A standard screw in energy saver bulb has failed (not so sure about the long life of these!). Unfortunately in unscrewing it (wall mounted fixture), one of the glass tubes has broken. For the moment I've abandoned the operation with the bulb still in place!
Any guidance on how I should progress please?
Thanks
Rob
Carry on unscrewing it and throw it in the bin?
Hi
Make sure the power is turned off at your distribution board, then unscrew it with a thick rag or gardening gloves?
Steve
Put a plastic food bag over it first so you don't drop anymore bits of glass on the floor.. it can be a b****r to clean up.
No Carry on unscrewing it and take it to the nearest facility that deals with hazardous waste.
Hmm, great, from a less efficient bulb with nothing more than a vacuum inside to one that might use less energy in use but uses more recourses to make and then needs specialized disposal - more tree hugging gone mad....
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:17:59 -0700 someone who may be robgraham wrote this:-
After how long? What was the duty cycle?
What is "standard" about it?
As others have said, continue unscrewing it after taking the appropriate precautions.
Yup. It's called the BIN.
You mean, like your bin?
Seriously, I phoned my council about how to disposed of domestic fluorescent tubes. For long ones, they suggested bagging it, breaking it, and stuffing it in the regular non-recycleable waste bin.
Do other councils have special collection points for them?
Tim
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:10:20 +0100 someone who may be "Graham" wrote this:-
One would only need to do that for large quantities, in a commercial or industrial setting. For the small quantities individual households produce they can be put in the residual waste bin.
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:12:53 +0100 someone who may be "Tim Downie" wrote this:-
I doubt if they have anything for householders.
Not only do have commercial/industrial buildings have more lamps and they may also have a bulk replacement policy, so it is more important to deal with them than the trickle of lamps from a large number of households. I may throw out an average of one fluorescent tube or compact fluorescent lamp a year, probably less.
My council has a whole section of their web site on what can be recycled where and everything else to do with waste. I can even call up a bin collection calendar for the next eight weeks. I suspect yours does too as I have called up bin collection calendars for members of the family living in a village in England.
This is unnecessary. However you should (a) open the window and (b) not use a vacuum cleaner to suck up the remains, as this will disperse the mercury throughout the air.
Ideally unbroken bulbs should be recycled.
Here is some (American) advice on the subject:
Pair of sidecutters. Replace the bulb and fitting with a proper tungsten one.
Perfect.
Let's ship all the toxic waste to Edinburgh....
Ours does, at the local dump / recycling depot - there's a long open-ended steel box, a bit like a large coffin, into which you slide them. Stands in between the containers for TVs/PC monitors and the one for fridges, and next to the little skip-ette for batteries!
David
I like it.
I've just done another round of measurements on some of these things.
In general when brand new they give about 35 % less light than the GLS lamp that the CFL manufacturers claim they are equivalent to, (incidentally by using the subterfuge of comparing white CFL's with decor coloured GLS lamps) and after Ca 1 years service the light output has fallen by a * further 48% *.
After 1 year, at 10 seconds after switch on the CFL is down to 25% of the light it is supposed to give and only reaches 35% after over 3 minutes waiting after switch on.
I don't know about DH replacing less than one tube per year, I'm just about to replace 13 of them because of low light output, and FWIR another 6 have failed suddenly in service during the past year.
The CFL's from yourwelcome.co.uk cost £3.00 for an 11 watt SES. Spiral. The 60 watt pearl GLS lamp cost 16p from Tesco (19 times cheaper) .
DG
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:20:50 +0100 someone who may be Derek Geldard wrote this:-
Did your eyes notice any difference?
I note that you failed to provide any comparison figures for a GLS bulb.
Then you must be doing something strange with them, or have very inferior models. In over 25 years of using three dozen such lamps only three have expired so far. I have also broken two through bashing them.
I have only had one spiral lamp. Didn't like the colour so it is now relegated to the storage area.
The last compact fluorescent lamps I bought were 99p in John Lewis. I suspect they will last as well as the rest and I have marked the dates on them to check.
Initial cost is not the only criteria for buying something.
I don't see this as much of a problem. Some older ones became
*really* dim at switch-on after a while, but I haven't noticed that recently.In my experience they last several times as long as ordinary bulbs on average, but some people seem to have the idea that they're supposed to last for ever, which they certainly don't.
John Lewis have them for a pound. Not spiral though.
-- Richard
That's to make it look like they won't ACTUALLY be gong into landfill.
According to the beeb, 70% of what goes in yet 'blue bin' ends up in landfill anyway.
That accords with my gut feel - a '100W equivalent' CFL is actually about a 60W..subjectively..
Go online, and they are even cheaper, and better quality..
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