Light bulbs ban

[Narz]

Fun fact... looking at the sun blinds you. Don't do it!

You can look towards the sun without getting blinded. Anyway, I think it's pretty much impossible to go blind staring at the sun because if it's that bright your eyelids will automatically shield you.

What are you doing with your lightbulbs? The houses I've lived in for the past 15 years have been almost exclusively CFL lighting, and I've never seen a single CFL broken.

Things break, I've only had a couple of lightbulbs break in my lifetime (only one I can remember is when I was 11 or 12 shadow boxing in front of the mirror & broke one of those big globes that house bulbs usually seen in front of bathroom mirrors ).

 

[emzie]

In many parts of the United States and Canada, toilets that use thirteen litres (3.4 US gallon / 2.8 imperial gallon) or more to flush have been banned in favor of toilets using six litres (1.6 US gallons / 1.3 imperial gallons) or less.

The EVIL GOVERNMENT!!

And people now buy older toilets for that reason.

 

[El_Machinae]

Might you have a link that explains this in detail? If CFLs are not damaged as much as older bulbs, only use perhaps a fifth of the electrical energy, and with older bulbs "startup surge" was a myth and it was thought that unless you were turning it off for less than a few seconds you should leave it on, I don't quite understand the logic.

It's just something I've heard a few times from people who care about energy savings. Here's a decent quotation.

Question
Can I turn my Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) on and off frequently? I've been told I have to turn it on and leave it on all day.

Answer
Turning a CFL on and off frequently can shorten its life. To take full advantage of the energy savings and long life of ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs, it is best to use them in light fixtures you use the most and are on for at least 15 minutes at a time. Good locations include outdoor light fixtures, indoor fixtures in the living room, family room, kitchen, bedroom, recreation room, etc. This is not to say you should leave your lights on all day if you use ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs. It is still a good habit to turn the lights off when you leave the room for an extended period of time.

You may also have heard that CFLs use a lot of energy when turning on and off. While there is a brief surge in energy use when a CFL is turned on, with today's starting technology, that surge usually lasts about a tenth of a second and consumes about as much energy as five seconds of normal operation. So, even when turned on and off frequently, a CFL uses less energy than its incandescent equivalent. But because turning a CFL on and off more frequently can shorten its life and CFLs are more expensive than incandescents, we recommend consumers use CFLs in applications where they are on for at least fifteen minutes.

http://energystar.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energystar.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2569