Re: CFL's and X-10

["news.giganews.com" <Sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Robert Green" wrote:
>
> I also should add another one at the request of my wife:  9) that they fail
> benignly, without filling a room with acrid burning plastic smell and smoke.

I don't know where RG gets his CFL's but I've used them for some time and have
not seen a single one give off any odor at all.  They last a long time, cost
less to operate than incandescents, save precious resources and con tribute
far less pollution in the process.

> While I realize that they aren't going to catch fire, and that electrically
> speaking a CFL failure is a lot less likely to blow a circuit breaker than a
> tungsten bulb, my wife is very sensitive to burning smells and the CFLs
> really spook her.

Mine has asthma and is extremely sensitive to smells like burning.  She used
CFL's in her (now our) condo in Brazil for years without any of the ill
effects Bobby reports.  Then again, neither she nor I am on a compaign for or
*against* CFL's.

> That reminds me of a pet peeve: CFL bulbs that say "remove by grasping
> plastic base, never by glass tube" as if there's ever been enough ROOM in a
> standard lamp head to get your fingers and the bulb's electronics bay in
> there at the same time.

The above makes me wonder if the author has ever seen, much less used a CFL.
All the models I've seen have a rather bulky area containing the electronics.
One I just examined has over an inch high module -- plenty of room to grasp
and turh the lamp.  However, there is no warning not to handle the glass tube.
Unless there are other models with such a warning on them, I suspect Bobby is
confusing CFL's with halogen bulbs.  Those can suffer an early demise if the
oil from your fingers gets on the glass.

> Hopefully, in a few years, the big bulb makers
> will be able to develop incandescent bulbs that convert the IR portion of
> the light back to visible light and HE tungsten bulbs can be used in all the
> places that CFL's have problems.

Perhaps we'll also develope an infinite motion device as well.

> Or maybe universally as CFL's flicker on
> into history with the eight track tape machine.

Better yet, how about a discussion of the relavent issues on Usenet, unclouded
by personal agenda.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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