Current Events-Energy Saving Lightbulbs

The Zuerchers were inspired after watching An Inconvenient Truth and decided to conserve energy by buying energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs.  Instead of feeling good about saving energy, they felt terrible. The box of bulbs they bought at Costco either didn’t work or lasted only a couple hours. The bulbs were supposed to burn for 10,000 hours, meaning they should have lasted for years in normal use. Consumers are continuously becoming irritated with the new bulbs. Experts say that the deficient bulbs is pounded by poor package instructions and using the bulbs incorrectly, such as by screwing low-end bulbs into fixtures where heat is prone to build up. Compact fluorescents once cost as much as $30 apiece, but now they go for as little as $1 because of the Energy Department which thought a cheaper way to produce them. This led to sales of discounted bulbs at retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart Stores and Home Depot. Although they are sold in retail stores, people refuse to buy them because of the many problems that come with the new bulb. Experts and bulb manufacturers say that consumers need to play a role in solving the problems by learning more about the limitations of compact fluorescent bulbs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/energy-environment/28bulbs.html?ref=science