Re: Anyone moved to LED Lighting?

[don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Don Klipstein)]

In article <hgqh87$cps$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Robert Green wrote:
>"aemeijers" <aemeijers@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
><stuff snipped - sorry I am so late in responding - been away>
>
>> > CFL, the resultant energy savings would eliminate greenhouse gases equal
>> > to the emissions of 800,000 cars..."
>> >
>>
>> Not saying that CFL's aren't a good thing. But press releases full of
>> SWAG numbers like that irritate me. Way too many uncontrolled variables
>> for them to come up with a hard number. How many hours a day is this
>> 'one bulb per house' supposed to be on and what wattage? What type of
>> cars are those 80,000 cars, and how many hours a day are they lit up,
>> and at what speeds? And so on and so on...
>
>Precisely.  There are SO damn many variables to consider that a hard and
>fast number like 80K is immediately suspect, especially coming from a
>government that was so sure Saddam had WMDs we bankrupted the US trying to
>find them.
>
>While both LEDs and CFLs clearly cut down on energy use, only LEDs do it
>without adding mercury to every house and business in the nation.  The
>analysis is really quite simple.  Choose the product *without* the deadly
>neurotoxin in every box.  For the people unhappy about the color quality or
>the harshness of the light, consider this:  The Declaration of Independence
>and the Constitution were both written with the help of candlelight.  I
>don't know how many people on earth still live without electricity, but I've
>seen estimates that say that it's more than 1.6 billion that live in
>darkness.
>
>Yes, LED bulbs are more expensive now, but what will it cost us to clean up
>all the mercury from CFLs in the future?

<SNIP bring in asbestos>

  Compared to incandescent, CFLs in USA on average reduce mercury
contamination of the environment.

  Burning coal is a major source of mercury pollution, to such an extent
that a CFL successfully replacing a 60 watt incandescent and lasting over
5,000 hours, or successfully replacing a 100 watt incandescent and lasting
over 3,000 hours, achieves a reduction of mercury pollution - even if the
CFLs are not disposed of properly.

  Meanwhile, they can be.  I have heard that Home Depot accepts dead CFLs
for proper disposal.  There is also www.lamprecycle.org.

 - Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)