Off topic but a concern for all of you

[44man]

I bought some of those energy saving Bright Effects bulbs from Lowes some time ago. I turned the lamp on to read my paper tonight and all was well for a short time. The bulb started to blink then came back on. then it got real dim and I looked under the shade to see a hot glow at the bottom so I switched it off quick. The whole thing was blazing hot and stunk up the whole house. I could not touch it for 15 minutes. I found the glass tube had cracked at the base, don't know if any mercury had escaped.
That bulb could burn down your house!
Please never leave these things on when you leave the house. I am going back to regular bulbs.

[Dale53]

I learned a long time ago, that you NEVER leave normal florescent lights on when you are away from the room (ballasts have a habit of dying in a blaze of glory). So, it appears that the new florescent ones also have a problem?

Dale53

[44man]

I am not sure about GE or Sylvania bulbs but read that you should stay with them instead of the junk from Lowes. The Bright Effects bulbs are listed on the ripoff web pages.
Here is a picture of what happened.

[10-x]

Made in china?????[smilie=1:

[Leadforbrains]

Made in china?????[smilie=1:


I wonder if there is any lead in them.

[Boerrancher]

Well fellas, thanks to our lovely socialist gov, starting in 2010 regular bulbs will be illegal. I don't know what my wife is going to do. Florescent light causes her to have bad headaches.

[waksupi]

Well fellas, thanks to our lovely socialist gov, starting in 2010 regular bulbs will be illegal. I don't know what my wife is going to do. Florescent light causes her to have bad headaches.

If it gives her bad headaches, you may want her to get checked for epilepsy. The light frequency can bring on syptems.

[Blammer]

mail order lightbulbs.

[Lee]

Don't know but suspect Sylvania fluorescents are made in China.
Guaranteed that Genital Eclectic bulbs are made in China, or whatever 3rd world cesspool bid lowest.
They are great for the light they put out versus wattage. The high initial cost about wipes out any "savings" to the consumer, though...........Lee

[testhop]

well i can two ways around iy
1 store up now
2 it will be mexico for smuggling in the reg. bulbs
3but what can you expect
after all we have been useing the oldones sence the beganing and what problums did we have none so it makes sence that some damn treehuger would bi&^h darn liberals
me i am going to stock up

[Firebird]

Well fellas, thanks to our lovely socialist gov, starting in 2010 regular bulbs will be illegal. I don't know what my wife is going to do. Florescent light causes her to have bad headaches.

For standard tube fluorescent bulbs you can now get electronic ballasts that change the frequency up into the kilohertz range, this stops the headaches etc. The headaches are caused by the 60 Hz blinking of fluorescent bulbs, this is just on the edge of detectability for people, some can't see it at all and aren't effected, others can actually see the blink consciously, most people have sub-conscious effects from the blink. By changing the blink rate to thousands of times per second, even the sub-conscious effects will disappear on everyone.

[10-x]

Just a thought,
What if a group started an old fashioned light blub business in mexico and used illegals to sneak them across the border?
Bet we..........ur ..they could make some big $$$$$$[smilie=1:

[Ricochet]

I bought some cheap Chinese CFs at Big Lots when they first started appearing on the consumer market. About 1/3 of them smoked within the first two minutes of service, but the rest have been running a long time with no sign of deterioration.

[NSP64]

Put up some solar panels and slowly switch to 12volt house:wink:
Wind turbine in my area

[KYCaster]

Group buy on incandescant bulbs?????? :drinks:

Seriously, the gov tells us not to eat fish from the Ohio River because they're poluted with Mercury, among other things, but its OK to throw your flourscent bulbs in the landfill!!!! Our local landfill has been cited because they can't contain their runoff. I doubt that its the only one with that problem.

So how can we have it both ways? Are these bulbs going to save the environment or are they going to kill us? I've asked a couple of tree huggers this question and they look at me like I have three heads. ( last time I checked, I only have one )

...I think I hear some helicopters comming...I better go put on my tin foil hat. Bye.


