A CFL is a sophisticated electronic appliance that turns electricity into light rather than heat. In fact it is designed to work for a lot longer than other small appliances such as toasters and hairdryers. On the other hand, incandescent globes are fairly disposable items based on century old technology which turn electricity mainly into heat. That’s why they are so hot to touch. The light they produce is a by-product.
Replacing incandescents with good quality CFLs is one of the best money saving investments you will ever make. Let’s take a typical example of a house hold with 10 incandescent globes, each using 100W, burning for five and a half hours each day and paying 15c for every kilowatt hour of electricity. By replacing them with 10 equivalent CFLs (20W), you have invested around $60. Over the next three years they will save you $720 in electricity costs. That’s like getting 130% pa interest on a $60 purchase guaranteed for 3 years! If only all of our investments could be that profitable!
Even more important is the investment you’ll be making in a sustainable future for you and your family. In the above example, by burning less coal to produce electricity, 4.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide is saved from entering our atmosphere. This is equivalent to the emissions of driving a family sized car for 20,000 kms.
While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is fair to say that until recently the design of CFLs was very different from traditional bulbs and centred on a long 3” tube ‘stick’ style, which was large and unattractive to many.
While these are still on the market, there are many new designs from innovative lighting companies such as Philips that are much more aesthetically appealing and, in many cases, are more compact. Some styles are indistinguishable from incandescents.
Have a look online at http://www.philips.com.au/about/news/lighting_globe_range.page or go to your local retailer to check out the variety. In the meantime, here are few examples to brighten your day.
This used to be true, but a range of dimmable CFL options is available amongst the leading brands. These will work on most dimmers circuits and are available in different colours and in bayonet and screw fittings. They are dimmable down to a level as low as 10% and still have all the cost saving, long life and environmental benefits.
Philips Dimmable Tornado
This is probably a case of “you get what you pay for”. The high quality brands will usually last the stated average life of 6,000 hrs. It is often the cheaper no-name brands that are less reliable as they use muchlower quality components.
Another factor that can affect CFL lifespan is ‘fast cycling’. This occurs with repeated turning on and off at short time intervals and it is possible that the life of the bulb is reduced.
The proposed Australian Government standards will require over 1,000 switching cycles per 6,000 hours of lifespan. That’s like the turning a CFL on and off every six hours over their life.
The Philips CFL range exceed this and have 5,000 switching cycles per 6,000 hours of lifespan. That’s like turning a CFL on & off every 70 minutes, a very unlikely occurrence.
So next time you buy, get one of the quality brands, they will last the stated time and save you money and frustration in the long term.
This is only partly true and is caused by many people being unaware that CFLs come in variety of colours and therefore picked the wrong ones for the task. This is understandable as incandescent bulbs only come in one colour, which is between 2700 - 3000 Kelvin.
The Kelvin temperature of a bulb refers to the colour of the light it emits, and is a comparison to natural outdoor light. For example, sunlight in the middle of a clear day is about 6500 degrees Kelvin.
In the table below we show the most common types of lighting, both natural and man made. In general warm-white creates a cosy, inviting ambience; while cool-white or daylight creates a stimulating ambience suitable for work or active pursuits.
In regards to overall light quality, in a 2007 consumer test of seven brands of CFL by Popular Mechanics magazine they found that all of the CFLs produced a better quality of light than the incandescent lighting tested. www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html?page=2
In short, pick the right colour CFL for the job by looking at the packet for the Kelvin number or light description, buy a quality brand and you will be happy.
This is becoming one of the great urban myths and is WRONG. In fact to have a chance of making this myth possible you would have to break a globe daily in every room of your house. This would be a very expensive way of poisoning yourself !
CFLs do contain tiny amounts of mercury, up to 5 mg (5 one-thousandths of a gram) or about the same amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. This mercury is sealed inside the bulb and is essential for it to work.
To give you a comparison ordinary fluorescent tubes in current use contain approximately 15 mg of mercury per tube. These have been used safely in offices, shops, schools and other buildings around the world for over 50 years.
High quality bulbs tend to contain lower levels of mercury than some of the cheaper less reliable brands.
Bulbs do on occasions break but it is important that you understand that the risk is very, very low. We know of some press articles that have blown the issue of mercury out of all proportions simply because they failed to think the issue through.
Obviously you will be cleaning up a broken globe once in a blue moon. As an example, from the personal experience of the author he has broken two globes over almost 20 years of CFL use in his home. This is more than partly due to the more robust nature of CFLs as he has certainly dropped them quite a few times.
If you follow the procedure below any exposure in reality will be very low and well within standards set by our National Occupational Health and Safety Commission for workplace exposure i.e. as if you are working with mercury and exposed 8 hours per day as part of your job.
.. and remember CFL lighting has been used safely around the world for 25 years.
It is so important that we all care for our environment. By switching to CFLs you will actually prevent much more toxic mercury from being released into the air from coal fired power plants than is contained in the bulbs themselves.
The chart below, from the US EPA, shows that even if the CFL is put into landfill at the end of its life there will be 70% less mercury entering the environment when compared to emissions related to usage of a comparable incandescent.
Source - USA EPA & US Dept of Energy www.energystar.gov/cfls
Ideally, it would be best to prevent CFLs from going to landfill by recycling them. Some recycling facilities already exist and industry and the government are working on a broader recycling scheme.
To find out if you have a local CFL recycling facility call the National Recycling Hotline on 1300 733 712 or go to www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/lamp-mercury.html or visit http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/.
Philips estimates that lighting represents around 15% of greenhouse gas emissions released from the use of energy in Australia. Recognising the potential to decrease these harmful emissions, the Australian Government made a decision in February 2007 to regulate the use of inefficient lighting solutions.
