Sum It Up

The quarter is ending and the research section of our project is over. I hope that our CFL blog has given some readers better ideas and understandings about CFL bulbs.

To close the blog, I have added a great informative YouTube clip that compares the CFL against the Incandescent. It's not too long so go take a look.

Thanks to all the people who participated in our CFL research survey.

Have a Happy Holidays All!

Energy-Efficient or a Pain in the Bulb?

"The CFL spiral design is a symbol of "going green," the movement to make homes and living more energy-efficient. And sales of compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, are booming: They made up 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market in 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency says, up from 11 percent a year earlier.

Sales probably will continue rising as traditional incandescent bulbs begin disappearing from stores because of Congress' mandate that light bulbs be at least 25 percent more efficient by 2012. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, IKEA and other major retailers now sell a range of CFLs, which typically use nearly 75 percent less energy than regular bulbs..."

That is actually an excerpt from an article with constructive criticism towards CFL's. If you are not out shopping today and would like a good read please go to the following link to read the whole article.

ABCNews on CFLs

Our survey deadline was yesterday but the survey link is still active for stragglers who would like to participate in our research.

Happy Black Friday All! Unless you work in retail and you probably have to get up in 3-4 hours to get to work...

Save a Chicken! Eat a Turkey!

Check out the line graph I added above, this graph compares the usage difference between incandescent bulbs and CFL bulbs. As you can see CFL's use a lot less energy, which would help reduce your energy bills!

Today is the last day for everyone to take our survey, so please go take it if you haven't already. You can locate our survey link in the top right corner of our blog.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

CFL Tool

Happy hump day all. A group mate of mine sent me an awesome CFL tool to play with. The tool helps you calculate the amount of money you can be saving if you switched over to a CFL bulb! Go check it out, use the follow link:

CFL Savings Calculator

Time is running out, go take our survey if you haven't already. You can find our link to survey in the top right corner of our blog.

Something New!

Good Tuesday everyone! Instead of providing a factoid about CFLs today, I thought I would update the blog with a new "widget." I added a link list to the right hand pane of the page with some informative CFL videos.

Please go take a look AFTER you take our CFL survey and polls, for research purposes. Thank you!

Did You Know...

There are two types of CFLs: integrated and non-integrated lamps.

Integrated CFLs

Integrated lamps combine a tube, an electronic ballast and either an Edison screw or bayonet fitting in a single CFL unit. These lamps allow consumers to replace incandescent lamps easily with CFLs. Integrated CFLs work well in standard incandescent light fixtures. This lowers the cost of CFL use, since they can reuse the existing infrastructure.

Non-integrated CFLs

Non-integrated CFLs have a separate, replaceable bulb and a permanently installed ballast. Since the ballasts are placed in the light fixture they are larger and last longer, compared to the integrated ones. Non-integrated CFL housings can be both more expensive and sophisticated, providing options such as dimming, less flicker, faster starts, etc.

Now that you had your CFL quick fix of the day, go take our survey! You can find the link in the top right corner of our blog page.

Advice for Cleaning Up After Breaking a CFL Bulb

Broken CFLs are a big issue when it comes to purchasing these bulbs, so I wanted to lay down some tips on how to properly clean a broken CFL bulb:

• Leave the room and ventilate for 15 minutes or more
• While wearing rubber gloves, scoop up glass shards and debris from the bulb with a stiff piece of cardboard
• Avoid creating or inhaling dust from the broken bulb
• Don't use a vacuum or broom to clean up after a broken bulb on hard surfaces
• Place the remains in a plastic bag
• Wipe up the immediate area with a damp paper towel put it in the bag as well and seal it
• If you need to use a vacuum on carpet, place the filter bag in a plastic bag as well
• Wash your hands after finishing the clean up

CFL Cleanup kits are also available for purchase to help you clean up those broken bulbs. The picture header is an example of how a kit would look like.

Take our CFL survey, it's a great way to start your weekend! (See top right hand corner area for the link to our survey)