Do compact fluorescent lights really save energy?

[DavidV]

By David from Truth, Justice, and the American Way,cross-posted by MetaBlog

Earlier this month, Congress passed a law which will essentially force the public to switch to compact fluorescent lights. (CFLs)  Environmentalists and light bulb makers joined forces to boost power and profits, and perhaps sue the competition out of existence.Some people object to the narrow light spectrum and toxic Mercury content of CFL lights, but I don’t care about those things.  I have replaced most of the incandescent lights in my apartment, and plan to eventually replace the rest.  What I question is not the usefulness of CFLs, but the premise that switching to them will “save energy.”

As with most goods and services, the price of a utility influences the quantity I am willing to pay for.  When the price of gas doubles, I reconsider taking road trips, and try to be more efficient with my driving.  Likewise, when the price of electricity falls, I am more liberal with my power consumption.   Compact fluorescent lights lower the cost of lightning in two ways: they use one quarter of the energy, and they last ten times as long.  These innovations encourage greater usage of lighting.

I have a spiffy IKEA lamp behind my couch, but because I don’t have a light in my ceiling fan, it needs to be extra bright.  Furthermore, the geometry of my living room makes it annoying to walk behind the couch every day to turn it on.  By switching to a compact fluorescent light, I was able to get a 100 watt equivalent light in a 60 watt socket, and thanks to its efficiency and long life, I just leave the light permanently on.  I am enjoying greater convenience, but I don’t know if I am saving any energy.

If the average consumer’s monthly lightning budget is fixed, they might compensate for the higher efficiency and lifespan of CFLs by increasing their lightning usage to completely offset any energy reduction.  This would be especially true if consumers are forced to switch to CFLs by legislators rather than a desire to save energy costs.  Much as auto safety regulations can lead to reckless behavior, forcing consumers to switch to more efficient lights might actually increase their energy usage.

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[Capitalism Forever]

If the average consumer’s monthly lightning budget is fixed

I thought Zeus might have had a monthly lightning budget, but the average American consumer?

Now, as for saving energy: The free-market allocation of resources is always the most efficient one. Any bureacratic interference can only make it less efficient, or at best equally efficient--never more so. As the example you give shows, if your marginal cost of keeping the lights on is lower (and you're forced to incur the greater initial fixed cost anyway), you will have less of an incentive to turn them off--and that is only one of the countless ways in which the politically correct lights will lead to increased energy consumption. Another one is the increased amount of energy people will be expending on recovering from the headaches and eye problems caused by the fluorescents.

But all this is irrelevant, because the fluorescent lights are not here to stay either. After getting rid of Edison's light bulbs, environmentalists will turn against any and all replacements that manufacturers come up with, just like they turned against coal and oil after they ostracized nuclear power, and are beginning to turn against wind and solar power now. Given the fact, all too frequently pointed out, that the fluorescent lights contain mercury, it is not difficult to predict the path their attack will take. They will find something wrong with LEDs too, and if you think they'll let you at least keep your candles, you're way too naive. The darkness of the grave is the only goal the viros really pursue, and right now there is nothing and nobody to stop them from making it a reality for all mankind. The politicians will be eager to enact all the deadly laws they demand, and the businessmen will ask them to demand more.

[DavidOdden]

My main objections to CFLs is as follows. 1: it is unproven and irrelevant that they consume less energy, considering total energy consumption (including manufacture). 2: It is unproven and questionable that the energy cost that I will have to pay for use, plus the cost of the object, is less than the cost for equivalent incandescent lumination.. 3: CFLs suck for outdoor lighting in the winter. 4: CFLs are, apparently, nonexistent for the smaller base sizes. 5: They often go bad about 5 times faster than advertised (perhaps a quality control issue that is being addressed by the industry). 6: They don't fit in some lamps, requiring the lamp to be chucked (which I did, once the damn lamp up and broke).

On the plus side, they don't generate much heat. Right now, who cares, but in July and August, I care. I think my third objection may be the only fundamentally unresolvable one (physics geeks, please weigh in), and of course point 1 is that who the hell cares about "saving energy"? The others are being / have been addressed by the industry, in response to consumer demands. That is something that's possible in a free market economy, but not at al mandated in a state-controlled economy.

[D'kian]

I've been using them for a while. Overall I like not changing lightbulbs too often, especially at my new place which has higher ceilings. But they don't last as long as advertised, and the cheaper brands last even less.

I'm still waiting to get LEDs. They are supposed to be even brighter, consume much less energy and last a lot longer than even fluorescents.

[Steve D'Ippolito]

I've been using them for a while. Overall I like not changing lightbulbs too often, especially at my new place which has higher ceilings. But they don't last as long as advertised, and the cheaper brands last even less.

I'm still waiting to get LEDs. They are supposed to be even brighter, consume much less energy and last a lot longer than even fluorescents.

I won't even dork around with anything else for a flashlight unless it fills a niche that doesn't have an LED version (e.g., my multimillion candlepower photon cannon).