Flouresent or Incandescent

[n2ize]

Recently my Mom read an article stating that these new compact fluorescent lightings are not good for health. Foiorst she heard they leach mercury and second that they cause eyestrain, headaches, and are generally unhealthy.

I tend to think otherwise. First off the amount of mercury in a typical CFL bulb is miniscule. Second off, the bulbs are sealed. The mercury can't get out unless its broken, and even when broken the amount is negligible.

Last off I think any kind of lighting can cause eyestrain. If you are doing any type of intensive reading or desk-work for long time periods you should always take breaks and rest the eyes. In that sense I doubt that fluorescent lighting is any worst than incandescent,.

I generally prefer florescent lighting to incandescent. My preference is for regular old fashioned straight tube fluorescents with a colour temperature of 5000K or more. That would mean that I like lighting that is very intense white or even bluish-white, such as obtained from a "cool-white" or "Daylight" fluorescent. My entire home/office/work area is lit by a combination of CFL's, and straight tube daylight fluorescents.

There is an intense rivalry between people who like fluorescents versus incandescents. Those who prefer incandescents tend to berate the fluorescent crowd and the florescent crowd tennds to attack and shun the incandescent crowd.

There are some areas where I do prefer incandescents. Christmas and decorative lightings, candelabra chandelier and mood lighting, refrigerator and appliance lighting, dummy loads, are a few areas where incandescents still rule the night.

For outdoor lighting and/or outdoor cold weather lighting I prefer high intensity discharge lighting, i.e mercury vapour, sodium vapour or metal halide lighting.

I wonder how the newer LED lighting will be ? Thus far I am not all that impressed with LED lighting, except in flashlights, hobby, and electronics.

What type of lighting do you prefer ? And why ?

[PA5COR]

I always used TL lighting in places where you needed lotss of light, kitchen, shack in colour 33 daylight.
When the first energy saving lights based on CFL came out i replaced the most used lamps with them, just short used lights like toilet shed etc, were the old lamps.
Now i use a mix of LED lamps, commercially made and homebrew LED lighting.
And CFL latest generation, which have very loow mercury content, and if they fail i take them to the dump where there is a special container for dangerous waste.

In the shack i still have the TL lighting and switchable from 20 watts up to 140 watts from different directions making it virtually shaddow free.
I also have a portable 2 x 20 watt TL lamp, on NiMh battery's running one lamp 4 hours, 2 for 2 hours as back up for the large Maglite's ( LED)
Porch and backyard light is LED lamps, quick on, don't mind cold and for the 6 watts i get a lot of light per LED lamp.

Hallway and stairs 24/7 homebrew LED lights.
Attic and reloading place 2 x 40 watt TL and 2 x 20 watt TL directly over the reloading bench.

Bedrooms mix of LED/CFL in warm tones, main light White

Shed LED, will be solar panel fed with battery being independant of the grid.
Other rooms/places depending on light needed CFL/LED

Equipment meter lighting, white LED's ( MFJ 993B, MFJ 998, Daiwa CN-801 several Diamond SWR/Power meters, etc.

[n2ize]

I think the stuff about the dangers of mercury in florescent lamps is way way overly exxaceraged. When i was a kid I used to play with mercury. We'd pour some into a dish and smak it with a coin too break it up into tiny drops and then we'd roll them around gathering all the tiny droplets back into the original big glob.. In later years i worked for Duracell doing battery research. I handled large containers containg several pounds of mercury as well as powdered zinc-mercury amalgams, dissolved mercury, mercury vapour and powdered cadmium. Of course we wore masks and used ventilation and we were blood tested for heavy metal exposure regularly. Even though we used safety measures rest assured, i was exposed to more mercury than a person would ever be exposed to from thousands of broken CFL bulbs.

[KG4CGC]

Everything your mother read is probably wrong. Lack of broad spectrum light causes eyestrain more than anything else and incandescent lighting lacks the proper spectrum. Problem is, we've had little to compare it to since the time most of us were born unless you are involved in an industry or study that deals with manufacturing lighting or the use of light in some manner.

[PA5COR]

Mercury switches, mercury playing around at school in science lessons, working at the natural gas plants where Radon and gallons of mercury came out of the pipes or machines we replaced, mercury thermometers etc.

If it is cool not much problems above room temperature it starts to evaporate and that is dangerous.
Clothes and shoes that had contact with mercury had to be pulled out and were destroyed and nw ones were provided free at that plant.

Try avoiding contact, certainly vapour.
In CFL's the amount is very low, annd in closed state it will not get out of the lamp.
Same for TL's in which the powder coating the tube inside is toxic as well.

[KG4CGC]

We've been using far more fragile flouro-lamps for years. These are the long tubes that were more likely to break during handling and changing. We've been exposed to those to a far greater degree and it's not just because they break so easily but when they do the gas cloud gets on everything for a broad range in the atmosphere and on surfaces, skin and clothing.

CFLs are made to fit a wide range of applications. 6500K is called Daylight. It has the best spectrum for reading or working or anything that requires a clear view.

[PA5COR]

That is why i mix bright white led's in an array with a few green and red led's and each set can be regulated so that you can get very close to that.

[n2ize]

We've been using far more fragile flouro-lamps for years. These are the long tubes that were more likely to break during handling and changing. We've been exposed to those to a far greater degree and it's not just because they break so easily but when they do the gas cloud gets on everything for a broad range in the atmosphere and on surfaces, skin and clothing.

CFLs are made to fit a wide range of applications. 6500K is called Daylight. It has the best spectrum for reading or working or anything that requires a clear view.

I actually prefer the illumination from the older style mercury vapour discharge lamps. Only problem is that they are way too intense to use indoors. I tried running one inside but between the hum of the ballast and the extreme intensity of the light it was too much. Now I use daylight florescent inside and mercury vapor outside and for lighting my garage.

[KG4CGC]

I actually prefer the illumination from the older style mercury vapour discharge lamps. Only problem is that they are way too intense to use indoors. I tried running one inside but between the hum of the ballast and the extreme intensity of the light it was too much. Now I use daylight florescent inside and mercury vapor outside and for lighting my garage.

Well see now, that's a beast of a different species, HID (high intensity discharge) to be exact. Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium, Mercury Vapor just to name three and should not be compared to other methods of lighting.

[NQ6U]

Carbon arc lamps are the only way to go unless it's a lime/water acetylene flame.