Looks like Nunavut get's to keep their lightbulbs

Monday, February 25, 2008
Lights out for Nunavut's proposed incandescent bulb ban

Now I am all for reducing green house gasses ... but when I look at the price to get those compact fluorescent bulbs from the Northern (26$$$ for two!!!) compared to the price for a pack of 4 normal light-bulbs (3.99$), guess which bulbs I am going to go grab? Now only if they could do something with those florescent-tube lights in school ....

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was planning to head down to check on prices on incandescent bulbs today. The little suckers lasted at least a couple years but the novelty of showering with a blinking 1970's disco-light effect in the background was wearing thin. We managed to pillage 3 bulbs to replace some of our flickering ones and so stave off the pain I knew I would feel by buying a pile of new ones. Now that I know the price of them I'm glad we did the big switch-a-roo this afternoon.

depfife said...

My Goodness... We can buy compact fluorescent bulbs here (Delaware, USA) for about $2.50 (USD)...Makes it hard to be environmentally conscience..

Clare said...

As hard as it is to believe the cost of the CFL bulb is probably still cheaper than the incandescent. CFLs last about 8-15 times longer than incandescent, especially the bargain ones. So at $13/bulb as opposed to $1/00 it will be roughly the same cost. Factor in the energy savings and you are ahead. Factor in the environmental savings...

They are not environmentally benign though, most contain mercury and should be disposed of in a manner that, well, just isn't going to happen up here.

Kennie said...

Oh I know Clare. I guess it's still just the southerner coming out of me - considering that it cost me 50$ to deck out my entire living space with CFL's. And yes, I do have to agree that for us up here they may not be as environmentally sound as perceived considering the disposal issue. However ... we could all put a push on to get the Mercury free ones ....

Darcy, sadly, the Northern doesn't carry those long tube CFL's that are abundant in our homes up here. And yes, my bathroom light blinks like it's a disco party as well. All we need now is a strobe light and we can have disco night!

jen said...

I don't know if the CFL last longer, I can't tell you how many times I have had to replace them. We have been living in our house now for just under 2 years and seriously I have re-done every single CFL bulb at least 3 times.... maybe this has something to do with the diesel generators running slower? Meanwhile my trusty tungstens are still chugging unchanged.

Clare said...

The replacement fluorescents for those ubiquitous round light fixtures here can be bought at Housing.

I don't have the same problem as Jen, my CFLs are all still operational, including a couple that are on all the time in the dark season. I'm gradually getting rid of the incandescents as they go, except for those on dimmers. I wish I had a couple of bulb changes ago.

Jackie S. Quire said...

I'm doing the same as Clare. I actually bought two bulk packs of CFLs at Costco before I moved up... because I had always vowed my next purchase would be CFLs (my former roomies and I went overboard on buying reg. bulbs 4 years ago, and still had some left over when I left!)

I've noticed in my parents' house, in PEI they have the flicker issue like Jen... but I've never noticed it.

The mystery continues..

Kennie said...

I thought of buying a bunch of CFL's before moving up here, but wasn't too sure if they would survive the move up. When I head south for the summer for restocking they are on my list of things to buy.

The flickering happens for me when I turn the light on inititally - remember in Apollo 13 when they had to "restart" the space ship and all of the lights tinked and flickered to life? That's what the ubiquitous round light fixtures do ...

Anonymous said...

Try resetting your flickering light. That may take care of the problem. The CFL's are on sale at Home Hardware - 2 for 5.50$ Should I pick up some for you to take back at the end of the summer?
(Down South)

Kennie said...

Yes - that would be good. I'll be bringing home one of the long tubed flickering ones so I can pick up a couple down south.