A month or two back I was presumptuous enough to urge you all to get off your butts, motor down to Ace hardware and invest in some squigglies, thereby saving the planet and reaching the exalted level of Eco Hero Grade 1. In that very issue the ever-resourceful “Mr Fixit”, in characteristic jocular fashion, sort of said the same thing - so it must be right, right?
Broadly speaking.... er, yes. I would say so. So why am I re-visiting this? Because I’ve found the odd CFL wrinkle or two, which as a responsible eco-citizen I feel duty bound to pass on to you and because I totally ignored the rich man’s eco-solution to it all, which I’m reliably informed by those whom should know, is the best answer by far - if you can afford it, that is.
Before I get to all that, I just want to say that I’ve long noticed on this magical anima-ridden island upon which we dwell, that a bloke who simply wants a decent pool of light somewhere to read a book by has a hard time of it. Anyone who remembers the dim and not-so-distant past will know exactly what I mean. All that low voltage might have looked awfully romantic but for us left brain types it was a tad tough on the eyes and our loved ones didn’t appear to give too much of a stuff about our plight either. Anyone would have thought that the sight of our frowning countenances, book in hand as we tried to shove ourselves up a lampshade was spoiling the look of the place....
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’d like you to know that “Mr Fixit” and I are mostly correct. You should buy squigglies, at least for the foreseeable future. That said, and not being one to ignore my own good advice, I sallied forth and bought half a dozen CFLs of various wattages. Among them were a couple of 20W, what they call U-type I’ve now learned, which I reckoned were the equivalent of an incandescent 100W destined for my den, lair or redoubt (take your pick) from whence I can emerge when bearded with a tenderly uttered four-letter - “WHAT? “.
These particular bulbs, my reading bulbs, aren’t exactly cheap though. Somewhere in the region of Rp100K a pop I’d say. So I wasn’t best pleased to find that both of them had bust within the month. I mean, CFLs are supposed to last 10,000 hours, right? So what’s up with these then? They Chinese, or what? As sometimes turns out, I had only myself to blame, at least it seems I must be open to that possibility. Used, as I am, to the rather more robust incandescents (I’m already beginning to miss them), which you just hold by the top and screw in, I’d done the same with my CFLs. Well, it appears that a 4-inch long U-type doesn’t like that kind of treatment. They’re sort of bendy, at least the ones I bought were. You’re meant to screw them in by the base. I guess I should’ve worked that out for myself, but I reckon it could’ve said that on the packet. Anyway, now I know better - and so do you.
So now I have two dead CFLs reproachfully and uglily lying on my desk while I wonder what the hell to do with them. I could just bung them in the trash but as a newly self-ordained Eco Hero - Grade One I can’t quite bring myself to do that. It’s the mercury, you see. I told you, because they told me, you need to dispose of expired CFLs responsibly. Presciently as it turns out I wondered how you did that in Bali? Little expecting to be faced with the problem quite as soon as I was.
Does anyone know the answer? If so, pray tell. I’d be ever so eco-grateful and undertake to share the news.
Else, I fear our fabled isle will be engulfed in a tsunami of mercury leaching out of our trash pits as you all follow my well-intentioned advise and switch over to CFLs. Since incandescents will be unavailable, if not illegal, within few short years this is no idle threat.
The mercury in CFLs poses no threat in the bulb, but if you break one: open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes; use a wet rag to clean it up and put all of the pieces, and the rag, into a plastic bag, then put it all in a second sealed plastic bag and wash your hands. Finally, establish what that “responsible” means of disposal is and do it.
All of which brings me to the estimable Tony Gwilliam, he of the Lotunduh T-Frame fame and the eco-fab Bloo Lagoon community-to-be in Padangbai. If I am now fumbling around on the first steps of Eco Heroism, Tony must be at least be Grade 7, for he hath trod this Spaceship Earth, ‘neath the shadow of the Geodesic dome with the princely Bucky, no less and thus must know of what he speaks. Tony it was who e.mailed me to bring me up to speed with LED lighting. Like many of us I’m still at the watches and electronic display panel stages, while dimly aware things have progressed a bit. Apparently quite a lot. “We use LEDs in all our villas,” Tony told me. “They’re excellent. Total wattage per house around 100watts, no heat and mostly no transformers. They’re available here and you can just switch over”. Against that, it has to be said, LEDs remain expensive for now, so they tend to be in the domain of architects and designers at the planning stage. Then again, they last even longer than CFLs, use less energy still and no mercury is involved, so as prices inevitably tumble LEDs look to be our future. So get your squigglies now and LEDs when you’re flush, thus resuming your onward and upward passage as Eco Hero.
Once you’ve worked out how to dispose of your dud squigglies in Bali, that is….
