Energy Saving Bulbs

[Roareye Black]

Interesting news I heard yesterday. Any of you buy lightbulbs for your home? Maybe you've heard your parents complaining that it's becoming more and more impossible to buy standard lightbulbs? Well it appears that due to EU legislation (That the UK is dumbly following) the trusty Tungsten lightbulb will be unavailable in UK shores by 2012. I'm not kidding, by 2012 you'll be forced to buy energy saver bulbs.

Now this may seem like a somewhat silly issue, but it's really not. I hate energy saving bulbs, and they're very very dangerous. The government can wrap them up in as much "we save you money, love me" bollocks as they like, but the enforcement of energy saving bulbs is just another sign of he government scrambling for a quick fix rather than a long term positive solution.

So what's wrong with energy saving bulbs?

- The light they produce is equivalent to that of a standard bulb, however the majority of the light they produce is in a light band the human eye is unable to clearly detect. This is why tungsten bulbs are still "brighter" than energy savers if both are designed to give 60w of light power. A tungsten bulb will give you the clear visible sight you're used to, whereas an energy saver will give you a dimmer and cloudy lightsource. This isn't so important for sitting around and having a beer, but if you enjoy reading a good book then I'm afraid luck is against you as long term reading under energy saving bulbs is likely to cause you eye strain. It certainly hurts my eyes doing so as there's not enough concentrated light to give focus. This also doubles up for manual labour, my dad works as a panter and decorator and he has to bring his own lightbulbs to people's houses because you can't accurately put up wallpaper and other things under such a dim amount of light.

-The bases of these bulbs are chunky and ridiculously wide. While this may seem a silly point, it's really not. If you own a certain light fitting (You may have just redecorated an entire room) then your light fittings will now begin to become completely defunct. Alot of light fittings, especially more expensive lights, are specifically designed around traditional bulbs, giving just enough room at the base and just enough height at the top to accomodate them. Energy saving bulbs are taller, wider and more cumbersome, meaning all those pretty lights you may have spent several hundred pounds on are now all useless. Thank the government that you will have to buy all new lights again.

- Energy Saving bulbs are long term destroyers of the planet. In the short term you save about 50watts of energy (Using a 60w bulb as a guideline) which sounds incredible. What they don't tell you is the inclusion of mercury powder inside the bulb. When you break a tungsten bulb it is full of tungsten which isn't brilliant for you but is harmless. Mercury is not harmless, in fact we found a vial of pure liquid mercury in my Grandad's tool shed just after he passed away and when we tried to sell it we were informed it is now classified as toxic material in the exact same catagory as Radioactive Waste! The government's own legislation has marked this material as a major threat. Furthermore, mercury cannot be put into the earth as it doesn't decompose and it poisons living plantlife around it. So in the future you'll be seeing alot of energy saving bulbs which don't work, and nowhere to put them without doing even more significant and major damage to the environment. If you bought them to "help save the planet" then you're just helping kill it faster.

- Energy Saving bulbs cause cancer. This was proven in tests, but then also proven that it would take roughly 2000 years of exposure to an energy saving bulb to get cancer from it. Now while I would love to take that as an a-ok, I can't but call bullshit. Why? Well doctors don't even know what starts cancer in the bloody first place! If you don't smoke, have a clean family history, live a healthy lifestyle and eat all the right things you can stll get lung cancer. On the same ticket you can eat like shit, smoke like a chimney and have a family history of lung cancer and never get it (Though it is a heightened chance). If they can't even say how cancer starts, can't say how long it is before it kills you when you have it, and find it difficult to treat, why introduce a cancer-producing element into the home? Think about this, the amount of shit the government pours in about how using your mobile phone will give you brain cancer and you only ever use that for about five to ten minutes at a time. Energy Saving Bulbs you'll be exposed to for roughly five to eight hours of an evening constantly. If they hink a phone can cause cancer from intermittant use, an energy saving bulb giving constant exposure must be much worse.

I don't like them, and I'm going to start importing my light bulbs to get around them. I'd like to READ, I'd like to see what I'm doing and I'd like to do it all before dying of cancer, if it doesn't kill the planet first.

