A Question For Australians

T

teentitan

Engineers are Ubique
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
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560
Location
Angus
Here in Ontario, Canada our political leader is outlawing the sale of incandescent lights by 2012.
In his press release he stated that Australia has done the same so the question I have is did the price of the compact flourescent bulbs go up, down or remain the same in price?
Did your government also set up a drop off center for burnt out or broken cfc bulbs? I ask because apparently these new bulbs have mercury in them.
So I am curious to see what our friends down under have to say...thanks
 
In sydney, i thought the price of flourescent lights went down. I know my parents buy them. Plus there were always "Green" groups in shopping centres giving away free light bulbs and other energy saving things all the time.

No drop off centres for burnt out/broken cfc bulbs to my recollection.

EDIT: But I forgot to add, (in my area) they have 4 different bins that every house has. Theres one for general waste, another for recyclable material, another for plant/wood/grass stuff, and another for hazardous products.
 
T
teentitan
Thanks. I really like that hazardous waste bin. Here we have to take it to the dump on certain days and are limited. You Aussies are so ahead of the curve
wow, they actually perfer flourescent lights over incandescent? flourescent lights are horrible, especially for any film or t.v. related thing. They do schools and some stores in florescent lights, and theyre horrible, at least the quality and the look is. Thats wild that theyd be outlawing a better source of light....
 
The flourescent bulbs that replace incandescent lights aren't as harsh as the industrial lighting they use in stores, schools, offices, etc. I use them at home, they're the same as regular light bulbs. Flourescent is preferred because the bulbs last practically forever, and they use a fraction of the electricity incandescent bulbs use to produce the same light output.
 
T
teentitan
Yes I use them as well and have saved quite a bundle on the hydro bill. It's the mercury that has me worried. Trading cutting greenhouse gas for mercury poisoned landfills...
No actually the price has gone down so far.
 
T
teentitan
I hope Ontario does the same. Nothing worse then capitalism taking advantage of a government law.
teentitan said:
Here in Ontario, Canada our political leader is outlawing the sale of incandescent lights by 2012.
In his press release he stated that Australia has done the same so the question I have is did the price of the compact flourescent bulbs go up, down or remain the same in price?
Did your government also set up a drop off center for burnt out or broken cfc bulbs? I ask because apparently these new bulbs have mercury in them.
So I am curious to see what our friends down under have to say...thanks
Click to expand...

Fellow Ontarian here. Honestly the price of them has come down so much, it's hard to imagine them getting any lower. When I started replacing all of my fixtures with the new CF's, I was paying 19.99 per bulb. Now, you can get a 6-pack for 10 dollars at Costco. Plus, you must factor in the longevity of them...I still have my original CF bulbs. They just last so much longer. So as long as the price didn't go up, I wouldn't mind if the price didn't drop.

I've been replacing a few lights with the new LED lights that are out there. That lighting is NOT good so I wouldn't run around my house doing it but you can get some nice LED task-lighting, and bulbs that change colour etc.
 
T
teentitan
What about the mercury in the cfc bulbs? Are you not concerned that we are trading greenhouse gas reduction for mercury filled landfills?
To respond to teentitan's reputation comment, we actually have found a brand of CFC that does not contain mercury. For the exact reason you mentioned.

However, since these bulbs (the original few we replaced, that do have mercury) are over 10 years old and still going strong, I don't see mercury-filled landfills being a significant issue, at least not worse than throwing out millions of tons more of bulbs (you know those ones..everyone's bought'em..the cheapy ones that last you a week...heck even the good ones rarely last inside of a few months...) 🙂 Just my opinion though.

But yeah, mercury-free CFC much better...and I also think since we have about 4 years until we meet this deadline, the manufactures can improve the bulb, and hopefully you will ONLY be able to buy mercury-free bulbs. And it's not really an issue if they are disposed of properly, it's when they break that they become an issue. 🙂
 
TT,
I found an interesting article about CFL bulbs on the Urban Legends Reference Pages (aka Snopes). For some reason I can't cut and paste any of it but you can read it HERE
 
T
teentitan
Thanks for the info P.
LOVE snopes.com. Thanks for that Mr. P, seems the biggest concern with them breaking is the glass... 🙂
 
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