Thread: Who says going electronic necessarily is going green?
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Old 05-15-2009, 03:14 PM   #27
mjh215
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Join Date: Apr 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yekim54 View Post
Here is a picture of a CFL bulb that burned out in my house last night. I noticed it flickering but thought it was the thunderstorm we were having at the time. Then I smelled an "electrical fire" type odor. Then it stopped working. I hope I didn't breathe in any mercury vapor.
I don't know if the gas was released or not, I do know that it isn't the bulb that burns out but the ballast (base). And it has been a concern of mine since the first CFL I bought, I've seen two catch fire, though the flame isn't sustained. I use them, but only in those fixtures where an open flame couldn't reach anything flammable. I know most CFL's have a narrow voltage range, and operating them below that range can lead to them catching on fire. This is why you don't use them with dimmer switches (they have CFL's you can, but not the standard ones). I wonder if there wasn't a slight dip in voltage and that caused mine to catch.

Fires caused by CFL's scare me a great deal more then the mercury, I've swallowed probably a billion times more mercury from fillings (and so have most people) than would get absorbed into your system from the small amount in the tube. It sort of reminds me of lead hysteria... I've got 5, 10 and 25lb ingots of lead sitting around, thanks to all the hysteria I could probably hold up a bank with one of them... (No, I wouldn't, lol)

As to all the 'green' consumerism going on right now, education is really what we need. And a non-disposable attitude. The amount of recycled material is nice in Ikea furniture, but if me or Yvan were to build a nice desk (we're woodworkers) it could, with very basic upkeep, be a multi-generational piece of furniture lasting hundreds of years. Most things like the above flat-box furniture are purchased and discarded after a few years. Making things out of bamboo is nice if you aren't creating more damage with the binders, and if those binders will last more then a few months/years. Many of the same people that preach to me on 'green' topics also go out and buy new computers, cell phones, and dozens of other gadgets every couple months. Since the items are small they think their impact is small.

-MJ
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