How green are energy saving bulbs ?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › How green are energy saving bulbs ?

wmoore

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#19774 1-Mar-2008 08:00

Not that green according to this

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sbiddle

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#113880 1-Mar-2008 08:29

Lets not forget all the mercury as well!

They aren't the magic solution that many people think they are.

They do save power over a regular filament lightbulb but there are a lot of downsides that go with that including their unsuitability for dimmers and in areas where they are turned on and off regularly and may suffer from a short life.

One thing that interesting however was the claim made by Ecobulbs

"If every home in New Zealand replaced the 5 most commonly used standard bulbs with 5 ecobulbs, the peak power saving would exceed the 430MW Clyde Dam hdro power station"

If this is infact true then why are the NZ government not funding a dozen CFL bulbs for every household in NZ so people can replace a large percentage of their lights? A dozen bulbs for 1.5 million homes in NZ would probably only cost them around $18 million + costs associated with the program which would be minimal. If $18 million could save hundreds of millions in new generation capacity then why aren't they doing it?

jberries

14 posts

Geek

#113886 1-Mar-2008 09:07

Yeah there was program on TV this week (can't remember the name) that said they do use let power, but disposing of them is a problem. So they are green by using less power, but not in regards to what to do with them when they are done The govt will probably have to step in and push the disposing cost back to the manufactures and of course ultimately the consumer.

cokemaster

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#113893 1-Mar-2008 09:36

I remember reading that in America who has high levels of coal power production, that pro-eco light people put forward that the mercury released by these bulbs is less than the mercury and associated pollution used to power regular lighting.

Interesting if true...

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hellonearthisman

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#113902 1-Mar-2008 10:52

If you have a good recycleing policy then dealing with the waste is not an issue.

I have them through my home, I went for philips as the light is a better colour.
It saves me money, that's a big motivator for me, it's green too, hey go earth!