Forcing people to "live green"

[protege]

Then you can bring up the fact that florescent lights can negatively affect migraines.

Yep, they can. However, not all of them are created equally. I get migraines occasionally--they're made worse by the tube-style lights at work. Oddly enough, the "swirly" bulbs don't seem to bother me.

I too have switched over completely to the swirly bulbs...and have seen my electric bills literally drop about about 50% Of course, during the first year, that was offset a bit by the bulb's higher initial cost. But, I haven't had to replace a bulb in nearly 3 years. Compare that to a "normal" bulb...some of which are cheaply made and don't last as long as claimed, and the swirly ones are actually cheaper in the long run.

[powerboy]

I use the swirley bulbs in my room and bathroom. My mom wants to buy the regular bulbs.

[Fryk]

Wow, all these people who can see the damnable flicker... it's like I've come home!!! *sob*
MY TRUE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

I'll have to try the swirly bulbs. I'd be all for using them if I knew they would mess with my head.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Chalk me up on the 'can see flicker' but only ever with the tube style bulbs. Even then it doesn't really bother me all that much *shrug*

The wonderful thing about working in multimedia is that you can always just check the color bars (post) or white-balance (recording). So color temp is easy to cope with

[lupo pazzesco]

I have all swirly bulbs in my house, the daylight emulating ones and honestly, I've seen occurrences of migraines decreasing once they went in. Plus, like protege, I haven't had to replace them in quite some time. It's nice. I have saved money in the long run, as I haven't had to buy the yellowing light bulbs. It's the yellowish like that always gave me migraines.

[telecom_goddess]

I have all swirly bulbs in my house, the daylight emulating ones and honestly, I've seen occurrences of migraines decreasing once they went in. Plus, like protege, I haven't had to replace them in quite some time. It's nice. I have saved money in the long run, as I haven't had to buy the yellowing light bulbs. It's the yellowish like that always gave me migraines.

You are in the minority and lucky it seems

I actually do have a couple of the swirly ones in my house now to try them out and see how they work. But that was MY choice ...it still bugs me that I'm going to be forced into it.

[Skunkle]

Now, how hard-edged is this? Is this ban on all use, sale, manufacture, what? I collect vintage lighting fixtures, and vintage lava lamps. Many fixtures take special sizes/shapes, and cannot hold any other bulb; among lava lamps, I need seven different sizes and wattages of bulbs, and nothing else can work because the light source must be the heat source and vice-versa.

So will companies still be allowed to manufacture and sell any incandescents? Will some stay available for use in older fixtures that cannot take anything else?

[insertNameHere]

Now, how hard-edged is this? Is this ban on all use, sale, manufacture, what? I collect vintage lighting fixtures, and vintage lava lamps. Many fixtures take special sizes/shapes, and cannot hold any other bulb; among lava lamps, I need seven different sizes and wattages of bulbs, and nothing else can work because the light source must be the heat source and vice-versa.

So will companies still be allowed to manufacture and sell any incandescents? Will some stay available for use in older fixtures that cannot take anything else?

Sounds like your not familiar with what going on in America.
They aren't allowed to make the incandescent bulbs anymore, they can still sell what they have in stock. But it comes down to once the supply is used, obviously there will be no more.

I have a light that spins because of the heat generated by the bulb, which doesn't happen with swirly bulbs. I do like the swirly bulb I have in my desk lamp where I didn't like how hot it used to get and cause me to burn myself if I reached over to shut it off the wrong way. same for my one work lamp.

of course the problem is if they happen to break you have to be very careful cleaning up and aren't to use a vacuum because you can spread around mercury dust. They try to say it isn't that harmful if the bulb breaks, but it used to just be the need to worry about cuts form class, not contamination of mercury. I hear they are working on CFLs that don't have mercury in them which would be nice.

[wolfie]

Now, how hard-edged is this? Is this ban on all use, sale, manufacture, what? I collect vintage lighting fixtures, and vintage lava lamps. Many fixtures take special sizes/shapes, and cannot hold any other bulb; among lava lamps, I need seven different sizes and wattages of bulbs, and nothing else can work because the light source must be the heat source and vice-versa.

I guess everyone's going to have to toss their EasyBake ovens in the trash, since a 13 watt CFL won't cook stuff the way a 60 watt incandescent will. Also, what about cases where someone puts a lamp in the cupboard under the sink to keep the pipes from freezing, or a farmer putting a lamp with the young chicks? The problem with a "black and white" issue (like the ban on incandescent lamps) is that it doesn't take into account special cases (such as an incandescent bulb being a convenient source of heat, rather than just a source of light where the heat is wasted energy).

