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Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Enviro Light Bulbs fluorescent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enviro Light Bulbs fluorescent. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2008

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008


Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

When the Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis., was considering how to light its new factory last year, the company’s president, Michael Farrell, decided to try something new:
light emitting diodes, or L.E.D.’s.

“I knew L.E.D.’s were used in stoplights. I wondered why they can’t be used in buildings,” Mr. Farrell said. “So I went on a mission.”

What Mr. Farrell found was a light source that many of the biggest bulb manufacturers are now convinced will supplant incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs.

[…]

L.E.D. bulbs, with their brighter light and longer life, have already replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation’s traffic lights. Indeed, the red, green and yellow signals are — aside from the tiny blinking red light on a DVD player, a cellphone or another electronic device — probably the most familiar application of the technology.

But it is showing up in more prominent spots. The ball that descends in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is illuminated with L.E.D.’s. And the managers of the
Empire State Building are considering a proposal to light it with L.E.D. fixtures, which would allow them to remotely change the building’s colors to one of millions of variations.

The nation’s Big Three of lighting —
General Electric, Osram Sylvania and Royal Philips Electronics — are embracing a new era of more efficient technologies, like halogen, compact fluorescent and solid-state devices. Encouraged by legislation and the rising cost of energy, as well as concerns about greenhouse gases, consumers are swapping out incandescent bulbs.

The switch is forcing a fast change in strategy, as companies reposition their manufacturing lines. General Electric, for instance, said earlier this month that it was spinning off its unit that makes bulbs.

The bulb makers face a tough problem. Their businesses were built on customers who regularly replaced light bulbs. How do you make a profit when new lighting may commonly last 50 to 100 times as long as a standard bulb? Compact fluorescents, which use less than one-third the power and last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs, have replaced incandescent bulbs in many homes and offices.

[…]


Read the rest of the article here:
Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008


20080728 Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb Time Has Come by Eric Taub

Friday, March 28, 2008

20080326 Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs by the Business and Media Institute

Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs by the Business and Media Institute

Each CFL contains about 5 milligrams of mercury. That’s enough for state environmental agencies to recommend complicated and expensive cleanups for accidental bulb breaks in homes.

Related:

20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs

Journalists' beloved 'eco-friendly' lights now considered more dangerous than originally thought, after government mandate required their use.

By Nathan Burchfiel

Business & Media Institute

3/26/2008

What is it about government mandates that curse innovation to failure?

Ethanol turned out to be more environmentally harmful than the fossil fuels it was replacing via federal mandate. Now scientists understand the “green” compact fluorescent light bulbs to be dangerous because they contain mercury.

While scientists couldn’t agree on just how beneficial compact fluorescent light bulbs were, journalists on network news shows had widely agreed that CFLs are a good thing.

“They last 10 times longer and they’re really great for the environment,” Kris Connell of Real Simple Magazine said on “The Early Show” March 10.

Each of the three broadcast networks has featured the bulbs and promoted them as energy-efficient, environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional incandescent bulbs. Journalists and others who support the bulbs touted their benefits but rarely focused on the potential risks.

NBC’s “Today” show featured the bulbs on its “Today Goes Green” series Jan. 23, 2008, as one way average Americans can adjust their lives to be more “environmentally friendly.”

“If every American home replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL, in one year it would save enough energy to light more than three million American homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 800,000 cars,” co-host Meredith Vieira said.

“Replace just one of your standard light bulbs with one of those curly compact fluorescent lamps,” Diane Sawyer suggested on ABC’s “Good Morning America” April 20. “If every household in the U.S. replaced just one standard bulb with a CFL tomorrow … it would be like taking 2 million cars off the road.”

The Sept. 28, 2007, CBS “Early Show” even said “going green,” including switching from traditional incandescent bulbs to CFLs, was “good for your health, it’s good for your pocketbook, and it’s good for the environment.”

The print media joined in. USA Today called them the “wave of the future” in March 2007. The Los Angeles Times said in April 2007 the bulbs “would be good for the environment and consumers’ pocketbooks.”

