Incandesant Bulb vs CFL

Let There Be Lights

Posted 07/08/2011 07:02 PM ET
 

Energy: The ban on incandescent light bulbs sums up everything that's wrong with intrusive, nanny-state government. It's expensive, dangerous and, perhaps worst of all, won't work as promised. Congress should repeal it.
President Bush, perhaps preoccupied by the relentless attacks on him by the so-called "progressive" left, Al Gore-niks and Democrats in Congress, signed the light bulb ban into law in 2007.
As the law stands, the incandescent light, the greatest invention by America's greatest inventor, Thomas Edison, will disappear at the end of this year. It is being replaced with an unproven substitute — the compact fluorescent light, or CFL — that is both politically foolish and bad science.

Proponents claim CFLs would provide lots of healthy light but use as much as 30% less energy. Not true.
Since GE's closure of its last U.S. bulb plant in 2010, the new lights have been made in dirty factories in China and India and are shipped 8,000 miles in large container ships and then on U.S. trains and trucks.

Net energy gain: zero. Maybe even negative.

CFL advocates promised big long-term savings from using energy-efficient CFL bulbs. But because CFL bulbs cost as much as 20 times more than the reliable old incandescent bulbs, consumers will pay through the nose for pretending to be green.
As anyone who's replaced a regular bulb with a CFL can tell you, the quality of the light isn't the same. An incandescent bulb casts over objects a warm, yellow hue that's easy on the eye. CFLs have a sharp, cold, bluish tint that some people find nauseating — literally.

 

As the Edison Tech Center notes: "The color rendering index (CRI) of incandescents and halogens is 100, while most CFLs are around 82." So CFLs make it harder to see both colors and objects than regular bulbs.

As for safety and disposal, the CFLs are downright dangerous. They contain toxins such as mercury, arsenic, lead and cyanide. You can't just throw them out — they have to be recycled in a way that's expensive.

Indeed, you'd need a full page to list all the drawbacks of CFLs. They're a bad product, one foisted on Americans by a government eager to control all our lives in the name of creating a glorious green future utopia.

Congress will vote Monday to repeal the ban on the incandescent bulb. It should be a slam-dunk. Those in Congress who can't muster the brains or courage to end this foolish, costly and dangerous ban don't deserve to be in office.