Energy Saving bulbs, the great Government lie I sell the lights and the bulbs by the way, and this has pissed me off.

Roareye Black.

[Mollfie]

Some interesting points. We have energy lightbulbs in all the rooms of our house because our landlord put them in, I personally don't like them very much because the rooms seem darker.

I wouldn't worry too much about cancer, as you've already said it can happen to even the healthiest person. Cancer is just cells going wrong, it happens to people and it happens to animals. It's awful, but it's nature.

[Hawkz]

Wow, starting to regret what I did hardcore.

Ok, so, I live by myself at the moment with my girlfriend coming over every so often. Last year, some people from the government rocked up and offered to replace every one of my light bulbs for free, with energy saver bulbs...

My whole house is filled with these fuckers!

The scary thing is I can understand about the whole blindness thing. These things cause a ridiculous amount of eye squint, and when you turn them off, they don't dim, they kinda... cool off with a fluro green color (The color of the plutonium rod from The Simpsons to be more precise). And yeah, they don't really create brightness.... It's hard to explain. More like a weakass version of sunlight is what they produce, which is fucking sketchy compared to the original kick ass globes I had before.

But the offer was so good. Free light bulbs. What could happen, I asked. Well shit, by the sounds of things, life just got drilled hard!

[Mollfie]

Something I've found with energy savers is that I actually turn on MORE lights because they're dim. Surely that defeats the purpose slightly? At my parents we have a light in the centre of the room that has four bulbs in it, then I also have three lamps on. So that's 7 bulbs.

Edited March 16, 2009 by Mollfie

[-Mark-]

I hate energy-savers. They're so dull and crap. And my Dad has filled my house with them because he's a stingy beggar. D=

[Mollfie]

I'd still rather have them though, you save money with them and as a poor student that's always a good thing lol. My parents have them because...I have no idea.

[-Mark-]

Also I only have a single light in my room, so I can't turn on any more or whatever when it's dull.

Thankfully my TV is big and bright, so if I have the light and the TV on, the TV makes up the extra light that the bulb doesn't give. Well... mostly. D=

[Mollfie]

^ buy a lamp XD

[-Mark-]

The my Dad's just complain about wasting energy. D=

It sucks, downstairs in the living room and dining rooms, we have dimmer switches (they were there when we moved in). They suck because every time my Dad pokes his head in the room he'll turn it down to an insane degree and say "Did you really need it that high?" then moan if we try and object. So at night, said rooms are stupidly dull. D=

My mum's regretting disagreeing with him, now. A few years back he wanted to replace them with regular on-off switches and she wanted to keep the dimmers. X3;

[Mollfie]

^ bitch at him that he's going to make everyone go blind. Cos he will.

[DMNBT]

Around here, it is forbidden to use those bulbs in places where small children, old people and/or sick people are taken care of, due to the increased risk of mercury poisoning if one of them breaks. Also, they cost more than a normal bulb, so not many people bother buying them.

[Cyberblade]

Yeah, the mercury is a big problem, and one they seem all too willing to ignore. I'm not much for the energy saving bulbs, but I have to put up with them.

Also, am I the only one who has problems with them burning out quicker than older incandescent lights?

[Patticus]

I'm getting pretty bloody tired of everyone claiming the government's lying over this that 'n the other, or how everything they do is selfishly motivated, or how the EU is megaevil and the UK needs to be a racist isolationist state COS THEYS EVIL and WE'S SOVREIGN RITE? What the fuck ever, there's as much bullshit in anti-governmental campaigns as there is in the governmental campaigns (don't even get me started on the anti-Lisbon Treaty Brigade), and Europe's pretty much destined to unite as one great nation anyway (just as humanity will eventually unite and abolish nationhood). If the old Tungsten (shit name btw) bulbs were invented today, due to how energy inefficient and rubbish they were they'd be illegal across most of the western world right from the outset, so I suggest that if you really want that kind of thing back, you become a light bulb designer and invent a Tungsten with the efficiency of an Energy Saver and none of the Mercury.

