[Tig] bulbs for the home

[Steven Bradford]

Rob, it's funny, we were discussing this  a couple of weeks ago in  
The CML!

I've noticed that it's practically an article of faith and pride among
environmentalists and others who supposedly care about global warming in
this country, (particularly when I lived in the pacific northwest) to
NOT use these bulbs. 

You can get bulbs with much better CRI's, (color rendering indexes) if
you look for them on the web or specialty bulb stores. Yes, the super
cheapo ones don't look as good, work as well, etc as the more expensive
ones.

The energy savings are enormous. I switched over 15 years ago. I was
surprised at the immediate drop in my electric bill, in an all electric
house. Lighting really is our major home use.

You can get bulbs with dimming capablity, floods, small "candelabra"
base, magnum base and even different colors, not just daylight and
tungsten balance.

After all, these bulbs are used in some film lighting fixtures. They're
not 50/60 hz either. They're something like 10k hz.

Speaking of which, WalMart, one of the BigBads, is sponsoring an effort
to sell 100 million CFLs this year, and doing a lot of the supplier arm
twisting they're famous for. (see today's NYTimes. )

Oh, and before someone brings up the Mercury issue, most municipalities
have a way of disposing of it if the bulb are collected separately. If
not separated, they add less Mercury to the environment then burning
coal to illuminate  equivalent tungsten bulbs during the average
lifetime of a cfl does.

The thing is that you don't even have to change all your bulbs to make a
difference. How about changing just your porchlight or just in a
workroom etc? Save the warm cozy environmentally bad incandescent for
your reading lights or your pin spots or your bathroom mirror lights.

There is a secondary energy savings. In summer months in places that
need AC, ever watt of energy that enters the building adds to the AC
load, and has to be removed by the AC. So there is a double savings by
not using incandescents. How much of the energy in an incandescent bulb
goes to heat instead of light? NINETY PERCENT.

I know I sound snarky about this, but when I was living in a smugly and
self righteous "green" area I noticed that very of those people made the
smallest effort to save a sizable amount of energy and money. It's
easier to blame the big bad corporations for everything. 

It's one thing I can do to help. I despair about the political
leadership here. I already drive a 30mpg car, can't afford a Prius yet.

Steven Bradford
Dir. School of Film
Tempe Arizona