{"id":361,"date":"2007-10-17T18:22:46","date_gmt":"2007-10-17T18:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/compact-fluorescents-vs-incandescents-the-debate-still-goes-on\/"},"modified":"2017-09-05T17:54:55","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T21:54:55","slug":"compact-fluorescents-vs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.energyrefuge.com\/blog\/compact-fluorescents-vs\/","title":{"rendered":"Compact Fluorescents vs Incandescents: The debate still goes on"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read the following letter in the economist labeled “Bright Green<\/a>,” in which Theo Paradise-Hirst the head of lighting design for Max Fordham Consulting Engineers in London states that using CFL will just cause people to increase their heating bills.
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\nTheo, you may know lighting, but I think you should keep your focus there. I realize that London does not have much of a summer, but for the rest of us who use air conditioning during the summer, we use less electricity if we do not have those incandescents burning away. Also, I hope that your furnace is more efficient creating heat than a lightbulb is. And with forced air heat, the heat gets where you are. My lightbulbs are not at my feet keeping my toes warm, but at the ceiling. If lightbulbs were incredibly efficient at producing heat, then wouldn’t furnaces implement some similar kind of technology in their innards to heat the whole house?<\/p>\n

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I can assume that you favor incandescents for reasons other than their energy efficiency. Since it is an old, mastered technology, it is more easily manipulated. I have a bathroom with fancy bulbs in it and I know that CFLs would be hideous in there. Fancy small chandelier lights are also a type I can not see becoming fluorescent anytime soon.<\/p>\n

But for my lamps and overhead lights, CFLs work very well. I have replaced many incandescents over the years and I am finally getting ready to replace my first CFL which has been on for at least the last 4 years (and since it is in my daughter’s room, it has been left on many days and nights).<\/p>\n

Theo, The latest measurements of complete costs of the CFL against incandescents still have the CFL winning even after manufacturing costs and potential pollution costs are weighed in. I hope you look at that data as well. Remember there is mercury emitted when coal is burned to create electricity; so the less coal is burned, the less mercury is released into the air.<\/p>\n

I hope this helps bring you up to speed.<\/p>\n

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