Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 22, 2011

Like you, they don’t get bright right away. They’re screwy to me.

where’s the like button?

NABUQUDURIUZHUR……must be nice to have a pure sine wave back-up system. I notice that on my APC back-up system, which is the standard modified sine wave output, the THD (total harmonic distortation) is 46%. OUCH!

to say nothing of the problems they cause in landfill because of the heavy metals which should be recycled properly and who’s going to do that with every lightbulb?????

I started buying CFL bulbs years ago when they were still expensive. That meant that it was the first time I took light bulbs with me when I moved. Most of my CFL bulbs are eight or more years old and still going strong.

Biggest problem with CFLs is you can’t just through them away because of the mercury, very harmful stuff.

As I see it, it’s just not logical to use something harmful to the environment for the envieonmental cause.

Is that a “Catch-22”?

\\//_

Fluorescent lights hurt my eyes. I will miss old bulbs, specially at christmas time. LED are not good substitues for older christmas lights. Older bulbs melt the snow off them, in course one less dangerous thing you need to do in the winter.

The CFLs I use don’t seem to get to full brightness right away. I must be using the cheap knockoffs from GE and Sylvania. I wonder who makes the good ones.

Waste of money every way you look at it.

I am an engineer. In the factory, in Georgia, where I worked 10 years ago I was (unwillingly) made the plant environmentalist. I was responsible for solid waste. The government considered fluorescent light bulbs to be hazardous waste and I had to buy special containers to hold them and I had to send them at great expense to hazardous waste landfills. (To save any complaints, yes, technically the government called them “universal” waste.) I quit after a few months and the factory is now long closed along with most of its neighbor factories. If the government thinks that mercury is hazardous waste, why would they mandate that homes have to use CFLs? A poor stupid woman in Georgia a few years ago broke a CFL in her child’s bedroom. Knowing about the mercury she called the local government to ask what to do. They sent a haz-mat team to clean it up and it cost her thousands of dollars. One lightbulb.

Some of my CFLs are 18 years old, and still going strong.

It’s not a good idea; it’s the law.

Where in the Constitution does it allow the government to abolish entire industries?

Those special lights suppose to save money in long run, some fixtures using lights can not use them. We have ceiling fans that uses regular light bulbs. And once it does burn out where does one put them if and when burn out happens?

pschearer, check the 13th Ammendment.

Expensive, crummy light, actually bad for the environment because of waste disposal. An inferior product, so they eliminate choice by outlawing the competing technology.

FAIL

I must say I’m really disappointed with this week’s series of Stone Soup. Every one is misleading and ill-informed. Everyone already knows incandecent bulbs are much safer for the environment than flourescent bulbs…might want to reconsider HOW to love your “Mother”. Maybe you can appeal to your audience by offering real ways to help the environment…just sayin’.

Not only do incandescents NOT contain the heavy metals that CFL’s do, but the manufacturing process is much more environmentally friendly too.

I don’t usually get into comments when we get off the comics track, but can’t resist this time!

I bought one CFL to try out. It would not fit in my old fixtures. What do we do with old fixtures - throw them in the landfill? And if we can’t afford to buy new fixtures? (On a smaller scale it’s like the gent who wrote in the other day about his environmentally unsound vehicle which he can’t afford to replace.)

Makers of incandescents are now improving them (due to scare of CFLs?). I heard, perhaps a rumor, that there are plans to revise the law to allow their continued use.

This reminds me of the result of pushing use of corn for fuel….lots of consequences we will have to deal with because legislators would rather have a quick fix than do long-range planning .

And even ignoring the mercury problem (which is hard to ignore!), CFLs INCREASE carbon emissions in some jurisdictions, such as Ontario. The majority of our electricity comes from nuclear and hydro-electric generators, which means electric heat is cleanest (best for the environment), although most expensive. If your light bulbs give off less heat, your gas or oil furnace has to run more, emitting more air pollution and carbon. No-one can even PRETEND banning incandescent light bulbs makes ANY environmental sense in Canada, or any other jurisdiction where the heating season lasts more than half the year.

