Efficency

It’s Time to Phase Out Fluorescent Lightbulbs, Report Finds

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It’s Time to Phase Out Fluorescent Lightbulbs, Report Finds

Much of the discussion about mercury and fluorescent lightbulbs have been around the compact fluorescent lights, (CFLs) also known as "toxic Gorebulbs." They had a tiny bit of mercury, about 1 milligram, and many people have replaced them with light emitting diodes (LED) bulbs.

But the real mercury problem is with the long thin fluorescent tubes that are in offices, factories, public spaces, and even in some homes. These have a lot of mercury in them—2 to 8 milligrams in each, averaging 2.7 milligrams—and there are billions of these bulbs still in use. Now a new study published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), CLASP, and the Clean Lighting Coalition calls for their phaseout.1

Even after LED lights were common, the T8 bulbs (the most common variety, one inch in diameter and four feet long) were not subject to any regulation because they were more efficient and cost-effective than LEDs, but that is no longer true as the LEDs have become cheaper and better.

Probably the only place that florescent bulbs might make sense is a handful of really old fixtures that use magnetic ballasts without starters. But other then that drop in LED bulbs work in most fixtures, even without removing the ballasts.

The High Pressure Sodium Light: Ubiquitous, effective, but good?

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Ever wonder why street lights are orange? For such a fast-paced world technology-wise, it seems somewhat odd that we are still using such a strange color of light for outdoor lighting. Well it turns out it is still a pretty good light source, though with limited use and perhaps a not-so-obvious flaw.

Those Dubai Lamps I just shared are pretty neat

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Those Dubai Lamps I just shared are pretty neat. It’s amazing what a government-enforced monopoly can do to light bulbs if they are forced to produce high quality, highly-efficient and long-lasting light bulbs. But those bulbs don’t come cheap. And if you don’t like the choice of lighting required by the Dubai government, you don’t have any alternative — Dubai light bulbs are the only ones allowed to be sold their country. But with those special bulbs, there will be a lot less bulbs being tossed in trash and a lot of energy saved.

What is Light Therapy & Does it Actually Work?

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What is Light Therapy & Does it Actually Work?

Here is a partial list of what one company promises sitting under a small panel of red lights will improve: athletic performance and recovery (owing to faster muscle recovery and joint repair), sleep (thanks to increased melatonin production and a “healthy circadian rhythm”), and skin quality (because of reduced inflammation and increased collagen production).

These red lights, in this case made by Joovv, are one of dozens of at-home versions of what’s known as light therapy, or photomedicine, or photobiomodulation, a technology based on the idea that light can change us on a cellular level. This past summer, the journal Frontiers in Medicine published an issue dedicated to photomedicine, and its 12 articles have an overwhelming effect similar to Joovv’s marketing copy, covering dermatological concerns like aging, skin cancer, and psoriasis as well as autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes. I like the way a 2016 journal article phrases it with a bad joke that gives away the researcher’s quiet exuberance: After a brief overview of peer-reviewed light-therapy treatments (for arthritis, hearing loss, and chemotherapy side effects), the conclusion states that “after decades confined to the ‘scientific wasteland,’ [photobiomodulation] may be finally emerging into the light of day (pun intended).”

It's pretty amazing what you can do with light these days, with narrow spectrum LEDs that can only produce the light you want.