Southern California Edison wants to give out 6-packs of CFLs to 1 million low-income households.
“Edison said the bulbs each year would save the average household about $72 and eliminate the need to generate 278 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough power to run 35,000 homes,” reports the LA Times.
Cost: $22-million, which Edison wants to pay for via an increase — no report on what this amount is yet — in an existing power bill surcharge paid by its customers. The proposal must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Yes, CFLs work as nicely as “regular” lightbulbs –
Am I the only one who is really bugged how people are pushing CFLs so hard, even though the state hasn’t mandated a way to redeem and dispose of them? CFLs contain Mercury. If everyone switches to CFLs, but nobody knows what to do about the Mercury, we are really setting ourselves up for another environmental catastrophe.
Comment by Rafi — April 14, 2007 @ 11:03 am
Honestly, it’s like nuclear power. Nuclear plants are great from a CO2 perspective. But if we haven’t got a plan for the waste, we are just creating more problems.
Comment by Rafi — April 14, 2007 @ 11:04 am
The nuclear power comparison’s more than a bit of a hyperbole, but in any case, you might be interested in Lloyd Alter’s post on Treehugger about mandating deposits on CFLs so they get collected for proper disposal.
We CAN dispose of CFLs properly — even now — by taking them to ewaste centers. The problem is that ewaste centers are not v. easy to access, and education re: the mercury in CFLs hasn’t happened yet. In any case, the answer here is not rejecting CFL bulbs, but working for a better disposal plan.
On another note: I’ve had some of my CFLs since 2002, and none have given out on me yet –
Comment by Siel — April 14, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
Maybe hyperbole, maybe not. Mercury may not be as serious a problem as nuclear waste. But it is far more dangerous than CO2. One CFL in the trash bin would more than easily outweigh the environmental damage done by the incandescent bulbs it was supposed to replace.
True, we have a better handle on how we COULD deal with the mercury waste in CFLs. But is WalMart letting their customers know trashing a CFL is illegal? Are all the counties in California suggesting curbside redemption of CFLs?
We aren’t doing anything to reach out to any but the highly motiviated (you and me) to do the right thing. I don’t think we should flood the market with these bulbs without a system in place, such as Alter describes (one of perhaps a dozen workable solutions).
I am happy to use CFLs–my apartment is full of them. But I don’t trust most people to know what to do with them. Especially if there’s no large scale public education campaign.
Comment by Rafi — April 15, 2007 @ 12:26 pm