Lighting up the CFL way
By now you’ve seen “An Inconvenient Truth,” and if you haven’t - shame on you. After turning the DVD player off, did you run out to buy CFLs to replace your lightbulbs?
I saw “An Inconvenient Truth” with a group of like-minded environmental types. After the movie finished, we turned on the lights, and people started chatting. Here are some snippets:
Guy 8*: After my wife saw the movie, she ran out and bought CFLs to replace all the light bulbs in our house.
Gal 4*: I’m going to stop at the store on my way home to get them for my house.
CFLs became the “get rich quick” scheme of less energy usage. First of all, CFLs have been around for years. Second of all, what about this:
Do you see how much packaging was put into these babies? I love going environmental, but these lightbulbs are a physical manifestation of an oxymoron. They may save on energy, but look at the packaging. It’s like a riddle of the chicken and the egg variety, only this one goes something like this:
Which is worse, CFL packaging or an incandescent bulb?
Sure, the savings over the lifetime of the bulb are probably greater, but shouldn’t they extend the environmentalism one step further and include the packaging?
With that thought in mind, I scoured the internet and found this idea for reusing the packaging to store burned out bulbs. It’s a great idea, but I’d have to hold on to the packaging for years before one of my CFLs burns out. I’m trying to reduce clutter, not add to it.
No, the real solution is to package CFLs like other lightbulbs - sans the plastic. Lucky for me, I found some CFLs at lowes with this kind of packaging:
Hurray for lucky divas everywhere!
And lucky for the rest of you, CFLs really do reduce energy usage, as this guy says in his summary of what we want to know about CFLs.
They also save you money. I’m all for that.
Diva on out, yo