Household lightbulbs going away

[Chris Jury]

As mentioned, only the least efficient incandescents are being phased out, not incandescents on the whole. More efficient incandescents are already available, and are cheap. Compact fluorescents cost more per bulb (althought I'm quite surprised by how much the price has come down over the last few years--it has dropped like a rock!), but they have a much longer lifetime (about 10x) and are so much more energy efficient, they are much cheaper in the long run in those situations where it makes sense to replace them.

Without getting too involved in a political discussion, I'll just point out that this is legeslation that was passed quite a while ago--it's not recent--and that no one would be happy if the only thing the government did was focus on creating jobs. We HAVE to work on more than one problem at once, or we're in a lot of trouble. For instance, if I were to start dumping my raw sewage on your lawn, instead of paying to be hooked up to the municipal system, you'd want the government to stop me now, not wait until the economy is rolling again. Phasing out seriously inefficient, old, polluting technology for more efficient, cleaner technology is the same concept

And, to be fair, getting rid of energy-wasting, money-wasting technology saves us all money. Injecting money into the economy helps recovery, and helps create jobs

cj

 

[AZJ0SH]

deleted, wrong thread

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Fwiw, I put a household CFL over my panther's cage just to give him more light since his regular burned out until I could get him a new one, and he almost immediately started squinting and keeping his eyes closed - all the symptoms we worry about with CFLs. As soon as I removed it he was back to normal the next day. Not planning on putting those over my cages again any time soon...

 

[Chris Jury]

Fwiw, I put a household CFL over my panther's cage just to give him more light since his regular burned out until I could get him a new one, and he almost immediately started squinting and keeping his eyes closed - all the symptoms we worry about with CFLs. As soon as I removed it he was back to normal the next day. Not planning on putting those over my cages again any time soon...

CFLs, especially those intended for household use or plant growth, are nothing but safe. People have been using them in many applications for decades. The idea that CFLs are somehow harmful to chameleons comes entirely from a problem with a single type of UV producing bulb several years ago that has since been corrected, and people not paying attention to what the problem was.

If CFLs are were inherently problematic, so would linear fluorescents be, whereas actual sunlight would be a friggin abomination. The light produced by CFL bulbs on the market today, by any possible measure, absolutely safe and for a huge number of purposes totally useful. The knee-jerk reaction I keep seeing on this forum that is anti-CFL comes is mythology born from people not paying attention.

cj

 

[AZJ0SH]

CFLs, especially those intended for household use or plant growth, are nothing but safe. People have been using them in many applications for decades. The idea that CFLs are somehow harmful to chameleons comes entirely from a problem with a single type of UV producing bulb several years ago that has since been corrected, and people not paying attention to what the problem was.

If CFLs are were inherently problematic, so would linear fluorescents be, whereas actual sunlight would be a friggin abomination. The light produced by CFL bulbs on the market today, by any possible measure, absolutely safe and for a huge number of purposes totally useful. The knee-jerk reaction I keep seeing on this forum that is anti-CFL comes is mythology born from people not paying attention.

cj

Actually, the people are paying attention. The environmental impact to dispose of CFL's will result in HIGHER greenhouse gas emissions.

I work in a hotel, and we recently made the switch to CFL's. All 800+ rooms were swapped out back in June. Since then we have had 4 fires in rooms, and multiple breakages. Sure it's saving money on energy, but what's the point when it's causing thousands of dollars in damages?

An International Association for Energy-Efficient Lighting (IAEEL) study conducted in Denmark, explored some carbon footprint factors, but not all, showing it took 1.8 Kwh of electricity to assemble a CFL compared to 0.11 Kwh to assemble an incandescent bulb. That means it took 16 times more energy to produce a CFL.The study did not include the fact that a CFL is much heavier and is more dangerous to handle, and will thus cost more to package, to ship, and to sell.

Plus, since they emit little heat, it will cause home heating costs to rise. Sure a single bulb in a room does not emit much heat, but when you take into account the millions upon millions of people using incandescent bulbs, it adds up.

People without electric furnaces will be forced to emit MORE pollution than before.

 

[Chris Jury]

Actually, the people are paying attention. The environmental impact to dispose of CFL's will result in HIGHER greenhouse gas emissions.

I call BS. Show us the numbers.

I work in a hotel, and we recently made the switch to CFL's. All 800+ rooms were swapped out back in June. Since then we have had 4 fires in rooms, and multiple breakages. Sure it's saving money on energy, but what's the point when it's causing thousands of dollars in damages?

