God, thank you. It is always distressing when the idea of taxing the poor is tossed out there as a means to assuage the guilt complex of the well to do.
If you support using the higher priced bulbs and can afford them, then buy them. But don’t make people who live hand to mouth and are already stretched beyond reason pay a premium for yet another pet project of the knee-jerk crowd. You wouldn’t increase the tax on their incomes, would you? Why would you increase the tax on their everday lives?
Yes, but many including myself are instead suggesting the standard US policy of price supports to allow CFL to be sold at or near the same cost as incandescents. This will help the poor a lot in the long run and not hurt them in the short run.
How does that sound instead?
Jim
Not too good, because I oppose welfare for corporations. In fact, I oppose corporations as rights bearing entities, but that’s a different debate. In this instance, why not just let people decide what is in their own best interest? That allows for the maximum human praxis. People of means can buy the good bulbs. Poor people can buy the other ones. Some poor people will even buy the good bulbs, reasoning that they cost less to use. And people can help each other. Ask churches if they will distribute the good bulbs to the poor in their congregations. Ask atheists if they will distribute some good bulbs to their neighbors. Gather volunteers and sponsor Trade-Ins, where people bring their old bulbs and trade them in for new ones. There are a thousand things that can be done, and that need to be done in different ways for different locations from urban to rural, from rich to poor. A central plan for this issue (or any other, really) addresses only the concerns of the planners.
I agree wholeheartedly that a good chunk of the problem is the design of light fixtures. CFL’s work just fine in my ceiling fans, but they look pretty goofy because the fixtures were designed for small incandescent floods. Now I have these odd little corkscrew shapes sticking out instead of the better aesthetics of the floods. Granted, I just tell myself you’re not supposed to look at the light bulb anyway, but it would be nice if newer fans had deeper hoods, perhaps even with a transparent or lightly frosted cover.
Or design the bulbs differently. Is there any reason they can’t be covered with a nice bulb shaped exterior, put over the corkscrew mess?
You really need to check out the newest CFL’s, that’s all I can say.
We’ve switched over about 1/2 of the bulbs in the house. We have them in varying wattages and colors and in different bulb sizes and shapes. The cost is also rapidly dropping, we snatched a bunch on clearance at Target for under a dollar a bulb.
Some of them still have the 1/2 second delay-thing, but that’s certainly a fair trade for the energy savings.
You can get cfls in “normal” shapes, and in floods.
Some examples:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/products/energy_smart.htm
(Click “see all” for more info)
http://www.bulbs.com/Compact_Fluorescent_Bulbs,_Screw--in_Base/results.aspx?kw=ggcflscr
I did not know that. [/Johnny]
Thanks for the info.
What makes you think I haven’t?
I don’t use any kind of fluorescent lights at home. While they may be more cost-effective in my wallet, they are a pain (literally) in my eyes. As someone who is also color-blind, they throw off my color ability as well. Forget it.
In fact, I unscrewed all the fluorescent lights above and around my desk. My productivity has gone way up as a result.
They certainly can be… if the size constraints are loose enough. I’ve seen CFL floods that have the little spiral hidden away inside a normal shaped flood bulb. But there seems to be a reason that they can’t make them fit inside the standard size of an incandescent bulb. I’m assuming this based on the fact that no one has actually sold such a thing. Adding an additional layer around it would just make them bigger and less efficient, which seems to go against what most people need from a CFL.
Just a (wrong) assumption, then 
Sorry.
I used to dislike them as well, but I have found that the latest-and-greatest ones are different. I actually now use a “warm” cfl in my reading lamp in my bedroom, very soft light.
YMMV! It’s possible that you see differently.
Just curious where do you pick up your “warm” cfl bulbs?
I have about 70% of my house on CFL and some long tubes in my workshop and pool table area. My wife does not like the glare and I cannot go 95% like I want to.
Jim
I think, over time, the long-term savings of the fluorescent bulbs will win converts from tne incandescent bulbs. We have the new ones in all of our porch lights, and I replaced the eight 100-watt bulbs in my woodshop with equivalent fluorescent bulbs. There are some we won’t replace, however – only incandescents will work on dimmers (we have three in our house) and you just cannot replace the warm yellow glow of an incandescent bulb in your nightstand or desk lamp. But where practical, it just makes sense to use the fluorescents. When you add the energy savings to the number of times you won’t climb up on a chair to replace light bulbs, it becomes a no-brainer.
Not sure where I got this one, but I think it’s from Target. It’s a spiral-type, low wattage (think it’s like 15w.)
Look for bulbs marked warm, soft white, or warm/white.
They do in fact now have dimmable cfls, GE makes one. I need to see if these will fit in my dining room fixture…
They make CFL that work in 3-way and on dimmers now. They are just hard to find or require internet orders. This is the 5% category that I was planning to remain with incandescent for a while.
My nightstand light is a homemade Lighthouse with a low wattage CFL, the ‘lens’ handles the softening of the light.
Snowcarpet, thanks, I will check Target. Lowes had nothing along this line that I could find.
Jim
If they use a standard candelabra (E11) base, they are available.
I think that they’re standard (e6?) bases, but it’s not a normal fixture at all, it’s an antique (a big giant hunk of reverse-painted glass), and I’ve yet to dare stick my head in it to see what will fit! It’s not enclosed, the glass hangs down on chains.
They also have CFCs labeled “natural spectrum” which work best for me.