From February 2009, bulbs suppliers are no longer able to import certain types of light globes including the familiar or traditional ‘tear shaped’ incandescent bulb. These bulbs are the least efficient type of lighting as they waste around 90% of the energy they consume as heat, not light. They will be phased-out first with other types of light bulbs to follow.
Energy efficient alternatives such as compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLi) are available today in a range of hues and shapes to easily replace the bulbs in your home today. Using less energy means lower electricity bills and reduced greenhouse gas emissions - it’s a win-win for the individual and the environment.
Check out Philips complete range of compact fluorescent light globes for your lighting needs
Click here to find out the cost savings from one Philips 11W Energy Saver globe over 3 years
CFLi bulbs have traditionally had a higher upfront cost than ‘traditional’ incandescent bulbs because they are more expensive to make (these bulbs have integrated ballasts). However, the price of a CFLi has decreased over the last several years and as CFLis save you money on your energy bill the initial cost is recovered very quickly.
There are different types of CFLis available to suit most applications throughout your home. There is no need to change the wiring in your home to suit these light bulbs.
Philips CFLis come in the traditional covered form as well as spiral and stick shape. In addition, energy saving CFLis are now available in the popular candle shaped product.
In special situations such as oven lights, bathroom heat bulbs and healthcare solutions consumers will still be able to purchase incandescent bulbs.
CFLi bulbs have evolved to the point where good quality bulbs now are usually very similar in functionality to incandescent bulbs. They last longer and they will continue to get smaller, better, more efficient, and less expensive. Energy saving bulbs from reputable manufacturers render a light quality which approaches very closely that of incandescent bulbs.
CFLis can also be purchased in either a ‘cool white’ or a ‘warm white’ colour. Warm white would be more suitable for general use around the home including reading, while cool white would be better suited to task work such as cooking.
The ranges below provides a guide of the nearest wattage equivalences (that produce similar light output) for regular incandescent and CFLi bulbs.
25 watt incandescent bulb similar to 5-7W CFLiA CFLi’s life is affected by switching. The current standards for ‘Energy Recommended’ accreditation requires over 3,000 switching cycles per 8,000 hours of tested life. For special applications such as hallways in flats and lights in corridors activated by motion sensors, some manufacturers produce ‘heavy duty’ CFLis with up to 500,000 switching cycles capability and 15,000 hours life.
There are new CFLi globes available today that can operate and dim on ordinary domestic dimmer switches. Philips Dimmable Tornado are now available in major stores.
lectromagnetic fields are an everyday fact of life for people in industrialised countries. There is more and more talk now of “electro-smog”. Electromagnetic fields (EMF) occur wherever electricity is involved.
Bulbs and energy-saving bulbs both create EMF. All lighting systems sold by the member companies of the ELC, however, are well within the national and international limit values. EMF depends not only on the control gear and the bulb but also on the design of the luminaire.
Specialists and institutions such as the WHO are responsible for defining the limit values. The limit values are confirmed by the WHO and the International Radiation Protection Agency (IRPA) and incorporated in EU legislation.
CFLis give a constant, flicker free, non-stroboscopic light. They operate at high frequency through their electronic controller at between 30,000-50,000 hertz (normal mains voltage cycles at just 50 hertz or cycles per second).
A small number of cases have been reported by people who suffer from reactions to certain types of linear fluorescent bulbs. In the majority of these cases, the bulbs in question were used in offices, restaurants (in certain European countries) and in limited places in domestic households (such as kitchens and garages) and were almost certainly triggered by OLD technology which operated on a conventional (Copper-Iron) ballasts with a low frequency (< 50Hz mains frequency ); this is not the case with new energy efficient linear fluorescent bulb technology which unlike earlier energy efficiency technologies, operates on high frequency drivers (for example, certain fluorescent bulbs operate on 50kHz or 50,000Hz).
The above health related problems can be therefore be avoided if consumers opt for new technologies such as integrated energy savers (CFLi) in households and other sources using high frequency drivers (e.g. linear fluorescents and HID) in other applications (such as offices, restaurants etc).
Are CFLis safe to use for people with light sensitivity conditions or Lupus?People affected from light sensitivity or lupus sufferers (a chronic autoimmune disease – of which sensitivity to ultraviolet light is a key symptom) could be affected by either the intensity of the light (i.e. the lumens of the bulb), the spectral property of the light (particularly when the light contains more blue) or when a bulb radiates a small amount of ultra-violet (UV) light.
There is a small amount of UV generated by fluorescent lights (such as CFLis). But this is fractional if you compare this to natural daylight. For the many energy savings bulbs (such as CFLis) that do generate higher quantities of UV and blue light, filters are now used to reduce radiation.
General tips for people who are sensitive to light
Compact fluorescent bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, an essential component in the operation of the bulb. Most CFLs contain between 3-5mg of mercury, by comparison a typical thermometer has between 500 and 3,000mg of mercury.
When sealed within the bulb the mercury is harmless, however as with any harmful substance care should be taken when the bulb is broken.
What do I do with a CFLi when it burns out? What is the proper disposal procedure?CFLi bulbs are safe to use in your house. No mercury is released when the bulbs are in use and they pose no danger to you or your family when used properly. However, CFLis are made of glass tubing and can break if dropped or roughly handled. Care should be taken when removing the bulb from its packaging, installing it, or replacing it. Always screw and unscrew the bulb by its base, and never forcefully twist the CFLi into a light socket by its tubes.
If you break a CFLi (Compact fluorescent bulb, energy saver), please take the following steps:
