Yet another thing for couples to fight about, which lightbulb to use. A recent report on Marketplace talked about the influx of CFL lightbulbs into our greener homes, and the not so pleasant side effect. What if you and your partner don't agree on lighting choices?
Scott Case and his wife, Victoria Williams, don't see eye to eye. He wants to go green,but she hates how long a CFL bulb takes to light up. We chuckled at the lengths a husband will go to to try to fool his wife. Case uses all sorts of techniques in his battle with wife Victoria to get CFLs into the house. He tries to find ones that look like incandescent bulbs. He puts them in hard-to-reach fixtures. He mixes them up with the regular bulbs so any difference in light is subtle.
Do you live in a split-lit household? How do you resolve this conflict?
Image: AzAdam
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I heard this same report the other night. One thing struck me as they talked about the newer versions of the lights that will be coming out later this year:
Will the early adapters switch to the newer product, wasting their still-functioning CFLs? Or will they behave themselves and wait the estimated 6,000-15,000 hours until their current CFLs burn out?
view Liz's profile
While my spouse doesn't particularly have an opinion as to what lighting I use. I, myself, am torn between CFL and Incandescent bulbs for the exact reasons this article states (every one of them.) I have recently switched to a mix of bulbs because I have noticed (by no scientific means) that my indoor plants enjoy a mixed spectrum.
view ElectricVegetable's profile
Ever since we switched to (mostly) CFLs (I keep thinking Canadian Football League), I don't think I can ever go back. I think the extra time they take to turn on is negligible and you get used to it after a while. They're much brighter, and make my small, one-bedroom apartment with windows on only one wall look a bit more inhabitable.
As for the early adopters switching to the newer product, I think the way to go about that is instead of switching ALL your bulbs over at once, replace them a few at a time and then you won't be stuck with a dozen of them when it comes time to switch.
Also, a lot of people don't want to spend the extra money on the CFLs, so places like Freecycle could be a way to get the newer models without throwing them all away. And aren't there CFL recycling programs now? At Ikea, to name one?
view burnstoemerge's profile