Yes there are steps to make a home safer and its a trade off. If one was going to use CF in a home were they could reasonably get broken that would seem to be a better choice then a non-protected CF.
Since you asked me now what am I going to complain about.
There are other reasons that people don’t like CF lighting, sometimes its just a combo of factors. My own reason is I dont like the color of the light. It is much harder to see even with a higher light output. It makes things bright without definition. If you don’t mind try this for yourself. Start reading a few pages in a book under CF lighting, switch to a equal light output IC lighting then read some more, try going back and forth at least 1 more times. I have found that it’s far easier to read using IC lighting, even if you actually use a higher CF light output.
I found this accidentally one day as a CF light burned out, I replaced it with te old IC light, and this was only 1 ic bulb out of the 4 in the fixture (the other 3 remained cf), and returned to reading, it was such a difference that I almost cried. After which I replaces the other 3 back to ic and slowly re-retrofitted my home with ic lighting. Then I found out about the mercury issue.
You avoided the answer: if you skip CFL bulbs in whatever IC sockets are, because you are afraid of playing children breaking them … how exactly are you going to guard your children against breaking the normal lightbulbs instead?
And again, light fixtures are either on the ceiling - if your children regularly play on the ceiling, you have weird problems - or inside lamps, standing on the floor or on the table and plugged into an outlet. Those can be moved away to make things safer.
I am a renter, and I can’t imagine what kind of fixtures you have in your house that are dangerous for playing children with CFL bulbs but not with old-fashioned bulbs.
In fact, if your children can directly reach and touch normal bulbs, they can burn themselves, since these things get hot; or they can put clothes onto them, causing overheating which can (rarely but possibly) end up in an explosion or a fire.
CFL bulbs are a problem if broken only if you don’t get the children away while you pick up the shards, so they start playing with the mercury, inhaling or maybe even swallowing that.
If parents are that clueless, to not only let their children play around breakable lamps, but also not put them elsewhere while cleaning up the shards, then the children are endangered any way.
This has been adressed quite often, once in this thread already: You need to look not only at the lumen (light output) when buying bulbs, but also at the colour or Kelvin temp. Cheaper CFL bulbs have a blueish tint that makes the light look harsh and sterile, while the better CFL have a warm, reddish tint. Some companies like Osram even offer expensive full-daylight bulbs.
Are normal light bulbs child-proof? Because I remember normal light bulbs breaking when hit (that’s what we used to make rattles when hobbycrafting, though later we switched to rubber balloons for obvious reasons.)
Or are those IC bulbs you speak of, but don’t explain what they are, child proof?
I do know child proof lamps - they looklike this but are not commonly used in households, except for the outside stairs to the basement or similar. Note however, that a CFL bulb can be placed inside the cover and wire cage just as easily.
Frankly, I think you’re delusional.
We use CFLs in every fixture in the house. If anything, they are easier to read by, since I can but in a brighter bulb for less watts. I have 46W of CFLs in my office - they replace 120W of incandescents, are almost twice as bright and costs 1/3 as much. The office is SO much better this way - it was gloomy and shadowed beforehand.
However, this is not completly out of the blue - very early (she doesn’t say when this happened) and/ or very cheap CFL can flicker at a rate that stresses some people’s eyes.
And the problem of colour temp. is real for many people - but can be solved today. So even if it was a valid reason 10 years ago, it no longer is.
Just as mercury thermometers were necessary 30 years ago, but could be removed once electronic thermometers became reliable enough.
And you just hit on the problem, right there. The good ones cost more. Heck, the new bulbs in general have to cost more to manufacture, or the mandate would be pointless. If I could sell you a more efficient bulb that cost me less to make at the same price as (or even cheaper than) my other bulbs, I’d start phasing out the old bulbs immediately. No good company wouldn’t.
The very fact that this is being mandated rather than happening in the free market means that the bulbs at least cost more to manufacture, and that usually means they cost more to purchase.