If the problem is people buying incandescents rather than CFLs because of the lower initial cost, why not put a tax on incandescents (reviewed on a routine basis so that as incandescent sales drop and CFL sales rise, the economies of scale changing the relative prices are taken into account) to bring their purchase price to (let's say 10%) higher than the purchase price of an equivalent CFL, and earmark the tax for use on "green" initiatives. People who just want a cheap light bulb will buy the CFL (since the untaxed CFL will be cheaper than the taxed incandescent), but people who need the "side effects" of the incandescent bulbs can still get them?

Before anyone jumps on me, I know that anything along the lines of "let's introduce a new tax" belongs on Fratching.

[radiocerk]

I can also see the flicker, but I have a bigger problem: UV. Having just been diagnosed with Lupus, I have to avoid the UV spectrums like the plague. I wear sunscreen at work becuse if I don't, I look sunburnt by the end of the day, and in fact am. They make ones specifically that don't give off UV, but they're stupid expensive. I'm doomed....

Actually, I'll probably just deal and get LED's as soon as I find them.

[wolfie]

I can also see the flicker, but I have a bigger problem: UV. Having just been diagnosed with Lupus, I have to avoid the UV spectrums like the plague. I wear sunscreen at work becuse if I don't, I look sunburnt by the end of the day, and in fact am. They make ones specifically that don't give off UV, but they're stupid expensive. I'm doomed....

Actually, I'll probably just deal and get LED's as soon as I find them.

Think again. There is no such thing as a "native" white LED - they are all blue (or shorter) wavelength LEDs with a phosphor coating applied to take the "native" wavelength and release it as longer wavelength (lower energy) photons. Some of the "native" wavelength always escapes. To date, virtually all white LEDs have a "native" blue LED, but what happens if at some date in the future, a factory in China finds that they can make white LEDs 0.00001% more cheaply by using a "native" ultraviolet LED? You'd have UV escaping.

Add your case to the issues I listed for applications where CFLs are NOT an acceptable substitute for incandescents - based on your post, I'm sure you'd be willing to pay the same (or slightly more) for an incandescent than for a CFL due to the incandescent not causing problems with your Lupus while the CFL does.

A couple tracks you might want to follow. First, I don't know what jurisdiction you're in, but if it's the United States you might want to contact the ADA (from another thread, possibly on CS, I found a link about service animals, with the toll-free number (800)514-0301) about how the ban on incandescents discriminates against your disability. Second, for technical reasons 40 watt incandescents will probably be around for a long time. Why? Because semiconductors (LEDs, and components in the ballasts of CFLs) don't like operating (or even being stored) at high temperatures for extended periods of time. For this reason, the life expectancy of an LED or a CFL in an oven light would be ridiculously short, so incandescent appliance bulbs should still be available (40 watts is standard for these).

[Fryk]

I guess everyone's going to have to toss their EasyBake ovens in the trash, since a 13 watt CFL won't cook stuff the way a 60 watt incandescent will. Also, what about cases where someone puts a lamp in the cupboard under the sink to keep the pipes from freezing, or a farmer putting a lamp with the young chicks? The problem with a "black and white" issue (like the ban on incandescent lamps) is that it doesn't take into account special cases (such as an incandescent bulb being a convenient source of heat, rather than just a source of light where the heat is wasted energy).
...but people who need the "side effects" of the incandescent bulbs can still get them?

Before anyone jumps on me, I know that anything along the lines of "let's introduce a new tax" belongs on Fratching.

I don't think the ban covers heat lamps.

[jackfaire]

*facepalm* So the company I do work for is regulated. They can only make so much money per year. The company is looking to be more environmentally friendly and thus is giving customers the option to contribute to a program.

Not forcing them. Not putting it on their bill and saying ha you have to pay for this but asking them if they want to.

This is not a program we could afford on our own without raising prices or asking people to contribute.

I just got a complaint from a customer who feels we should just turn around and fund this program completely on our own out of existing funds. We don't have extra funds.

We are not forcing you to live green we are giving you a choice and still we get complained about.

[wolfie]

I don't think the ban covers heat lamps.

This was in reference to my comment that everyone would have to toss their easy-bake ovens.

The EBO doesn't use a heat lamp (typically a 250 watt parabolic reflector bulb designed for maximum infrared) - it uses a standard 60 watt incandescent type "A" bulb (i.e. normal light bulb form factor). After all, most households are likely to have a couple spare 60 watt bulbs, one of which can be "borrowed" for the new toy on Christmas - a heat lamp would require a trip to the hardware store (which is, naturally, closed on Christmas).

[telecom_goddess]

Man I never even thought of things like easy bake ovens lol...but yeah there are uses besides "light" that can't be utilized with the non incandescant bulbs.

Why oh why can't they just let them be