Today’s entry was sparked by carmen’s sister inquiring about mercury in compact florescent lights (CFL).

We are currently working to move from incandescent light bulbs to CFLs because they use substantially less energy than incandescents. We’ve been silently working on this for a few weeks now and as we try new things so do we learn!

I did some research and yes, CFLs have a very small amount of mercury in them – but not enough to make you sick. The mercury is contained as long as you don’t break them and if they do break and you clean them up properly you should be fine.

This fact sheet from the EPA says that the creation of an incandescent light bulb actually puts more mercury into the environment than what is contained in a CFL. It also has info on how to properly clean up a broken CFL light bulb. The amount of mercury in a CFL is roughly the size of the tip on a ball point pen – substantially less, even, than that contained in old thermostats. On a side note – I used to break thermostats when I was a kid so I could play with the mercury inside – ah the good ‘ol days of playing with toxic chemicals.

With the creation of incandescent lights emitting (overall) more mercury than a CFL I think we’re definitely making the right choice to change out our incandescents with CFLs. The reason incandescents use so much power is because they’re emitting more heat energy than light energy – CFLs generate very little heat and thereby are more efficient. You also lower your risk of incandescent light-related fires. My friend burned his house down with an incandescent light a long time ago and I also melted the hood of my frog tank with an incandescent so I know they can be pretty dangerous.

Here is another fact sheet on the safety of CFLs containing mercury. They’re perfectly safe as long as you don’t break them and you also want to recycle them when they go out years from now. Hopefully by then we’ll have decent recycling facilities for CFLs. Currently, if you just throw a CFL in the trash it’s going to a landfill where it will be broken and the small amount of mercury contained in the bulb will be absorbed into the soil. Currently IKEA is one of the only businesses who offer CFL recycling to their customers. YAY IKEA!

When we swapped out a three way incandescent with an equivalent of 75 watts CFL we noticed that it was a lot dimmer than our previous incandescent. We changed it out with an equivalent of 100 watts CFL and noticed a brighter light. Overall though it’s still probably going to be a little dimmer than an incandescent – that’s the price you pay for a more economical/environmentally friendly bulb!

For the brightness issue we learned that you really have to find the right wattage. If you’re using a 60 watt incandescent – go for a CFL that is the equivalent of a higher wattage incandescent. I *think* that when a light fixture says only use X watt bulbs they are primarily speaking about incandescent bulbs and it’s primarily because of the heat they emit and the large amount of energy they use. With CFLs you have to worry less because the equivalent wattage of an incandescent is lower. For instance, a 60 Watt Incandescent can be replaced by a 14 Watt CFL if the max is 100 Watts you’ve got a long way to go!

It is also important to get the right bulb for the right job – there are different CFLs for 3-way and dimming fixtures. This website should be able to help find the right bulb for the right job.

As part of our mission to change the lights, we have pledged to change out 10 incandescents with 10 CFLs this year thanks to the Environmental Defense Make the Switch campaign.

How many light bulbs are you going to switch?

Check out this cool table with stats on savings with CFLs versus incandescents from the Environmental Defense website!