Compact Flourescent Bulbs

Q: I keep hearing that various places are going to ban incandescent light bulbs. But I am aware of some problems with those compact fluorescent bulbs that seem to be all the rage right now…and they’re also quite expensive. Could you please sort through the confusion and hype about them and any other possible alternatives?


A: Incandescent bulbs are actually small heaters that produce a little light on the side, wasting a lot of energy and creating a lot of pollution. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, residential, commercial, industrial and municipal lighting uses 22 percent of all the electricity generated. In the U.S. alone, lighting accounts for about 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from electric generating plants. So we’re not surprised that many governments are talking about trying to switch consumers from incandescents to other carbon neutral technologies.

The primary alternative at the moment does seem to be compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs.) However, while they do save a significant amount of energy – they use approximately one quarter of the energy used by incandescent bulbs – they are far from the perfect alternative that some of the rhetoric might suggest. So we’ll examine both the pros and cons of CFLs, then take a look at some other alternatives.

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