soufiej; when you get tired of swallowing the bovine excrement that the government is feeding you, you might want to get your head out of the trough and have a look around.
An agency can write a specification for a hammer that can only be met with a $300 custom hammer, and the $3 hammer that is commonly available will not meet the specifications.
Writing "guidelines" for energy efficiency in order that no incandescent lightbulb can ever comply is effectively banning the incandescent lightbulb.
So you go ahead and pollute the earth with mercury, and I'll continue to use whichever lightbulbs contain no hazardous materials.
I have to repeat, nothing has been "banned". You can still buy incandescent lamps if your store wants to carry them. Most won't because the manufacturer has moved on to a lamp technology with higher efficiency. That's what is being "mandated", higher efficiency lamps. If incandescent lamp technology were improved sufficiently to make the lamp fit into the efficiency standards set, then incandescent lamps would still be around in quantities. The manufacturers themselves effectively banned the incandescent lamp by saying it was more profitable to move to another technology. This is how things work, we moved from being an agricultural nation to being an industrialized nation because we followed technology. We moved from what at the time was unreliable electric power for our transportation to the technology with the highest return, petroleum. At the time we did so, energy was plentiful and cheap and we weren't paying money to countries who would prefer we went away. I remember when I was a little kid, we had friends from Texas who drove their Cadillac convertible with the top down and the AC on because gas was twenty two cents per gallon. Those days are gone. Moving forward is what technology does. The government did not build CFL's, the manufacturer did. I doubt you'll find a "Made in the USA" sticker on the CFL's since most are manufactured in China or some other third world country using cheap labor and cheap parts. I would be more upset about the fact we don't manufacturer most goods in the US today.
But "banning" and "phasing out" are two different things. Government also mandated against gasoline powered vehicles which produced major pollutants. That's bad? IMO I'm in favor of government doing what it does best, being a watchdog against industry where we have seen profit will often override public good. Government mandates how much arsenic can be in our water and food supplies? You want to eat and drink arsenic? Government is also mandating against the use of arsenic in "treated wood" products because it leeches into the water table. I just can't get upset about such mandates.
As to the mercury in a CFL, it is not an issue. Unless you want to make it an issue, which you can so you can get PO'd at government. Buy a LED or a halogen lamp. They contain no mercury. Recycle your CFL's so the minimal amount of mercury can be contained. However, I have to ask again, why are you in favor of wasting energy? If you're concerned about the miniscule amount of mercury in your CFL (which cannot escape unless you break the enclosure) but you're not concerned about the mercury and arsenic and other pollutants and carcinogens emitted by the coal burning power plant you are supporting and the rivers and streams being polluted by the coal companies as they top mountains, then, IMO, you've found the wrong dog to hunt with. If you really want to go find something to scare you or to make you mad, come to Dallas. We have at least eight radio channels turning out fear and anger 24/7. Though, you probably have just as many on the presets to your own radio.
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Ron Evers said: "If soufiej was to reread my OP he would find that I made no mention of any government banning incandescent bulbs. The Big Lie is that CFLs outlast incandescent bulbs by years not months but years. It was my earlier experience that led me to start dating them to confirm what I was sure of.
We had 5 Incandescent bulbs in our dinning room fixture that was used daily & after 30 years one burned out & because of the style I had to change them all because I could no longer get a matching one. Two of these bulbs are still in service aftermore than 40 years in other fixtures - here is one of them."
We seem to have two different conversations going on in this thread. One is about "banning" incandescent lamps and the other is your contention CFL's are short lived. I have similar experiences with some incandescent lamps I have in two ceiling fixtures. They are both on dimmers so they don't get hit with 120VAC at start up and are often run well below their full output. These two techniques alone will extend the life of any incandescent lamp. I've probably changed two lamps in these (five lamps each) fixtures in 22 years since I run mostly floor and table lamps with CFL's and LED's. Several of the CFL's have been in place for five years or more and saved money in that time. I have no anecdotal evidence a CFL is more likely than an incandescent to burn out early. I assume you purchased early adapter CFL's. Made in China. Cheap labor and cheap parts. I can remember a time in the US when we complained about electronics coming from Japan. Now we sheepishly accept the fact virtually all of our electronics will come from China, India or Taiwan. Then we complain when they are substandard. Makes no sense to me.
I can't say I have any new CFL's. First, LED's provide a better, brighter light IMO and are coming down in cost. I've used halogens in many fixtures for the last fifteen years or so. And the CFL's I use have simply lasted. I remember the last batch of CFL's I purchased was something like three for $10 or so. Even if they didn't actually last longer than an incandescent lamp, they did use less energy so they paid for themself in short time.
So, Ron, I can't get on board with your complaint. You made the decision to buy these lamps. You received a $5 credit for replacements. The first set basically cost you little to nothing, right? For someone who dates their lamps, I'm a bit surprised you purchased lamps with no information regarding how to contact the manufacturer. The government had nothing to do with your decision to buy an unknown brand. I would say you wanted to save a few dollars so you bought the cheap Blue Planet, 9 watt lamp instead of a more well known name. Did you check before you purchased from an unknown company? If you didn't and you bought anyway, government had nothing to do with that either. Government had nothing to do with those lamps being manufactured in a third world country. But this is what I see from a lot of folks nowdays, find someone else to blame for their own problems. And government always ranks up there when you have so many highly paid corporate schills, talking heads and politicians telling you to distrust government. The more they get you riled up, the more their advertisers and contributors like it. So it clearly benefits them to be as outrageous as possible.
You can certainly be upset if that's what you prefer. I prefer to be a bit more rational and look at the experiences I have with lowering my energy bill, not contributing to the destruction of the planet, not giving profit to those manufacturers moving US jobs overseas and selling lower quality products hoping most of us just won't complain. I just can't see that one or two lamps, either CFL or incandescent is sufficient evidence to make your point. I'm just not seeing hundreds of users posting complaints about their CFL's breaking. Things do break. All things eventually break. And some things last when they are taken care of.
If you consistently have problems with CFL's in one outlet or on one circuit, you might want to have your service panel checked. Most modern communities now suffer from numerous over and under Voltage conditions all day, everyday. Surges occur when appliances in your house - and actually in your neighbor's house too since you all share a common power source - power up and down and these large Voltage/Amperage draws will shorten the life of all electronic devices using the circuit. Possibly, rather than complaining about a defective CFL, you might benefit from a while house surge protector and a good, solid true Earth ground.
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