What to do when Incandescent light bulb are fazed out by CFL

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I only use dim low wattage coil light bulbs at home. Everywhere else I am, fluorescent lighting is usually unavoidable, so I wear these...

http://images.rakuten.com/PI/0/1000/246413521.jpg

They work wonders for me. Only $8. I get them on eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KDS-KDS-ORIGINA ... a0&vxp=mtr

They've become my "signature look"

I use LED bulbs at home, and all of my outlets have dimmers.

There are energy efficient incandescent bulbs that will meet the new standards in the US, so that's what I'll be using. Failing that, I'd leave the lights off. The idea of being forced to use fluorescent lights at home is terrifying.

Whats their reasoning for this big change anyway? Do regular light bulbs cause cancer or something?

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I just read some website about different kinds of lights. I think CFLs use about 1/5 electricity to achieve the same brightness and generate less heat. Heat is a fire risk. However, CFLs have Hg in them. So if you break one, you actually have to open windows and evacuate the room. If you touch the broken one, then you are in big trouble. I've seen a picture of someone who accidentally touched it. That was gross. So the best one is the LED lights, which are very efficient and far less dangerous. But I think they are still not that cheap. But I don't know if those people who like the conventional bulb light would like the LED light.

jk1, can you tell me more about what happened to people who had a CFL bulb break, and handled one?

I brought some home a couple years ago, and one had shattered in the package, so the inside was exposed. I didn't know to open the windows, but I very carefully got it out of the house and disposed of it all, without getting stuff all over the place. Did the guy who touched the bulb get some sort of lesion or something? I've had no effects at all as far as I can tell, I felt fine afterwards, and have felt just like I always do ever since.

I have a lot of CFLs still, but LEDs are much better for all the aforementioned reasons. I'm going to stick with those a long time, and it's a lot easier to use one LED bulb for 30 years than keep a 30-year of incandescent bulbs around. Plus you save money on electricity and don't have any of the CFL problems.

@ThetaIn3D

The information I saw was describing some incident that happened with one of those ordinary CFLs. What I remember of it is that someone accidentally broke one, and his foot accidentally actually directly touched some of Hg that came out of it (I don't know what Hg looked like). The guy didn't die or anything, but the picture of his foot was there. His foot was swollen to double the normal size and looking purplish red. It didn't look like a human foot. I don't think it was permanent. I don't really remember the extent of the long-term damage it did to him. I think it was some acute Hg allergy or poinsoning or something. Sorry I don't remember the details. It was a very obvious visible damage caused by direct contact. So your case sounds completely different. I think you handled it well. Sorry I didn't mean to scare you or anyone.

That was a safety information notice I saw at my work. It then provided information on how to deal with a broken CFL. As I mentioned in the other post, you should open windows and evacuate the room for a while. Sounds like Hg can easily spread in the air (must be quite volatile), guessing from that description. You mustn't use a vacuum cleaner because it can spread Hg everywhere. You should use strong plastic bags to wrap the broken pieces safely and should dispose of it as some special hazardous waste, not in the ordinary rubbish bin. Hg is very toxic.

Reading all this, I couldn't help wondering how there is no warning printed on the boxes of those CFLs. CFLs are sold everywhere and most people have many of them at home. Also I think people usually throw away the used ones as ordinary rubbish with all other rubbish. Isn't it dangerous for those people who collect the rubbish? I have many of them at home myself and am honestly really scared of them. I think I will replace them all with the LED ones.

yeah, wait for the LED bulbs to come out...

Personally I don't mind *standard* fluorescent but compact fluorescent bugs me for some reason.

The reason why they're doing away with regular incandescent light bulbs is to save energy.

LEDs are amazing. My whole house is lit by them (with the exception of two fluorescent tubes, one ring and one straight, in the kitchen) and it's the most pleasant, even, flicker-free and quiet lighting I've ever seen. I actually prefer them to incandescents for reasons above and beyond lifespan and efficiency. I just replaced the CFL BR30 floods in the master bedroom with LEDs to the tune of $180 - worth every penny to not hear the buzzing early in the morning.

I find that the Philips AmbientLED bulbs in "Warm White" (check the side of the package to verify that Light Color is 2700K) put out a very incandescent-like, warm yellow light. They play nice with dimmers (not perfect but vastly superior to CFLs that cut out at 50% or higher) and the bulbs remain relatively cool to the touch.

I can't wait to find LED replacements for those tube lights.

I don't think that regular incandescent bulbs will disappear altogether because there are too many special purpose applications for them. Appliances like microwave ovens, refrigerators, gas ovens, and many other specialty light fixtures cannot use CFL or LED bulbs. If worst-comes-to-worst, an oven bulb might be costly and only 40 watts, but at least you'll be able to get them, and maybe have to use more fixtures to get the proper amount of light.

Charles