How is breakage of a CFL bulb any more likely than breakage of an incandescent? How on Earth is fire MORE likely with a CFL than an incandescent? They electrical components are essentially identical, and the operating temperature is much cooler. Using CFLs over incandescents should make all of these problems smaller, if anything.

An International Association for Energy-Efficient Lighting (IAEEL) study conducted in Denmark, explored some carbon footprint factors, but not all, showing it took 1.8 Kwh of electricity to assemble a CFL compared to 0.11 Kwh to assemble an incandescent bulb. That means it took 16 times more energy to produce a CFL.The study did not include the fact that a CFL is much heavier and is more dangerous to handle, and will thus cost more to package, to ship, and to sell.

Show me strong evidence that the total energy usage to produce, transport, and use a CFL is higher than an incandescent, normalized to bulb lifetime, and I will be happy to look at the numbers. Barring that, I call BS.

Plus, since they emit little heat, it will cause home heating costs to rise. Sure a single bulb in a room does not emit much heat, but when you take into account the millions upon millions of people using incandescent bulbs, it adds up.

People without electric furnaces will be forced to emit MORE pollution than before.

Just as above, show me that this factor included in a robust analysis makes a significant difference to total energy consumption, otherwise I call BS.

However, all of the potential complaints you raise above apply to every single bulb that produces UV. If these issues are stoppers for you, and you cannot house your chameleons consistently outdoors in sunlight, then you cannot reasonably keep chameleons.

cj

p.s. And just to be clear, none of your complaints have anything whatsoever to do with the mythology surrounding CFL bulbs I keep seeing here, which is what I responded to originally. Improper phosphors in some bulbs that were on the market a few years ago caused serious UV damage to some animals. Those are no longer produced, and the issue had nothing whatsoever to do with the type of bulb (i.e., compact vs. linear fluorescent). Compact fluorescents are different from linear tubes in exactly the way their name suggests: they are merely fluorescents, compacted to a smaller size.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Fwiw, I put a household CFL over my panther's cage just to give him more light since his regular burned out until I could get him a new one, and he almost immediately started squinting and keeping his eyes closed - all the symptoms we worry about with CFLs. As soon as I removed it he was back to normal the next day. Not planning on putting those over my cages again any time soon...

I suspect this was an isolated incident, one strangely bright bulb, or a conicidence. Most regular CFLs are perfectly safe for chameleon cages for additional lighting / for plants

 

[gerhartrx]

I think that I am going to start a light bulb black market to keep the regular incandecent lights available. Once organized I will post. LOL.

 

[bigben2057]

All cfl are safe if hey are used correctly they cant be directly on the cage.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Chris - did you even read my post at all before responding to it? Never once did I refer to the problems associated with the old reptisun UVB bulbs, and personally I think it's a bit ridiculous that you dismiss any problems reported about them (and confirmed by the company) saying that people just dont pay attention. Regardless, I was talking about a household CFL causing a problem for me that was not caused by something I just "wasn't paying attention to". I use UVB CFLs on almost all of my cages (including the affected cham I was referring to) without any problems or speculation, why is why I figured a household CFL should be fine. They do make the bulbs differently since they are for completely sufferer purposes. To say they're all exactly the same means they would all emit the same frequencies and wavelengths. Obviously they dont or we wouldn't have to buy special UVB bulbs...

Pay better attention to what people are saying before you completely dismiss them next time. I don't know if just had a bad bulb or if they are just brighter than normal and so we may see more problems like this. Just wanted to bring it up as something I experienced. You never know something may be a potential problem unless people report it. Not saying anything bad about CFLs as a general category, just had a bad experience with one.

 

[sandrachameleon]

... they cant be directly on the cage.

why not?

I've had them resting directly on the wire of my cages before without troubles

 

[Brad]

Some states have passed laws that will allow them to continue producing and selling incandescent bulbs.

 

[gerhartrx]

Some states have passed laws that will allow them to continue producing and selling incandescent bulbs.

Is California one of them?

 

[Brad]

I seriously doubt it. I should add that the commerce clause would prevent the selling of incandescent bulbs across state lines.

 

[gerhartrx]

I seriously doubt it. I should add that the commerce clause would prevent the selling of incandescent bulbs across state lines.

I do too. I guess I will have to road trip for light bulbs if it comes down to it. I can't believe that I would have to do something like that. Brings me back to high school times when we had to go to Humboldt.