http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspxHow many bloggers does it take to replace all the light bulbs in America?  Seth Godin is leading a blog-wide awareness campaign to boost the use of energy efficient compact fluorescent bulbs - the one Wal-Mart is also helping promote.  Did youen-USCommunityServer 2.0 (Build: 60608.1)http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#26921Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:05:07 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:26921Dave, Chicago, ILI actually ran out of the "old bulbs" right around the time ComEd here in Chicago sent out coupons for free flourescent bulbs (there's a lot more to that story, if you get bored and decide t oresearch). The bulbs were out of stock everywhere due to the fervor surrounding them. About a month later, they are comfortably in stock almost everywhere, and we have replaced all of our bulbs with the new ones except one - my son's room's lamp has lampshade that holds onto the bulb. The curly ones don't cut it here. Doomed to innefficency by design, we are.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27075Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:22:45 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27075Frank, Harmony, PAOne thing you may want to check out is if the Wal-Mart flourescent bulbs are silent. I recently bought some spiral CF bulbs that made an annoying buzzing when turned on and the color wasn't very natural. Later I found that bulbs that are EnergyStar certified are supposed to be silent and the color is supposed to be "warm". Hopefully Wal-Mart's bulbs are certified... It might not sound like a big deal, but buying a poor quality CF bulb could certainly turn people off of them. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27149Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:23:48 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27149Paul K, Alamo, CAHaving moved to CFLs all over the house (both the regular bulb type and the PAR recessed and outside floods), there are some issues. One problem is that many start dim and get brighter over a minute or two. This can be a pain when you switch on a light in a room and it is not very bright at 1st. The trade-off seems to be between taking 1-3 seconds to actually come on vs. coming on instantly but dimmer. There are dimmable ones as well, but they do not work very well in my opinion (cut off too soon, flicker when dimmed, do not get bright enough, etc). We use dimmers for many of our lights, so this is an issue (fortunately, dimmed incandescent bulbs use far less energy). Finally, watch for "color". Offices use 4000K (very white, even blueish). CFLs are normally 2700K or 3000K. An incandescent is supposed to be 3000K, but I find the 2700K CFLs look more like the warmth of incandescents.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27187Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:46:33 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27187Jason; Pittsburgh, PAI like to think of myself as "green". I do my best to recycle and to conserve. I bought some bulbs at Home Depot at a considerable amount of cost. Short story, they were awful. The lighting was very unnatural and the floodlights I bought for the kitchen (which were supposed to be 65w equivalent) were like using candles. I haven't yet taken them back. I may try getting some from Wal-Mart that are energy star rated and testing them, but the ones I got at HD were the type of thing I had always been told about compact flouresents.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27252Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:47:07 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27252B-Jane, Yardley,PADarn right, Frank/Harmony,PA! These bulbs , and reading all the gushing endorsements of these bulbs, has got my undies in a bundle (as granny used to say). My personal experience is that they are dim, and worse, slow to turn on. But worst is THEY DO NOT LAST! I've never recorded installation dates on any bulb, regular or CF, so I have no scientific data, but my husband and I have been saying time and time again: But didn't we just replace that a few weeks ago?http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27260Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:53:43 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27260LVRegarding the bulbs...my roommate has replaced most of our bulbs with the fluorescent ones without asking me, and I hate them. They take forever to turn on, so in the hallway or laundry room where I need light immediately and for a short period of time, they're worthless to me. They're too dim too long for many rooms, and really only work if you turn a light on ten to fifteen minutes before you want to make full use of it. It may be more energy-efficient, but that really only matters in rooms where the lights are on for a long time. Meanwhile, I have no idea what she did with the normal bulbs so I can re-replace the ones in the hallway and laundry room.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27296Fri, 05 Jan 2007 20:36:30 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27296Alex, Lawrence, KSI tried to get my parents to convert to the spiral CF bulbs but mom resisted because of the short delay between flicking the switch and the actual emission of light. Apparently mom thinks something critical happens in the dark during the .2 seconds and she doesn't want to miss it!http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27463Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:51:56 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27463Roger Asher, Dallas, TXHey Will, Love your column - read every day and miss t when it's on vacation. I just wondered why someone in your business wouldn't use a spell checker. (Ashley has a severe brain impairment) Rogerhttp://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27537Sat, 06 Jan 2007 02:18:33 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27537SeanI'm surprised at the number of complaints, maybe some people are using older style CFL or cheap brands? I replaced all the bulbs in my house over 2 years ago and they are instant-on and I can't tell a difference between them and the old incandescents. I wonder if there is a site that compares CFL's so people can make sure to get the best ones? It's a shame if bad CFL's turn people off of them when there really are excellent ones to be had. