Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Battle of the Bulb

The war has just begun and the church of climatology has won a few of the battles so far, and will no doubt win several more. They use propaganda to convince the public how dire their cause is. Distorting and exaggerating the truth is the norm as is pushing for change that they claim will save our planet. Yet it seems that many of their cures are worse than the problem once you take a good look at them. The banning of the incandescent electric light bulb in favor of the compact fluorescent bulb, as it turns out, might yet be another one of those not so well thought out plans. Unless of course you have invested in the Chinese market that manufacturers most of the CF bulbs and don't mind the fact that China is doing nothing to help the cause of fighting the evil climate change.

I will admit that I personally had changed over to CFL's a couple years ago to try to lower my electric bill, and it did seem to work. Or did it? The one thing I forgot to account for was the fact that I went from being a two person household to a single person household at about the same time I switched over. My daughter moved out on her own so no more lights left on for no apparent reason, no more stereo's etc. operating 24/7. I have yet to replace a single one of them due to them breaking or burning out. As a result I have not added to the mercury problem that this change might cause. I will also note that Edmonton, being one of the leaders in this country in recycling, does have a program that excepts fluorescent bulbs at either of the two ECO Stations which helps, as long as people are not too lazy, as is often the case, to use them.

2 comments:

Candace said...

Now I feel like a goof for going out & buying those! And my brand-new floorlamp can't use them, as they state on the package that they are NOT for use with dimmer switches (which, of course, the floor lamp HAS).

Didn't know about the mercury. Thanks for the heads up.

*sigh*

Tim said...

Don't be so hard on yourself Candace. As long as you don't mind the light that they give off, which did take a bit of getting use to for me anyways and you dispose of them properly and not just toss them in the garbage when the time comes you should be fine. I'm fairly sure you will see a minor reduction in your electrical bills. I had to switch out four wall mounted dimmer switches after I made that same discovery as you with your new floor lamp. I have been told that there are CFL bulbs that are now compatible with dimmers but I have yet to see them.