1. CFLs are not “full of mercury”, it’s actually very little per lamp, about 5 mg or less. But many millions added together will still add up to tons of mercury in nature unless recycled correctly. And most CFLs today are still NOT recycled (although awareness is increasing).

2. I hope stores that accept burned-out CFLs for recycling are aware that mercury vaporises at room temperature, so they make sure that staff or customers don’t break them. (I asked Ikea the other day and they were rather alarmed at this information and promised to look over their recycling routines a s a p.) Next time you deposit one, ask if the CFL will break before chucking it in their recycling bin.

3. CFLs use many times more energy in production, transport and recycling than incandescent lamps.

4. They don’t save nearly as much energy as claimed, but closer to that of a good halogen lamp (which contains no mercury and gives the same high quality light as incandescent lamps).

Look at my website for referenced information, check out the sources and do the math yourself. (And no, I’m not selling anything, don’t even have ads, I’m just fed up with all this massive misinformation campaign.)

Hopefully my fellow idealistic environmentalists will see that they’ve been hoodwinked into acting like a free marketing outlet for the lighting industry, the result of which is likely to cause a global ecological disaster! Please wake up and check who fed you the (mis)information and why, before it’s too late!

btw, not sarcasm, I LIKE the easy bake ovens.

and now the catchpa says $500 totalled, is that what I win?

Many of my fixtures have dimmers or timers, so they can’t readily use CFLs. I agree with Dan, you can’t count on someone only turning on a dimable CFL at full brightness. I have a room with 6 dimable floods. At $10 a pop, each mistake would cost $60.

Also I haven’t found any reasonable candelabra bulbs. What will people do for their dining room chandeliers? I also have a number of halogen lamps, that can’t use CFLs.

I figure the cost to replace all my light fixtures, dimmers, timers etc… to be compatible with CFL would cost me in the thousands. (Dining room chandelier, Drop lamp in kitchen, halogens under counter, halogen high hat over kitchen sink, two bathrooms with 9 halogen high hats, sconses over sink in bathroom, halogen living room torch, two outdoor bulbs, outdoor floods on motion sensor, 4 dimmers, 3 timers).

Rachel, they shouldn’t be blinking. We have ceiling fans with multiple bulbs in every room except bathroom and laundry room (which both have multiple lights on one fixture) and I never have a problem. They may not be in tight, or your fixtures are going out.

I know Menards (it’s like home depot or lowe’s) has CFLs for dimmers now, I haven’t tried them yet.

I do have a complaint. We just recently starting replacing all outlets and lights in our house (old house, old fixtures) and I’ve noticed an alarming trend in ceiling fan lights. They will only fit a bulb with a base the size of a christmas light! They’re trying to make everyone use fewer watts by forcing them to use chandelier bulbs. Luckily, Westinghouse has a converter so I can use the bulbs I want.

recaptcha: off elevator — the ban people clearly got off their elevator too soon

I will not spend the rest of my life ill-feeling and depressed due to the sickly green-white light CFLs give off. I will not quit reading because CFLs give me headaches with all their damn flickering. I will not stand for it. My lovely warm yellow light will not be taken away from me.