People tend to resist when the government tells them they have to spend more, especially when making ends meet is so hard right now. I for one am very happy for the reprieve on the changeover. I hope that costs are down by then, or that we can afford to subsidize properly and get IC-colored bulbs down to the right price.
I mean, I live in a house where as long as there are at least two bulbs that work in the overhead light (which has five), we don’t replace it. I’d say more than two thirds of the bulbs in the house are burned out. It’s already a place where we skimp to be able to afford other things, and I’d hate it if we had to skimp even more.
My grandfather was even worse: you had two lamps with bulbs for the entire living room, and, while the overhead had bulbs, you never were allowed to use it. We’ve always conserved light.
The majority of lighting in my home is CFCs.
How often have I had a broken bulb - incandescent or CFC?
Once!
Three weeks ago my son smashed a light fitting and the bulb along with it, lifting his mountain bike up onto the rack.
He swept up the bits and was completely successful in avoiding shredding his feet with the broken glass. He hasn’t fallen down dead, lost any limbs or experienced any other health problems despite being showered with broken glass, bits of plastic and metal.
Fitted a recessed lampholder in that room, no more bike/lamp collisions likely.
Quite wrong. CFL bulbs cost less than conventional bulbs for the last 5-10 years. But customers have a bunch of irrational prejudices (such as we are seeing now) and are bad at math. They see one bulb for 0.80 Euros and one for 1.50 Euros, and say “But the CFL costs more!!!” ignoring the savings both in electricity and running time (a CFL bulb replaces 5-10 normal bulbs in lifetime measured).
So if people want to save money, they switch to the cheapest CFL bulbs.
If they whine about how much CFL bulbs suck, they can switch to better brands.
I guess the next reason is that CFL sends out rays that attract demons or similar.
While I personally felt the risk from mercury thermometers was small enough as to be dismissed, that position at least makes some sense, as a typical mercury thermometer has 100 times more mercury in it than a CFL, and being handed by kids some of the time, and often left on counters and bedsides, was much more likely to break.
Wait, you’re worried whether a CFL bulb is childproof, yet you’re willing to have IC bulbs in the house when they get hot enough to cause burns? I seem to remember a post from another poster whose child suffered severe burn injuries from touching a light bulb.
Maybe this should be a separate thread, but while we’re on the subject of CFL’s, why do they take a few minutes to get to full brightness? It’s my one complaint about them. I don’t do well in low-light situations (eye problems), so right now I have IC’s in some lights in a room and CFL’s in others. Is the “warm-up time” likely to improve as the technology in producing CFL’s improves? I’d like to be able to switch to all CFL’s when it’s feasible for me to do so.
^My eyesight isn’t brilliant but CFL lighting presents no problems as long as, as has been mentioned, the bulbs are of sufficient luminosity and good quality bulbs.
I am currently using a 21W CFL where I would have previously used 12x 20W Halogens and find the CFL more than adequate, slightly better as it is indirect (uplighter) and a softer, less ‘glary’ light.
CFL bulbs are best used where they can be left on for 15 to 30 minutes minimum, they will give their full lifetime then. lights used for quick navigation/use (room light controlled by wall switches, hallways, stairways, closets, bathroom ceiling) are best served by a lower wattage incandescent or LED bulb.
First, they do take a few seconds to get up to full brightness because of the different technology they use. This is mostly a problem with older models, cheaper models or if you have changing power levels.
In fixtures with a dimmer, you can now buy specially dimmable CFL bulbs (which yes, are more expensive than normal ones).
that said, for hallways or bathrooms, where I go in and out quickly, but don’t leave the light burning for hours, I switched to Halogen energy saving bulbs. They use 1/3 less than normal ones - so 42 W instead of 60 W - but turn on immediatly.
In a few years, I expect LEDs to become more common and thus cheaper.
I actually like the CFL warm-up period, especially for the ones I have in my bathroom. Now when I turn the bathroom light on first thing in the morning, it doesn’t hurt as much.
Absolutely, but only under controlled conditions.
The only way to make this a fair test is to have the brightness and color balance matched, and then perform the experiment under double-blind conditions.