Living Green: The Missing Manual

Let There Be (Compact Fluorescent) Light

Q:	How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A:	Both houses of Congress and a president to sign the bill into law.

By 2014, the whole U.S. will be changing its lightbulbs, thanks to a federal law passed in 2007 that phases out traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent lamps, a.k.a. CFLs. Countries around the world are changing their lightbulbs, too: The European Union and Australia have already banned incandescent bulbs, and Canada, India, and other countries have made plans to replace all or some incandescents with CFLs.

Regular lightbulbs haven't changed a whole lot since Thomas Edison invented them in 1879; they're basically mini-heaters that give off light as a byproduct. They work by passing an electric current through a long, thin filament, which heats up and gives off light. The glass bulb is filled with an inert gas, such as argon, that keeps the filament from oxidizing (combining with oxygen and burning out).

CFLs are a bit different. They have two parts: a glass tube (coated on the inside with phosphor and filled with gas) and a ballast, which provides the lamp's starting voltage and regulates its current. When you turn on a CFL, electricity flows through the ballast into the gas, causing the gas to give off ultraviolet light. This light then excites the tube's phosphorous coating, which gives off visible light. Unlike standard fluorescent lights (the kind found in classrooms, offices, and stores), ...