With this help from the media, proponents of the bulbs convinced Congress to ban incandescent light bulbs in the energy bill President Bush signed into law in Dec. 19, 2007. The bill increases efficiency standards and effectively bans traditional bulbs by 2014, a timetable considered a victory by supporters like Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who was the first to introduce legislation that would ban the bulbs.

But what the media ignored or downplayed in the run-up to the ban was that CFLs contain mercury, a highly toxic metal infamous for its presence in thermometers. In the last two years, network news shows mentioned the CFL-mercury link only seven times. Four of the reports came after the incandescent ban had already been signed into law.

Each CFL contains about 5 milligrams of mercury. That’s enough for state environmental agencies to recommend complicated and expensive cleanups for accidental bulb breaks in homes.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recommended a woman contact a hazardous waste cleanup company when a CFL broke on her child’s bedroom carpet, sending the mercury level to more than six times the “safe” limit. The crew estimated the cleanup would cost $2,000.

The Maine DEP no longer recommends such an expensive cleanup process, but now suggests a 14-point cleanup plan.

The 5 milligrams of mercury are also enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, according to a March 19 MSNBC.com article that “extrapolated from Stanford University research on mercury.”

Read the entire article: Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs

Monday, December 17, 2007

20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

Senate Energy Committee hearing Wednesday - - S2017

http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Jane+Harman+Light+Bulb+Efficiency+Standards&gwp=13

http://green.yahoo.com/18seconds/

http://www.house.gov/harman/press/archive.shtml

#### 12/17/2007 ####

_____

Update: March 28, 2008


Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs - misc.health.alternative | Google Groups
The bill increases efficiency standards and effectively bans traditional bulbs
by 2014, a timetable considered a victory by supporters like Rep. Jane Harman ...
groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/ browse_thread/thread/d215ea606dcae214/7735aedd9a26bd32

The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman - News - HARMAN ...
Jane Harman (D-Venice) and Fred Upton (R-MI) to ban by 2020 the sale of any light
bulb that is not three times more efficient than today’s incandescent ...
www.house.gov/list/press/ca36_harman/June_27.shtml

Energy bill boosts fuel-economy standards - Los Angeles Times
Dec 19, 2007 ... Harman's provision would require that by 2020 light bulbs be at least three ...
to set stricter energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs. ...
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/ la-na-energy19dec19,0,1969731.story?coll=la-home-center

EarthNews » Archive » Light-bulb bill a likely winner if ...
Sep 13, 2007 ... Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich. ... If Congress passes light-bulb
efficiency legislation, it would join a host of other ...
www.earthportal.org/news/?p=469

Hill Heat : S.2017, to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation ...
‘Tough’ Standards. Representative Jane Harman, a chief sponsor of the House ...
inefficient incandescent light bulbs toward higher-efficiency standards. ...
www.hillheat.com/events/2007/09/12/ s-2017-to-amend-the-energy-policy-and-conservation-act-to-prov...

Bill to Ban Regular Light Bulbs Introduced in House -- 03/21/2007
Mar 21, 2007 ... Jane Harman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would set target ... ban light
bulbs that do not comply with energy-efficiency targets. ...
www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/ Nation/archive/200703/NAT20070321a.html

News Archive - The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman
The Virtual Office of Congresswoman Jane Harman. return to the home page ...
PROVISION TO INCREASE LIGHT BULB EFFICIENCY PASSES HOUSE Harman-authored ...
www.house.gov/harman/press/archive.shtml

Jane Harman - SHARP Network
HARMAN, Jane F., a Representative from California; born in New York, N.Y., June 28,
... By 2020, the bill requires that light bulbs be at least 3 times more ...
sharp.sefora.org/people/house/jane-harman/

Kah Zoohl List: Light Bulbs and Liberty
Congresswoman Jane Harman is one of the few Democratic politicians whom I ...
YOUR LIBERTY to set minimum efficiency standards for light bulbs and ban the ...
kazoolist.blogspot.com/2007/03/ light-bulbs-and-liberty.html

Bush signs bill to increase fuel efficiency - Los Angeles Times
Dec 20, 2007 ... click to enlarge. We ban by 2012 the famously inefficient 100-watt incandescent
bulb. — Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) ...
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/ la-na-energy20dec20,1,3516223.story

For more information: Jane Harman Light Bulb Efficiency Standards