Let's Talk Light Bulbs

I have tried replacing my old energy-sucking light bulbs with those virtuous spiral-y compact fluorescent ones, but every time I do it, I hate hate HATE the cold blue light that they emit. And then I put my old light bulbs back in. And then I feel guilty, because compact fluorescents really do save a ton of energy. And then I discovered n:Vision by Home Depot, which come pretty darn close to casting that warm light we're all so used to. You can see them in action at Home Depot—you've got a choice between soft light, bright light and daylight versions. Seriously, even if you're a skeptic, give them a try. And let me know what you think.

Comments

[Amanda]

We use the daylight version at our house, and they are awesome! A bit pricey compared to regular bulbs, but worth it. Little by little we've replaced all the bulbs in our house.

[Amy]

We just ran a newsletter article about this and were alerted by one of our users that some of the energy efficient lightbulbs contain small amounts of mercury but could be dangerous to kids if they are broken. My advice is to check the lightbulbs you are looking to change to beforehand.

[shabana]

we use teh daylight version and it feels great. slowly we r replacing all the bulbs in our house. they are pretty efficient, i feel that they glow more than the regular ones.

[Tiffany]

We have used these throughout our basement, as well as in a number of hallway/foyer light fixtures. And they definitely are as close as you can get to an incandescent bulb. The New York Times ran an article months ago, and these were one of the 2 highest rated for being closest to natural/incandescent light (i.e. not that weird blue color)

[Taryn]

Ah, wish I would have known about this product a day sooner... I just bought CFL lightbulbs last night and when I put one in a lamp in my bedroom I had the same reaction to the blue light - horrible! I'll be heading to the home depot to get this type stat! Thanks

[CK]

We'll have to check them out. We've got CFLs in about half the lights right now. The others are odd-sized bulbs, and they may or may not get replaced when they burn out. We've also got one light fixture that isn't compatible with CFLs - we've tried at least twice, but the bulb burns out within a month. It's an enclosed fixture, and I guess the temp gets too high for it.

Snopes article on mercury - http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

I'm not sure how the phase-out of incandescent bulbs is going to work out. There are applications where a CFL isn't the ideal bulb - for example, they don't do well in low temps, like outdoors or in a refrigerator, or in an enclosed fixture. Also, Easy-Bake Ovens and lava lamps sort of need the heat from an incandescent to work.

[Rudy]

As someone who sells light bulbs for a living, I am less enthusiastic than most about compact fluorescent bulbs. This is due to the fact that the ones currently available contain significant amounts of mercury. If one of these bulbs should break inside of a person’s home, it could cause a challenging disposal situation. It is my belief that the technology should progress to a point at which the mercury levels are low or nonexistent before people changeover their entire homes. Another consideration is that as these bulbs burn out, they will most likely be thrown away as though they are normal rubbish and landfills will have incredibly high levels of mercury in their soil as a result.

[Kristina Richardson]

Most CFLs today on the market contain less than 5mgs of mercury and there are CFL options out there that contain as little as 1.5mgs of mercury- which can hardly be called a “significant amounts of mercury” considering that many item in your home contain 100s of times more of mercury including your computer. Mercury levels in CFLs can never be “nonexistent” since mercury is a necessary component of a CFL and there is no other known element that is capable of replacing it. But CFLs actually prevent more mercury from entering the environment. According to the Union of Concerned Scientist, “a coal-fired power plant will emit about four times more mercury to keep an incandescent bulb glowing, compared with a CFL of the same light output”.