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27564Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:21:42 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27564Will FemiaRoger, thanks, I do use a spell check but it doesn't come in the blogware. So I copy the text out into a Word doc and run spell check there, then go back and make the fixes. In this case, the spell check did catch it, but I blew the fix. The original was "imprement" (missed the a, hit the e by mistake when I hit the r) and my eye got hung up on the missing a as I rushed through.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27864Sun, 07 Jan 2007 01:05:44 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27864slb159, Blue Bell, PaMmmmm, salt and fat.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#27972Sun, 07 Jan 2007 14:44:03 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:27972Austin, Austin, TXFor living in the land of the free it seems there's an awful lot of people out there that want to tell me what to eat and what not to eat. It's getting kind of annoying. Those claw games are just about everywhere here in Austin, TX. Grocery stores and gas stations and just about anywhere else where you'd find a bubble gum machine has them. Frankly, I think it's dishonest to have a game like that settable to different degrees of winning, but then there wouldn't be a point to them otherwise. I'm not sure there's any more or less atheism than there was a few years ago, it's just a matter of how publicized it's become. Also, it's trendy these days. There are also people that can't tell the difference between atheism and agnostic. Personally, I'm not religious but I like the additional holidays. When it comes to Planet X and Nibiru, I always refer to Zecharia Sitchin. Everyone else on the web just appears to copy from his collection of books. Sitchin also comes across as more conservative and less sensationalistic than others. In reference to the bit in the last blog about pictures made out of typeset characters, I had thought it was going to be about those pictures the "nerd" set would print out on dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers that only used letters and numbers. Of course, that was way back when computers were still magical and taboo. http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#28242Mon, 08 Jan 2007 15:14:45 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:28242Dave, Chicago, ILFor Frank, you may want to try the ones we were told to buy by ComEd (the local electric company). They have the GE ones we got on their store page (http://www.energyfederation.org/peco/default.php/cPath/2050_25_44_786_1659). I've not noticed any buzz from them, and I would be very picky about that. They take roughly a second to turn on if it's been off for a while, which is fine, in my opinion. There is definately a lesser amount of light at turn on than at full blast, but it's still plenty of light to see well by - not the candle-like light stated. As we only replaced them 6 months ago, I can't give a statement on their durability, but I have high hopes...http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#28268Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:06:51 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:28268Theresa, Bellevue, NEI have tried the CF bulbs and use them where I can. The problem is, they don't work in every light fixture or lamp. They work in my three newest lamps but in no other lamp in my house. They don't work in my basement ceiling fixture or in the garage. And the CF bulbs are too big to use in my ceiling fans. The CF bulbs that I do use come on instantly and give very nice light. But until they work and/or fit in all fixtures, they won't gain widespread use.http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#28275Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:17:18 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:28275Paul, Alamo, CADave, the problem is that the 1/2 to 1 second turn-on and 80% brightness at the start is enough to upset people. If one had never had incandescents, one would not have a problem with this (it would be just how lights are). But, we are all used to instant on and full brightness incandescents. So, even with the best CFLs, the startup issue is annoying. Note that brightness is an oddity of how we see: an 80% brightness bulb appears to be about 1/2 brightness to us. So, that startup thing impacts us. As one commenter noted, this is far worse when you are used to switching lights on and off when you pop into a room or hallway. This raises an interesting point. If many of us are trained to constantly turn off lights as we leave rooms/hallways, then CFLs do not offer as much advantage anyway. If we leave them on to avoid this startup issue, we will likely burn more electricity (if the bulb is on for 4x the time or more)!http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#29742Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:01:09 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:29742Clicked Again, Seattle, WashI don't know if you've come across this or not, but it's an interesting way to get a free DVD. http://www.blasphemychallenge.com/http://clicked.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/04/26782.aspx#32186Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:29:16 GMT8a5d2dbc-a0e4-4c7a-979f-3188051f228e:32186Frank, Hamony, PAThis weekend I bought 2 of the GE CFL bulbs from Wal-Mart which are supposed to have similar light output as a 75 watt incandescent. They did not buzz like the Home Depot bulbs did, but they seemed to be a little dimmer than the 75 watt incandescent they replaced and the color still seemed a little blue. I have read about the CFL color specifications but not all of the bulbs seemed to list this. The bulbs I bought seem ok, and I guess I'd be willing to try one more time with bulbs that are rated to replace 100 watt incandescents with a "warmer" less bluish light, but I think the real problem with this is that the average consumer still has to do a fair amount of trial and error at their own cost to find the bulb that suits them best. And not all bulbs seem to carry all of the information necessary for the consumer to pick the proper bulb for them. I don't think bulb cost is the barrier to wider acceptance, I think bulb and light quality is.