Choose Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Will You?

Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs require much fewer power than incandescent bulbs. For instance, a 26-watt CFL bulbs produce the same lumination as 100-watt incandescent bulbs. Therefore, if you keep one incandescent bulb on for only six hours a day, switching to CFL will save you 126 kilowatt-hours electricity per year. It is equal with 170 pounds carbon dioxide emissions. Surely you have more than one bulb in your house. In average, if you change all your bulbs into CFL, you could reduce carbon dioxide emission by 2.3 metric tons.

Australia has endorsed a regulation to change incandescent bulbs with CFL gradually. The country projects that it will cut down greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million metric tons annually. It is equal with taking 1 million cars off the road.

Some people worry about CFL because it contains mercury, a substance that has created suffering throughout human history. In fact, the amount of mercury in each CFL is only enough to cover the tip of your ballpoint pen. It will not cause any bodily harm as long as simple precaution measures are taken. Moreover, many producers of CFL have reduced the mercury content in their light bulbs over the time.

Even in CFL bulbs shatter, you should not be panic. As long as you do not pick the pieces up with bare hands and lick them, nothing bad will happen to you. Just placing the pieces in a plastic bag and then wash your hands are enough to prevent anything serious from happening.

Perhaps the biggest problem with CFL is the minimum option for recycling. Thousands of CFL bulbs in the garbage bin can become a serious problem. There are several centers available to recycle CFL and you can find this information easily from the internet. If you have not used CFL, just try it. I promise that you will get benefits from it.

If you want to learn more about this topic, please visit The Case for CFLs.