CFLs
Posted on | September 29, 2009 | 2 Comments
It’s been a while since my last post, during which time I’ve been mulling over the movie The Age of Stupid, which I saw at its worldwide premiere, and watching what the world leaders at the G20 Summit had to say about climate change. But that’s not what this post is about, so more on that later.
No, today I want to talk about CFLs, and thus complete part 2 of my Green Blogger challenge. I had to find just the right time to talk about CFLs because I thought that everyone knew about them, and that everyone was using them. (CFLs are, of course, Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs that use much less energy than the standard household incandescent or halogen bulbs.) As it turns out, unfortunately, sales of CFLs are on the decline. This is bad news, especially since it’s not like the need to make our homes more energy efficient has gone away… we should be trying to make them more efficient, so people should be, theoretically doing all they can to weed out energy-wasters in their homes. Like those pesky incandescents. Which still cost slightly less than the swirly “new”-ish CFLs, and this might be the reason that their sales are declining in this massive recession. Cheaper is better, right? Not always. I think if people knew that CFLs would save energy in their homes over the long run that would more than make up for the difference in price in the light bulbs, they would get the CFLs, right? Wouldn’t you?
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September 29th, 2009 @ 5:45 pm
Do you think the increased lifespan of a CFL over incandescent factors into this at all? Since they last longer, once a certain level of acceptance has been reached, sales would presumably level off amongst that group of adopters. It seems like everyone who could be ‘lightly’ persuaded (no pun intended) has already switched over and some other tactics may be required to get everyone else to follow. However, it may be more productive to completely skip over CFLs for these people and directly promote the use of LEDs as they don’t have the drawbacks of CFLs (warm up period, bad color rendition, etc.).
September 30th, 2009 @ 4:54 pm
I think that is definitely possible. But you’re right about using other tactics. I mean, think about renters: I’m one, you’re one, and how many renters feel obligated to change the light bulbs out in their apartments if they still work? So there’s a big contingent of adapters that still need to be reached.
Also, I like LEDs but I don’t know that they will be marketable or more cost efficient for a broader market like the CFLs are.