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Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb

Choosing a light bulb used to be a pretty simple task, but now it can be very confusing with so many choices available.  Each type of lighting has pros and cons, and one of the most difficult tasks is determining how much light a particular type of bulb will give off in comparison to the incandescent light bulbs that the federal government has mandated be phased out by 2016. According to eartheasy.com, which offers solutions for sustainable living, LED light bulbs will eventually be what we use to replace incandescent bulbs. The organization sees CFLs as a temporary solution to energy-efficient lighting.

 

Types of Bulbs

Incandescent bulbs, the most common type of light bulb until recently, uses a tungsten filament to produce a steady, warm yellow to white light and is suitable for many household applications.  They are the least efficient type of bulb, using more electricity and burning out sooner.

Halogen bulbs also use a tungsten filament but contain a halogen gas that causes them to burn much brighter than an incandescent. They are very useful in areas where a lot of light is needed; however, they produce more heat and could be a fire hazard in some circumstances. They last about twice as long as incandescent bulbs and are more expensive to purchase.

Fluorescent bulbs emit light by running electricity through gasses such as mercury and argon. They use very little power (80% less than incandescent bulbs), produce a very small amount of heat, have a 20,000-hour lifespan and disperse a blue-white light evenly over a larger area than any other type of light. This type of bulb is used in many public areas. Many people have problems with this light because the bulbs tend to flicker and because they contain mercury.

Compact fluorescent bulbs, commonly referred to as CFLs, work approximately the same as fluorescent bulbs but are smaller, last approximately 12,000 hours (roughly eight years) and use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs. They are designed to radiate a steadier light with no flicker, although some people still notice a flicker. They also contain mercury.

LED bulbs produce light using a light-emitting diode; it does not contain a filament. LED bulbs consume very little energy and last longer than any other type of light bulb. Cool LEDs produce more glare, and most people prefer the warm LEDs. The first generation of LEDs produced a narrow and focused beam of light and were very expensive. Recent developments have begun to address these issues, with LEDs being clustered to provide more light and using a diffuser to spread the light more. Advancements are driving the price down, and that trend should continue.

Bulb Brightness and Energy Usage

Watts measure the energy used by bulbs, while lumens measure the brightness a bulb provides. Starting in 2012, the Federal Trade Commission required light bulb labels to emphasize lumens rather than watts to measure a bulb's brightness. 

While actual numbers may vary slightly from one manufacturer or another, the values are approximated in the following table provided by Whitmer's Lighting in Akron, Ohio:

More detailed information has been put out by the U.S. Department of Energy in the following table, which looks at energy use/brightness, hours of service, color rendition index (CRI) and color temperature (K). The last two terms warrant some explanation. The CRI indicates the ability of a light source to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison to sunlight, which is given a value of 100. Color temperature indicates the apparent color of a light source.

Eartheasy.com provides the following cost comparisons for LEDs, CFLs and Incandescent light bulbs:

The Mercury Issue

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are approximately 4 mg of mercury sealed within a CFL bulb, and manufacturers are working to reduce this even further. (Older thermometers used 500 mg of mercury.) No mercury is released unless the bulb is broken. Packaging indicates that users should all dispose of CFLs according to local, state and federal disposal laws (www.epa.gov/cfl). Proper disposal is not easy because bulb users are not aware of local sites. (See related article in this newsletter about hazardous waste disposal.) While small amounts of mercury can be released into the environment when a CFL breaks or is improperly disposed of, the use of CFLs actually helps reduce total mercury emissions in the United States because of the bulbs' significant energy savings. According to the Food and Drug Administration, "Using energy-saving CFLs reduces demand for electricity, which in turn reduces the amount of coal burned by power plants, which reduces emissions of mercury when the coal is burned."

The bottom line is that use of energy-efficient bulbs may cost more in the short run, but in the long run save the user money and help the environment. It is a challenge to determine which bulbs are right for particular lighting needs, but the effort is worth it.

--Lorraine McCarty

Wind turbine

States along the Atlantic Coast are racing to be first in the country to put wind turbines offshore. But a group in Ohio says the first offshore wind farm in America isn't likely to be in the Atlantic-it will be in the fresh waters of Lake Erie about seven miles off the Cleveland coast.

Promoters of clean wind say that in the next decade, hundreds of turbines in Lake Erie could produce 1,000 megawatts of power-enough for 200,000 homes. The plan is to start in 2015 with a five- to nine-turbine pilot project within sight of downtown Cleveland.

 

Engineers, however, first need to solve a problem that most ocean wind farms don't have: massive floes of shifting ice each winter. The "ice breaker" design that's being studied will deflect ice away from the monopole that holds the massive turbines. Engineers are studying the soil beneath the lake to determine the most efficient foundations for the turbines.

 

Some other Great Lakes players are backing away from offshore wind turbine development because of environmental concerns. In Michigan, lawmakers and residents are concerned about disturbing the lake's natural beauty. Meanwhile in Canada, all of Ontario's offshore power projects have been put on hold.

 

The world's first freshwater wind farm went on line in 2010 in Lake Vanern, Sweden. Engineers in Cleveland are hoping to benefit from lessons learned there. They say the project's engineering problems actually are the easiest to solve. It's the political and economic challenges that are likely to remain the thorniest.

 

Ohio passed a renewable energy mandate in 2008 which stipulates that by 2025, 25 percent of the energy produced must be renewable and half of that amount must be produced within the state. Utility companies are reluctantly coming on board. FirstEnergy is dragging its heels and backing legislation to rescind the mandate, an effort that failed in committee in the last state legislative session. The fight, however, is not over, and it is likely to reappear this fall.

 

Dave Karpinski, vice president of wind developer LEEDCo, says the planned Lake Erie wind farm will create bustling ports, bring hundreds of workers to assemble wind turbines, attract ship crews to ferry them, and engineers to install them.  

 

Karpinski and LEEDCo, however, are facing a sink-or-swim deadline. They must have their wind farm plans and permits in place by next February to compete for one of three $50 million Department of Energy offshore wind grants.

 

First windmill (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

While engineers in Cleveland hope to build America's first offshore wind farm, windmills have a history in the state.

Ohioan Charles Brush, whose company would eventually merge to form General Electric, invented the first automatic wind-powered turbine in 1887.

The machine's tower was 60 feet tall and its wheel 56 feet wide. It weighed 40 tons and at its peak, generated 12 kilowatts enough to power 350 lamps, three motors and two arc lights. (Source: Green Energy Ohio)

--Jeff St. Clair