I don’t believe the Canadian constitution gives the government the right to ban any product without justification, so I’m hoping someone will take this to court. Of course, since our judges are appointed by the government, that won’t necessarily work, but it’s worth a try!

BTW, there’s a reason CFLs are made in China: They have no environmental or workplace safety standards, and their government considers workers disposable, so they can make them very cheaply. Every time you buy a CFL, you’re condemning a Chinese slave (er, “worker”) to a slow, horrible death from mercury poisoning. Bet that makes you feel good about yourself, eh Jan??

in response to the accusations against me from yesterday:

@mrssaskfan- I am not despising and trashing the creation that God gave us. I respect the earth and believe it is our duty to take care of what God has given us. But worshipping the earth and acting as though everything we do is harming it is not what God intended. He wants us to responsibly enjoy our resources, and I do what I can to do so.

@runar- I got the name from the Chronicles of Narnia movie The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, a compelling allegory about the sacrificial death and ressurection of Jesus Christ. Which is also where the picture is from. Look it up.

Earth has been around long enough and seen more disastrous events than man will cause. We should be more concerned with an Of the People, By the people and for the People week event or month. Besides, the curly bulb is more of an environmental problem than the incandescent bulb. Do you like being told what light bulb you can use?

Burgundy2: Yes, dear, we ARE losers: we’re losing russnpat7 and Duffer37. And that’s a GREAT thing! And good riddance. But if we don’t read a strip, we won’t know whether we like it or not. If I don’t like one, I’ll leave; but I tend to leave fairly quietly.

I’m not leaving THIS strip, though. Not until I find out how Jan is watching my family and using her findings as the basis for parts of her strip. ^_^

My curly-cue bulb burned out rather quickly, I thought. So I took it to the local fire department and asked how to dispose of it. They said to throw it in the trash.

Reflex, shall I bring the 12 different CFL bulbs I’ve bought in the last 2 years which are burned out (of course that’s sort a misnomer)? One thing I’ve found is that some of the bulbs say to use them base down. That does seem to extend the life of the bulbs I use, but I can’t afford to go out and replace all of the fixtures (incuding ceiling fan lights) which have no provision for using CFLs base down. I still use them in as many places as I can, since they do use less electricity, and because in many of the hard to reach fixtures in my old house, they do last longer than incandescants, but I have yet to find one which lasted beyond 3 years at this point. Given time, with all of the CFLs I use, that will probably change.

Wow, I wish I had gotten here sooner! Our regular good old light bulbs are going to be outlawed one by one starting next year, I plan on buying up as many as I can. And the CFL’s at Christmas? I bought some for my window lights, they were gawd awful UGLY lighting, took them back and went without that year. Found a good old time set, and use them now. The CFL lights are just too bright, and I hate them!

I just plain dont like the light that comes out of the curly lights. It’s harsh and creates an unattractive atmosphere.

Ah shucks, ReFlex-76, I didn’t know you cared.

Son, the glaciers have advanced and receded, and the oceans have risen and fallen, long before man came on the scene. They will do so while man is on the scene, and long after man as left the scene.

And there ain’t nothing, NOTHING, you or anyone else can do about it.

So, relax a little - chill out some and try to enjoy what little life you are granted on this big blue marble, and let me and others do the same.

Fluorescent light bulbs are hardly earth-friendly. They are hazardous waste and these kinds of bulbs have been banned in Europe.

Shucks, folks, I just thought it was a cute cartoon.

Some fluorescent lights give me headaches. I don’t think it’s fair for the govt. to make us use them. The weird way they flicker can be an issue, too.

Destiny23

Agreed the ban is wrong, particularly for Canada

For details on Canada, also re 2 year ban delay to 2014:

http://ceolas.net/#li11x Smaller savings, no energy shortage, low emissions, cold conditions, more time indoors in varied surroundings etc

Various Canadian studies as also quoted in http://ceolas.net/#li6x show that CO2 emissions rise rather than fall from a ban, from heat replacement and other ban effects