[Kevin]

I assume we're talking about these light bulbs? If so, I have a bunch of them inside the house, and I haven't had a single problem with them. At first they seemed to make the room a little darker, but when the old one burned out and we put a new one in, the brightness seemed fine to me.

[Serperior]

I had energy saving lightbulbs in my house once. They stopped working within a day. I dont know why or how but they just did. But this is a load of BS, why would the government promote a lightbulb that uses a poisonous material. Thats just dumb.

[Eileanach]

I have energy saving bulbs more because I am trying to cut my electricity bills down. I have no major issue with them but my mother and grandmother do they keep telling me not to use them because of the mercury and all this. Personally I couldn't care less as it is keeping my bills down a fair bit... even though I waste my electricity on other things. XD

It is stupidly made (With the mercury and all that) and it is really pathetic that the Government is actually wanting to make them the only bulbs in existence. That is just... Stupidity. I like to buy normal bulbs for the kitchen because I actually like to see CLEARLY to read instructions and see what I am cutting etc.

I don't mind the slight dimness of an energy saver as once they heat up they are bright enough for me.

[CreamyBagel]

Most of the rooms in my house have energy saving bulbs thanks to my dad going trigger happy but as Eileanach said, once the bulbs get hot enough they provide a lot of light. Like this one time I was sat on the toilet with my energy saving bulb switched on and the room seemed to be slowly getting brighter and brighter. I thought the bulb was going to explode.

Edited March 16, 2009 by CreamyBagel

[Eileanach]

CreamyBagle I need to agree I recall sitting in the study and when I first put the energy saving bulb in here and watched it slowly get brighter I was concerned I hadn't fixed it in right and it was going to explode or crack or something...

[CreamyBagel]

^ Lol, I was getting ready to duck and cover

[Roareye Black]

The my Dad's just complain about wasting energy. D=

It sucks, downstairs in the living room and dining rooms, we have dimmer switches (they were there when we moved in). They suck because every time my Dad pokes his head in the room he'll turn it down to an insane degree and say "Did you really need it that high?" then moan if we try and object. So at night, said rooms are stupidly dull. D=

My mum's regretting disagreeing with him, now. A few years back he wanted to replace them with regular on-off switches and she wanted to keep the dimmers. X3;

Energy Savers don't usually work with dimmers, it cuts their lifespan and sometimes makes them freak out. You increase the chance of the glass cracking and the mercury leaking. If you want a safe household, take them off those dimmers!

I'm getting pretty bloody tired of everyone claiming the government's lying over this that 'n the other, or how everything they do is selfishly motivated, or how the EU is megaevil and the UK needs to be a racist isolationist state COS THEYS EVIL and WE'S SOVREIGN RITE? What the fuck ever, there's as much bullshit in anti-governmental campaigns as there is in the governmental campaigns (don't even get me started on the anti-Lisbon Treaty Brigade), and Europe's pretty much destined to unite as one great nation anyway (just as humanity will eventually unite and abolish nationhood). If the old Tungsten (shit name btw) bulbs were invented today, due to how energy inefficient and rubbish they were they'd be illegal across most of the western world right from the outset, so I suggest that if you really want that kind of thing back, you become a light bulb designer and invent a Tungsten with the efficiency of an Energy Saver and none of the Mercury.

Woah, you missed the entire point. You often have a good arguement against what I say but you've taken an ignorant perspective here. I have no issue with the EU, but that doesn't stop this legislation being retarded to the max. If you feel there's an issue with EU bashing, please make a topic and discuss it, but this is about the health and safety issues of energy saving light bulbs and the very real toxic effect they have on our planet.

The truth is that they DO give you cancer, they DO give you eye strain, they DON'T work with dimmers, they ARE toxic to the planet, they are full of a chemical/metal powder which is classified under governmental regulations in this country as equal to Toxic Waste (This is not an exagguration, it is a fact) and they've even been forbidden in areas with children and the elderly in Chile (!) because they're known to be so hazardous. None of this is exagguration, in fact another little fact I didn't mention is that they give off invisible Ultra Violet (UV) radiation which has caused some people skin problems from long term exposure.

