# Incandescent vs. Flourescent **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2010, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074 "2010-03-19T22:41:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/21 "2010-03-22T00:14:48Z")
I think there is a lot to be said for 48 inch Fluorescent tubes. I had a double tube fixture installed in my library at home in 2003 and I’m still on the original tubes. I checked and you can buy them with ratings up to 20,000 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/22 "2010-03-22T12:12:51Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I think there is a lot to be said for 48 inch Fluorescent tubes. I had a double tube fixture installed in my library at home in 2003 and I’m still on the original tubes. I checked and you can buy them with ratings up to 20,000 hours. Can you hum the same note as they do? :D;) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/23 "2010-03-22T12:59:43Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Anyone used LED house lighting? What was it like? I just put in some under-cabinet counter LED lights (the round, couple-inches across spot lights). They’re fine, though a bit dimmer than the mini-halogens of the exact same size that they replaced, but with a nice white light. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/24 "2010-03-22T14:36:13Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Can you hum the same note as they do? :D;) No I’m lucky. I can’t hear them at all unless I focus on them. I know flyback transformers can drive some people nuts, but I think I partially deaf in that frequency range. I remember people would complain about the hum from a CRT monitor or television and I wouldn’t hear anything. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/25 "2010-03-22T16:58:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wouldn’t an even better option be to just turn off the light while you’re sleeping? That way, you don’t get any blue at all, and you’re using zero watts. Okay, whoosh aside: this was from a report (science for lay people) about the effect of coloured light on our body metabolism, not in the new-age sense of colours affecting our moods (though I’ve heard that psychologists have proven this quite well, too), but on the basis of hormone production being triggered. They experimentally rigged a classroom with primary school children with different coloured lights - just light tint, it was still mostly white so they could read etc. well enough - and the teacher turned on the blue light in the morning at 8 am, when the children were still sleepy, to wake them up and a different colour at 11 am , when the children were restless, to calm them down. The scientists were behind a mirror screen and observed the children, so as not to be influenced by the choices the teacher made herself; also, they compared a parallel class (same age etc.) with normal white lighting the whole day. The conclusion was that 5 min. of blueish white light - as from CFLs instead of incans, which are yellowish-white - in the bathroom while brushing your teeth, or on your reading-side bed lamp, can disturb your melatonin production enough to cause you problems going to sleep for up to 1 1/2 hrs. Thus the recommendation was to replace the bathroom and bedroom light with a redish-tinted white light. (Obviously, the best solution would be one red to help you sleep at night and one blue to help wake you up in the morning, but most bathrooms don’t have two seperate light switches). ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/26 "2010-03-22T17:00:47Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Anyone used LED house lighting? What was it like? To replace big light-bulbs, LED lamps are still too expensive, but I bought from IKEA a desktop light [http://www.ikea.com/de/de/catalog/products/90154371](http://www.ikea.com/de/de/catalog/products/90154371) with halogen, and it’s very bright, which you want in a desktop lamp. But they are either reading lamps or the small UFO-shaped round things you put in storage cupboards and activate with a press. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/27 "2010-03-22T17:33:33Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > The bedroom should not have blue-white CFLs because blue tinted light disturbs the production of melantonin, which regulates sleep, so you can need up to 1 1/2 hours longer to get sleeping. Better for the bedroom is red-white light, which expensive CFLs have. Do you have a cite for this? Also, wouldn’t this only matter if you sleep with the lights on? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/28 "2010-03-23T08:56:35Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > Do you have a cite for this? Also, wouldn’t this only matter if you sleep with the lights on? No, I can’t find a cite at the moment. As I said above, it was a science show for laypeople. However, the principal point that melatonin production is necessary for a good sleep, is inhibited by sunlight, and that only a small exposure - such as 5 min. before going to bed, NOT sleeping with the lights on (who does that???) - of the wrong tint is enough to inhibit production - is apparently well-known and documented in the medical/ scientific community. Don’t have the time right now to search english-language journals, though, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/29 "2010-03-24T16:56:32Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > A 13W 900 Lumens bulb Fluorescent bulb will run you $3.49 it lasts 10,000 hours. They called this a 60W equivalent bulb. > [Ace Hardware | The Helpful Place - Ace Hardware](http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3958993&kw=compact+fluorescent&origkw=compact+fluorescent&searchId=47154343814) > A 60W 820 Lumen bulb Incandescent bulb will run you $0.25 it lasts 1500 hours > > The Marginal rate for San Diego power last time I looked at my bill was about $0.24 a KWh. > So 10,000 hours will cost $31.20 for the CF and $144 for the incandescent. However, we’re finding they don’t last anything LIKE 10,000 hours. I’m sure they last longer than incandescents, but they still burn out every year or two (at most). I suspect we’re still saving money overall but nowhere near the 110 bucks in your example. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/30 "2010-03-24T17:03:03Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > However, we’re finding they don’t last anything LIKE 10,000 hours. I’m sure they last longer than incandescents, but they still burn out every year or two (at most). I suspect we’re still saving money overall but nowhere near the 110 bucks in your example. Most of my CF bulbs that I put in back in California energy crisis 10 years ago are still working. Assuming 3 hours a day 300 days a year that is coming in at about 9000 hours now so I am finding mine are lasting a long long time. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074/31 "2010-03-24T17:33:15Z")
The only serious problem I have with CF is the toxic waste issue you end up with when you have to dispose of them. Each CFL has about 4 mg of mercury. Here is a fact sheet with some useful data (even though it comes from General Electric) [Mercury In CFL](http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/downloads/MercuryInCFLs.pdf) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incandescent-vs-flourescent/533074.md?page=1)