So you think you are doing the environment a favour by replacing all your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFL's)? Well you aren't really, and there are a few reasons why. CFL's are significantly more costly to produce in terms of raw materials used, including glass, metal, and plastics: If you don't believe me, put one on a scale, then weigh a standard incandescent bulbs. I have found that they don't acheive anywhere near the life expectancy advertised, and seem to last typically only two to three times longer than incandescent, yet cost roughly ten times as much. Then there is the question of radiation emmissions, and harmful levels of mercury contained in them. I can't believe David Suziki ever promoted the damn things, because they are basically dangerous, toxic, resource hogs when initially manufactured, and on top of all that, really don't save all that much energy.
Now for the CFL killer. I just found at Home Hardware a standard medium base (the normal screw in type) LED lightbulb, for a whopping $9.49. But the kicker is it's consumption of raw materials is not much more than that of an incandescent (probably better as there is no glass), it's rated life approximately 15,000 hours (approx 15 years), and it's power consumption of an absolutely miniscule 1.5 watts. for equivalent to 40 watt output! That's roughly one-sixth the energy of a CFL, and less that 5% of the energy used by an incandescant! And no mercury. So there!
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