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Home→Musing→Whats the carbon footprint of compact flouros? are they really green? LEDs are much better!

Whats the carbon footprint of compact flouros? are they really green? LEDs are much better!

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have just realised that Compact Flouro light bulbs are actually worse for the environment (and carbon emissions) than ordinary incandescent globes!

Many years ago, I decided to try a CF at home. It cost me $25, and it was intended to run at least 12 hours per day, so the 5000 hour lifespan was very tempting…

The 8watt CF replaced a 40watt globe

The CF was $25, the equivalent 40 watt globe was $0.50, so I needed to save over $24.50 to make it worthwhile.

I figured I would gain about 4000 hours out of the CF(compared to the incandescent globe) , so 4000 X 32Watt = 128000 watt hours… ie 128 Kwatt hours… at $0.15 per Kwatt hour, I’d save $19.20

Hey! Wheres the saving in that!

And then the CF stopped working after just 2000 hours!

Recently, with all the hype surrounding “green energy”, I’ve started thinking about the “total” carbon footprint of supposedly green items.

With CFs, you cannot just look at how much electricity they save you, you also need to consider how much energy and resources went into making them in the first place.

An incandescent is cheap because manufacturing it has a low environmental impact (and a low carbon footprint)… think about it… whats an incandescent made of? Glass, steel, a tiny tungsten filament, and a bit of “glue”

A CF, however, needs: a carefully manufactured, vacuum sealed glass tube (with a special coating on the inside), a circuit board with various electronic components all soldered together (so you get lead and lots of other toxic stuff)…

And as most engineers will tell you: the more components, the more things that can break down.

So, I reckon any carbon “savings” from a CF, will be lost in the extra carbon costs in making them in the first place.

So is there a way to be truly green with household lighting?

Not yet, but LED lighting is the way to go… it has hardly any disadvantages…

You can switch LEDs on and off thousands of times, and they won’t burn out (CFs and incandescents will burn out in a week if they are constantly switched on and off).

LEDs will eventually start to fade after a few years of use.

LEDs also don’t heat up like CFs and incandescent bulbs.

Its a pity that LED technology is not quite ready for illumination purposes. Hopefully, LEDs will be commercially viable soon!

Comments

Whats the carbon footprint of compact flouros? are they really green? LEDs are much better! — 4 Comments

  3. Hello CW.

    I did say that my first CF was many years ago (hence the $25).

    What I’m concerned about, is the claimed lifespan of CFs.

    My (admittedly little) experience showed that the lifespan was significantly lower than claimed (my first CF only lasted 3 or 4 months, and it was only switched on once per day…).

    I’ve recently got some “free” CFs (for switching electricity suppliers), so I’ll be keeping en eye on their lifespan.

    I’ve also noticed that if you carefully read all the pro-CF stats, the savings touted quietly imply savings from the moment *after* they are purchased, assuming they reach their full lifespan…

    I’d like to know how much energy/carbon goes into manufacturing CFs

    Even price is not a good indicator, as governments can use subsidies to alter the whole equation.

    And I’ve since been thinking of the larger picture: assuming you can save $10 – $15 by using CFs for 1 year… the whole saving is cancelled out by 1 week of driving a toyota landcruiser instead of a hyundai getz.

    Maybe we should be looking at the big/inefficient stuff first?

  4. Well, its been abot 8 or 9 months now, and none of the new flouros I’ve installed have failed.

    That means I’ve gotten some reasonable use out of them (compared to the first time I tried them… many years ago).

    I’ve also done some more research on LEDs, and it seems that they have problems that you don’t normally see with LED fashlights (which is the limit of my experience with white LEDs.

    In particular, it seems that high-output LEDs produce non-trivial amounts of heat. Its just that the heat is generated “behind” the LED.

    And… the light output varies with temperature. Oddly, an LED is brighter at low temperatures.

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