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Light bulbs

Wed, 11/02/2009 - 16:37 — gra

What do I do with all the old fashioned tungsten filament light bulbs which I have replaced with low energy light bulbs? Most of them still work. Argos and Homebase are selling certain low energy light bulbs at 5 for £1.

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Sat, 14/02/2009 - 20:56 — Jessie

recycle bulbs at Stonegravels

Hiya.

I think that if you take lightbulbs to the tip/recycling place at Stonegravels (on Sheffield Road) they get recycled - or perhaps partially recycled? Is it better to switch all your bulbs to low energy ones immediately, or only change them as the old ones die? In terms of the carbon footprint, I think it's meant to be better to change to low energy bulbs straight away, but intuitively it seems wasteful to throw away bulbs that will still work...

Sun, 31/01/2010 - 18:00 — Ted Chapman

The best you can do is stick

The best you can do is stick to the old bulbs for as long as possible. Why ? Well the new bulbs do not last nearly as long as they claim and the disposal of the new type bulb is an environmental nightmare due to mercury powder etc. bringing in the new bulbs is political and does more for the economy than the environment. In short it is a con --- how do low energy bulbs really help significantly when you look around at light pollution in general?  Just look at the new Tesco store lite 24/7. More and more stretches of motorway with completely unnecessary lighting, all blaizing away with hardly any cars -- and what do they bother putting lights on your car for?

Wake up. Slow down and think very very carefully about the whole BIG picture before you take any notice of anything a polytrickyun or corporate company says you can do to help the environment.

Mon, 01/02/2010 - 07:30 — billleverett

old vs new lightbulbs

The stuff about Tesco and street lighting is interesting, but doesn't address the question. 

You say the new bulbs don't last as long as they're supposed to. Do you have any evidence? You may have experience of several bulbs that have died early, but the ones at the other end of the bell curve, that last much longer than they're supposed to, we won't know about for many many years. Do you have any statistics on the old bulbs, real lifespan vs manufacturers' claimed lifespans?

According to http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/4217864.html, if your electricity comes from a coal-fired power station, the mercury emitted by burning the coal to power old lightbulbs is far greater than that contained in the compact flourescent. Also, as compact flourescents are covered under WEEE legislation, some of that mercury should in theory be recycled. Mercury released from coal-fired power stations is not. The power stations are also releasing a lot of other nasty stuff. As of 2004, a third of the UK's electricity came from coal. The article above was from 2007, and written for the US. Technology may have changed slightly, the legislation could be different. Feel free to throw some conflicting data at me.

Mon, 15/02/2010 - 08:43 — janetratcliffe

new light bulbs

I've just taken out a low energy lightbulb thatI've had in my bedroom for goodness knows how many years. It must be about 10 years as it's one of the early low energy bulbs and is much larger than they are now. So I'm very happy with the length of time it's lasted.