Should provincial and federal governments be banning Incandescent light bulbs?
Are CFLs really green?
On the surface, yes, because they use less power and last longer.
But there are a number of drawbacks. They are more expensive to produce (their design), they have still mercury for the starter and their light can be damaging to the human eye.
My main objection to them, however, is that you remove a 90 per cent efficient with 10 per cent light production heat source, and replace it with some thing that produces a lot less heat.
That would be acceptable in Australia or California were you need air conditioning but in Canada we need the heat most of the time.
In a number of places in Canada, if you replace all your light bulbs with CFLs it will cost you more money, because heating cost are higher that electricity.
Additionally, some CFLs have been known to start fires.
As for the mercury in the starter, yes they can be properly recycled, but how many of us have seen bottles and cans on the side of the road despite the fact we pay deposits on them? This also applies to LED lights.
A study out of the University of California found that some LED lights have heavy metals in them, including lead and arsenic, and when burnt out should be treated as toxic waste.
Martin Holzbauer
Terrace
