few minutes from the periphery toward the center and slowly disappear
- "film" seeming to appear over the eyes
- dry eyes
- a gray ring forming permanently around the cornea (known as Arcus senilis)
One or more heart difficulties:- irregular hearbeat (palpitations), often together with anxiety
- stong pains in the left part of the chest come on
Problems in the upper respiratory tract:- asthmatic breathing troubles, such as a feeling of not being able to inhale
- A "cracking" sound in the lower part of the pleural sac, forcing one to cough
- red irritated throat
- inflammation in the upper airways and pleurisy appearing about a year after the dental treatment with amalgams
- difficulties in swallowing
Psychological troubles come on such as:- severe amnesia
- constant feelings of tension and strain
- anxiety
- irritability
- difficulty and even impossiblity to control behavior
- indecision
- loss of interest in life
- mental or emotion depression
Conditions of the brain, including:- tiredness nearly all the time
- a feeling of being "old"
- resistance to intellectual work
- reduced capacity for work, both for intellectual and physical tasks
- reduced powers of comprehension because information does not come through
- increased need for sleep
- headache about once a week. The headache often is migrainelike, especially induced by weather changes and by prolonged sleep in the mornings
Neurological complications can come on like:- vertigo (dizziness)
- facial paralysis, usually on the right side, that is partly permanent
- damage to balance and hearing
- a painful pull a the lower jaw toward the collar bone
Oral discomforts make their appearance such as:- increased salivation
- often-present sour metallic taste
- bleeding gums at toothbrushing
Numbers of other symptoms gradually showing up, including:- joint pains, especially increasing about a year after receiving the implantation of amalgam fillings
- pains in the lower back
- weakness of the muscles with a slowing down of muscular action
- feelings of pressure, pains, and paresthesis ("pins and needles") in the region of the liver
- gastrointestinal irritation
- paresthesis in the region of the lymph nodes under the arms and in the groin
- exzema or other skin eruptions
1 Sources: Stock, "Die Defaehrlichket des Quecksilberdampfes"; F. Gasser, "Quecksilberbelastung im Menschlichen Korper durch Amalgam," Med.-Biol. Arbeits und Forschungsgemeinsch (Baden-Baden, Germany: Dtsch. Zahnarzt., 1976): K. D. Jorgensen, "The Mechanism of Marginal Fracture of Amalgam fillings," Acta Odont. Scan. 23 (1965): 347.Mercury is no more contained onto fluorescent lamps since 1991.
So don't worry antmore and go on with CFLs. :-)
AMEN ! ! ! ! These things will kill as many people as obamacare ! ! ! ! !
plus there is most likey more Hg in drain traps in old hing school chemistry labs
P.S. old hat makers form the 1800s were the ones that mainly suffered and went crazy
p.s. i love flourscents, for one thing i will never use an incandencent for lighting my fish tanks
should say "can cause skin cancer"
matter a fact all uv radiation can cause skin cancer ( UVA, UVB, UVC )
"the lamps output an extremely high level of UVB light" they output much less then you think. halogen lamps also output UVA, UVA
"causing you to feel sick is the strobe effect of the light flashing on and off 60 times a second" only the old magnetic ballasts in the old long tube fixtures do that.
"they also cause ADD in kids" that's f**king insane
khs = killaherts=thuosands fo herts, so 100*100=100,000