Eliminating CFL bulbs, possibly even incandescent

[Solanaceae]

It's not or about the chemicals in the lamp, it's mainly about the mining of them. Cadmium, arsenic, and gallium are obtained through ecologically disruptive strip mining. It doesn't only destroy habitats, but the toxic byproducts produced can seep into groundwater supplies. Sure, same applies for mercury, but it is more easily recovered from mercury gas discharge lamps than the rare earth materials are recovered from leds. I've also seen led lights here failing as often or more frequently than their predecessors they replaced. The initial cost for them was high, and the energy used was a bit less sure, but the savings are negligible due to the fact that you have to replace the leds again. The leds I've experienced just get trashed instead of sent to ewaste processing facilities, further adding to the waste stream. At that point, I'd prolly keep the magnetic ballasts that'll last a lot longer than going to leds that'll wind up as landfill food a few years down the road.

 

[mbrooke]

It's not or about the chemicals in the lamp, it's mainly about the mining of them. Cadmium, arsenic, and gallium are obtained through ecologically disruptive strip mining. It doesn't only destroy habitats, but the toxic byproducts produced can seep into groundwater supplies. Sure, same applies for mercury, but it is more easily recovered from mercury gas discharge lamps than the rare earth materials are recovered from leds. I've also seen led lights here failing as often or more frequently than their predecessors they replaced. The initial cost for them was high, and the energy used was a bit less sure, but the savings are negligible due to the fact that you have to replace the leds again. The leds I've experienced just get trashed instead of sent to ewaste processing facilities, further adding to the waste stream. At that point, I'd prolly keep the magnetic ballasts that'll last a lot longer than going to leds that'll wind up as landfill food a few years down the road.

If people are willing to re-cycle. Come reality most just toss CFLs in regular house hold waste. That mercury just goes out into the environment un-reclaimed.

 

[Bernardinio]

I also prefer 5000K LED lighting (daylight). As somebody has already mentioned, at least I can see the difference between grey and black in the morning.

 

[gadfly56]

I just checked a couple lamps I have. All are marked RoHS compliant. I am no RoHS expert, but I don't think a lamp with more than a minuscule amount of arsenic would comply.

Guys, the stuff is a substrate and used for doping layers. Even as a substrate you're looking at layers in the 300 micron range. If you've got a white LED, you've got arsenic. Period. Not much, but it's there.

 

[retirede]

Guys, the stuff is a substrate and used for doping layers. Even as a substrate you're looking at layers in the 300 micron range. If you've got a white LED, you've got arsenic. Period. Not much, but it's there.

I'm going to say that my "minuscule" and your "not much" means we agree!

 

[Electric-Light]

The average LED driven fluorescent lamps do not use arsenic. They use GaN junctions to make royal blue.

The existence of blue LEDs are well hidden from the outside world since the chips are directly smothered in a goop that cures to a yellowish rubber goop that has a texture of small bouncy balls. The phosphor goop is semi-transparent and the blend lights up yellow. It combines with blue light coming from the chip to become white. You can visually see the goop is lighter yellow on 5000K than 2700K which means the 2700K converts more of it to yellow light.

There are some exotic and color tuning lamps that use red emitters. Those use trace amounts of arsenic but they're not a large volume product.

Traditional LED lamps have a fair amount of zinc or aluminum (depending on the heat sink material they choose) although with the greater adoption of helium cooled solid state fluorescent LED lamps, I think the latter will dominate and there's not much to recycle other than glass, socket and tiny LED ballast board.

 

[gadfly56]

The average LED driven fluorescent lamps do not use arsenic. They use GaN junctions to make royal blue.

The existence of blue LEDs are well hidden from the outside world since the chips are directly smothered in a goop that cures to a yellowish rubber goop that has a texture of small bouncy balls. The phosphor goop is semi-transparent and the blend lights up yellow. It combines with blue light coming from the chip to become white. You can visually see the goop is lighter yellow on 5000K than 2700K which means the 2700K converts more of it to yellow light.