What really shocked me about your post was the "If the old Tungsten (shit name btw) bulbs were invented today, due to how energy inefficient and rubbish they were they'd be illegal across most of the western world right from the outset, so I suggest that if you really want that kind of thing back, you become a light bulb designer and invent a Tungsten with the efficiency of an Energy Saver and none of the Mercury."

1. Tungsten is not a name, it is an actual element. Look up your periodic table =/ It's named a Tungsten bulb because that's the element it uses.

2. If Energy Saving Bulbs were created way back when we wouldn't have been able to survive the war financially, we'd be knee deep in dead bulbs we can't get rid of and most importantly they'd be banned as a hazardous material (Just like the old mercury based Galileo meters). The only reason they're bringing this crap in now is because of the economic crisis and it saves them money on power. WE have to fork out £4 per bulb for the privilage and suffer the consequences of health issues because of it. Your skin, your eyes and your general health CAN be affected, especially if the glass cracks. A bit of that mercury powder in a cut and you can't flush it out of your system. Your body is not designed to combat mercury, like it can't combat silicon.

3. Your "become a light bulb designer" arguement is flawed. There's nowt wrong with the bulbs we have now. For areas where you need to do any form of manual work or reading, everyone agrees that one bulb isn't powerful enough. You have a 60w bulb in your kitchen for example. Replace that with a 60w equivalent Energy Saver and it burns at 12w and gives you the "equivalent" of 60W. However to have the same amount of useable light you need at least seven bulbs, 7x12 = 84w of power to do the job of one 60w bulb. You have saved -14w and ADDED to your electric bill. These bulbs may be fine for a hallway or stairs, but for anywhere that focus or work is needed they use more energy than standard bulbs. If you don't use more bulbs to bring the light up you get eye strain.

Seriously odd that you'd freak out like this over me stating facts on the bulbs. I have nothing against the EU, nothing against the British Government and certainly aren't here to do some form of negative rebellion/backlash against anyone. I'm simply stating how dangerous one decision they have made is, and how angry i am that I will have to forceably sell people bulbs I know will diminish their life expectancy. I don't like living with guilt.

Roareye Black.

[MizukiMoon]

Ugh, I hate energy saving bulbs, they're way too dark! We have one in our hallway and it's extremely dark, you may as well not have a light on atall as it barely gives out any light, I can't stand it. I'm going to HATE having one in my room, the light I've got right now is really bright, I don't want it to change =[ They should still sell normal bulbs, but just make them more expensive for the people who really need them.

[Serperior]

By the way would it be ok to buy loads of Tungsten bulbs now and keep them until 2012 and use them then or will the government take the bulbs away from you?

Edited March 16, 2009 by Blaziken

[ShadiWulf]

You guys are confusing me, the energy saving bulbs we have in my home are bright as florescent lights in school or a business building... and they have been using those for ages... sooooo

Edited March 16, 2009 by ShadiWulf

[Roareye Black]

By the way would it be ok to buy loads of Tungsten bulbs now and keep them until 2012 and use them then or will the government take the bulbs away from you?

Government can't take your possessions from you. Tungsten bulbs won't be illegal, just not stockable by stores. Import them, or stock up and you'll be fine.

And Shadiwulf, try doing some intense reading or fine work, or even manual labour, underneath an energy saver. That'll soon change your mind. And reading from a TV or monitor doesn't count cos it has a backlight.

Roareye Black.

[Patticus]

I'm not freaking out, Roareye, I'm just sick and tired that every time a government tries to do something 'good', all it gets is angry rants. Hard, unpopular decisions must be made whether we like it or not. Now, if these energy savers are full of toxic materials, it'll "come out" in the mainstream press in a big way closer to 2012 and someone will create a happy medium for the cash-in bonus, and as you yourself said you'd need to be around them for 2000 years for it to become a hazard to your health cancer-wise. It's nowhere near, say, smoking on the cancer-o-meter, so there's no point even bringing that up.

Also Tungsten is a rubbish name, element or no.