I Can't See The Light

By now most of you are probably sick of being bombarded with tree huggers telling you to switch out the evil incandescent light bulbs in your house for compact florescent (cfl) ones. This is just part of the "Climate Change" scam being perpetrated on the American people. CFL's have been touted as a cheap efficient replacement for incandescents, but how do they really stack up? Not so good.

Now CFL's do use less power than the old fashioned bulbs, but the power saved doesn't cover the other cost. One being lifespan. Now the CFL;s will tell you they have a lifespan of 3 years or better, but I have never seen a CFL last more than six months, while the old fashioned bulbs last for around a year or in one case of a bulb in a fire station in Livermore CA. that has been on for 110 years, go see it for yourself at Fire Station #6, 4550 East Ave. Livermore, CA.

Then there are the dangers, yes there are dangers to both types of bulbs. The old fashioned bulbs are made of fragile thin glass that can break fairly easy. Broken glass is sharp and there is a chance of being cut. The CFL's have the same issue, with one added issue, mercury. Yep CFL's have a small but still dangerous amount of the liquid metal mercury which is poisonous. The EPA has special guidelines to clean the CFL's when they break. It is time consuming and labor intensive. One woman was quoted over two thousand dollars in profession clean up of a CFL.

Last you are supposed to go through your house and throw away all the existing bulbs in your house and replace them. Isn't that kind of absurd? Then there's the talk about the Govt banning the old bulbs, forcing you to put the mercury bulbs in your house. Oh and you can't just toss those quick to die CFL's in your home trash. Most states have strict rules on disposing of mercury and if they catch you tossing the poisonous bulbs you are looking at a stiff fine. I'll stick with Thomas A. Edison, thank you very much.