Jerry

[357maximum]

My biggest bi..I mean issue with them flo. bulbs is that one cannot use them on a dimmer....all my lights use a dimmer...I do not like a bright room. My wife claims it is because I am still not far enough removed from my cave dwelling genetics.....if she is right I really do not care...ugg ug ug grunt.8-)

[crazy mark]

Don't know but suspect Sylvania fluorescents are made in China.
Guaranteed that Genital Eclectic bulbs are made in China, or whatever 3rd world cesspool bid lowest.
They are great for the light they put out versus wattage. The high initial cost about wipes out any "savings" to the consumer, though...........Lee

Have you ever been to the GE factory at Nela Park in Cleveland. Nice place and according to them their lights are still made in the USA. The new ECO lamps have a minute amount of Mercury that actually impinges into the glass. Out here we have to recycle all lamps except for the incandescents. We go thru cases of flourescent lamps every month where I work and 95% of the fixtures are electronic ballasts. I have seen maybe 2 actually flame out in 33+ years and they were the older style. When the glass breaks on the compacts that heat thing happens. I have a seizure problem related to stroboscopic effects and the cycles have to get below 50 before they start bothering me.

[Ricochet]

I'm sure I've seen dimmable compact fluorescents mentioned. Dunno how they work or if they require a special dimmer.

[felix]

Yep, special dimmer required. Don't know, but I speculate it is a variable frequency dealie. ... felix

[The Double D]

well i can two ways around iy

2 it will be mexico for smuggling in the reg. bulbs


Oh gawd, I can see it now...I retired as a Customs Officer three months ago.

First we had the war on drugs!

Then we had the war on terrorism!

What's next the war on light bulbs!!

Freeze!!! Put up your hands!! No wait, don't drop those light bulbs!!!
Groan!!! Glad I retired.

[dakotashooter2]

Well fellas, thanks to our lovely socialist gov, starting in 2010 regular bulbs will be illegal

Gonna be some dark winters around here. It takes those compact things forever to light up in the cold. My basement is at about 62 degrees and it takes about 15 minutes for those compacts to achieve full brightness. I gave up on winter usage of florecents in my garage (unheated) years ago.


:brokenima

[crazy mark]

They make cold weather ballasts that start at almost 0 deg. We use them in parking garages and they work fine.

[Tom W.]

Get the series of Foxfire books and learn how to make candles....

[Typecaster]

They're about as useful as the no-flow water-conserving toilets...

I started marking the install date on the base of the CFs that I use in the studio, just to show my wife that it was false economy to use 'em because they don't last (as a rule). Kinda pointless now, as incandescents are going to be verbotten.

Don't you just love the social engineering?

Richard

[Lee]

Have you ever been to the pretty nice cliff just behind Nela Park? I have, used to work there. And watched them bulldoze tons of light bulbs of all kinds over the edge. Perhaps why Lake Erie fish are fluorescent?
They conned the gubmint into calling it a historic register. The day will yet come when you and I pay for their cleanup.
And by the way, when "neutron" Jack Welch came through(save the buildings, just take out the people) all the incandescent lamp making equipment got a coat of gray paint, manuals translated into Korean.
Displaced workers had a really nice outsourcing room, in a building rumored to be so contaminated with mercury that it couldn't be used for manufacturing.
I could go on, people could deny it, but I was there and saw enough of it first hand to know what I saw.
E 152nd Lamp Plant
Jefferson Lamp Plant
Andover Lamp Plant
Three I can think of local and off the top of my head. Always made a profit, just not enough to satisy "neutron".
Corporate greed is one of the biggest problems this country faces............

[Scrounger]

It is THE BIGGEST!!! And they whine the most about taxes. Six digit incomes should have at least a 90% tax; no tax at all on 1st $50,000. Why do I hear screams in the background here? Probably 90% of us would be better off under this system. The other 10% can afford it.

[44man]

Ooorah

[MT Gianni]

I say to abandon the minimum wage and install a maximum wage. No ones wage, incentives and bonus's or perks can add to over $2,000,000. Gianni