There are some exotic and color tuning lamps that use red emitters. Those use trace amounts of arsenic but they're not a large volume product.

Traditional LED lamps have a fair amount of zinc or aluminum (depending on the heat sink material they choose) although with the greater adoption of helium cooled solid state fluorescent LED lamps, I think the latter will dominate and there's not much to recycle other than glass, socket and tiny LED ballast board.

If that's the general case, things have changed since I used to work for Emcore. They were working on GaN junction LED's when I left, but that was 15 years ago and the company has basically disappeared since then.

 

[mbrooke]

The average LED driven fluorescent lamps do not use arsenic. They use GaN junctions to make royal blue.

The existence of blue LEDs are well hidden from the outside world since the chips are directly smothered in a goop that cures to a yellowish rubber goop that has a texture of small bouncy balls. The phosphor goop is semi-transparent and the blend lights up yellow. It combines with blue light coming from the chip to become white. You can visually see the goop is lighter yellow on 5000K than 2700K which means the 2700K converts more of it to yellow light.

There are some exotic and color tuning lamps that use red emitters. Those use trace amounts of arsenic but they're not a large volume product.

Traditional LED lamps have a fair amount of zinc or aluminum (depending on the heat sink material they choose) although with the greater adoption of helium cooled solid state fluorescent LED lamps, I think the latter will dominate and there's not much to recycle other than glass, socket and tiny LED ballast board.

Well, I may have to offer you an apology. :thumbsup: You know those Green lite LEDs I was telling you about?

http://www.greenliteusa.com/en/3-43-lights.html

I switched them back to incandescent BR40s (yes folks I know A shaped bulbs don't belong in High hats but the deal was to good to pass). After 8 months of use in both high hats and standard fixtures I've noticed that the light gradually diminishes as these get older. I first noticed this after I re-lamped one of my exterior garage fixtures which run dusk to dawn. 6 months latter the the other went and LED it was- but I noticed the new bulb was brighter then the one already n service. Same wattage same brand same box. After a while I noticed the lights in my kitchen started to get dimmer with time.

Now- onto the life expectancy. It might only be 1000 hours... in one high hat I had a bulb start flickering on and off, gradually occurring more often. When I unscrewed the bulb there was a yellow grease oozing from the tip- not sure what it is- but best guess the electrolytic capacitor leaked. A month latter another bulb started flickering. No grease or anything apparent, but it ended up being replaced too because the flickering was so bad.


All in all I am not as impressed as I once was- but overall these are still good general use bulbs.

 

[Electric-Light]

Flick the gas cooled LED lamp. Helium filled ones ring very differently from ordinary bulbs of same size. If the diminishing bulb and new bulb rings differently, it means the faulty one lost the helium fill. Once the helium charge is lost, the LED elements will quickly overheat.

 

[gadfly56]

Flick the gas cooled LED lamp. Helium filled ones ring very differently from ordinary bulbs of same size. If the diminishing bulb and new bulb rings differently, it means the faulty one lost the helium fill. Once the helium charge is lost, the LED elements will quickly overheat.

Helium is super leaky stuff. I would be astonished if mass market devices of this type can keep a charge past a year or two. Unfortunately the next best gas is hydrogen, which is also pretty leaky and has additional issues, although not likely to be a problem at the quantity present in a light bulb. Neon comes in as a distant third for conductivity.

 

[Electric-Light]

Helium is super leaky stuff. I would be astonished if mass market devices of this type can keep a charge past a year or two. Unfortunately the next best gas is hydrogen, which is also pretty leaky and has additional issues, although not likely to be a problem at the quantity present in a light bulb. Neon comes in as a distant third for conductivity.

I suppose they might have a shelf life that starts ticking the moment they roll off the assembly line. It seems like helium can get through glass over time. The pressure is probably really damn close to atmospheric.