Why don't people always use energy saving lights?

Answer 1

The only widely-available replacement for the standard incandescent light bulb is the compact fluorescent light (CFL). While these bulb replacements (actually spiraled, gas-filled tubes) use much less electricity to operate, they cost much more to purchase and have other liabilities. People who don't always use energy-saving lights may simply have not gotten around to it yet, or they may have made a choice against them, balancing the positives and negatives. Here are some of the negatives related to compact fluorescents: * Initial cost of replacment CFLs is high, many times the cost of a light bulb. * Economic payoff may not come for a few years. * It's expensive to replace all the lights in a house at once. * Although these expensive CFLs are supposed to last much longer than light bulbs, they often don't. * Some CFLs are particular about which direction they're pointed; they don't last as long or put out as much light if pointed the wrong way. * Many CFLs don't immediately put out the full expected amount of light; they may take a few seconds--or longer, in cold areas--to warm up. * CFLs do not work well in very cold places. * Aesthetics: the look of a twisted coil is seen as less attractive than a glowing, lit globe. * The light put out by a CFL--generally the "cool white" color most fluorescent tubes produce--is dfferent from the red-yellow light people are used to in the home. (Although "blue-light" CFLs are becoming available.) * CFLs, as all fluorescents, flicker 60 times a second. Some people are uncomfortably sensitive to the flicker. * CFLs may also produce an irritating buzz or hum that some are disturbed by. * CFLs produce electromagnetic interference that can interfere with radio reception. * CFLs are not available as replacements for candelabra and other designer or specialty bulbs. * If a lamp or a light fixture cannot accommodate CFLs, a new fixture that does would have to be purchased and installed. * CFLs are not yet available as floodlights or spotlights. * The actual environmental impact of manufacturing a CFL is worse than for manufacturing a standard bulb; the CFL contains plastics, electronics, and Mercury. * CFLs are generally not as weather-resistant as ordinary light bulbs. * A broken CFL (as with any fluorescent light) releases poisonous mercury. If broken over a carpet, there is no safe way a householder can clean up the chemical spill. It will likely be necessary to cut out a portion of the carpet. * There are tools available, using grippers or suction cups on long handles, for removing and replacing high-up light bulbs. Such tools will not work with most CFLs, and it is inadvisable in any case to grasp the tube itself and risk breakage. New designs of CFLs are coming out often; they may have now or soon solved some of the above issues. Lights that produce illumination through the use of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are starting to be produced; they may be a superior and better-accepted solution.