Except LED light bulbs aren't filled with mercury...

I've yet to have a CFL last anywhere near 10k hours. I'm lucky if they last a year (which amounts to about 3k hours) before the ballast fails.

i've had a CFL I used outdoors that lasted for well over a year and it's on pretty much all night long.

I had some in the worlds most unstable ceiling fan and even those lasted for at least 3 years.

As for the mercury, Its not like the bulb is FULL of it, there is a small drop. And it has been that way with all florescent bulbs(older bulbs had even more).

I've had the same experience as Torment... I bought CF's and while they did last longer than normal bulbs, they didn't last 10x longer, maybe 2-4x. I'd worry about the same problem with these high power led's... will they be sensitive to power surges and sags (I think that's what killed a couple of CF's at my house earlier this year)?

If the LED bulb's are as reliable as low power led's (which seem to run forever and don't seem to be bothered by much) then I'll be all for them, in the meantime I still use CF's but only in spots where I don't want to replace bulbs often (hard to reach).

Note to every one: When you buy CFL bulbs make sure you buy quality ones. The "no name" brand ones will fail very quickly (in little time as 6-7 months). From my experience Philips CFLs tend to last longer(~2-3+ years depending on use) than others.

One of my favorite things about the CFL's is that they put out less heat, I live in AZ and it is hot enough in my house without the light bulbs making it worse. I would think that the LEDs would be cool as well but there was an article here a few weeks ago about one needing liquid cooling, so I wonder.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was my problem. We have frequent power quality issues here. Since the LEDs use a/c-dc step down coverters, I'd think the dc side would be pretty immune and the a/c side should be pretty easy to build resilience into.

@nukemaster:

Original (SCP) IDLH: 28 mg Hg/m3
Current OSHA PEL: 0.1 mg/m3 CEILING
IDLH = immediare danger to life and health
PEL = permissible exposure limit

Each CFL contains ~5 mg of mercury. If everyone in America disposed of 1 CRL improperly (landfill) each year [very feasible] that would result in the introduction of 1500 kg of mercury per year into our landfills. Don't tell me that's not a big deal. The amount of information out there to educate people about CFLs is laughable in this country (USA), and the prevalence of recycling recepticles is even more pathetic.

If you read the article from last week you would know If everyone threw a cfl into a land fill that about of Hg would still be far less than what is created by a coal plant powering the same amount of incandescent bulbs.

Yes, but a CFL is in my home. A coal power plant is not.

Where do you think that mercury from the coal plant goes?

Exactly. What burns my toast so to speak is how CFL's are preached as a perfect "Green" alternative when they contain a very dangerous chemical. I'm not saying they are bad, but I feel many people are not aware of how to handle/dispose them, especially if they break.

A while ago I bought a 1157 automative 36-LED tail light bulb from ebay and it didn't last more than 6 months. My conclusion is that the failure rate of no name brand LEDs is as high as no name brand CFLs. So, only buy quality brand.

An electrician told me that CFL's are now manufactured that dim, but he thinks it's still poor technology. They apparently 'fizzle out' when they get dim and you lose control at dimmer settings. My entire living room is on dimmers so I cannot go that route.

I guess LED lighting is very directional, but I'm sure they'll figure that out and as long as the price drops and they can be dimmed, I'll be fine with LEDs.

Please. People have been using fluorescent bulbs forever. This newfound faux concern about mercury is really just anti-environmentalism.

You are right. Having a fluorescent bulb in the ceiling of my kitchen, where it just sits there, does not get jarred or anything is like a fluorescent sitting on my coffee table where my kids can get to it. Thank you so much for enlightening me.

If you let your kids play with lamps, you've got bigger problems.

Only when they get the forks and plays lets see if it fits into the outlet.

Most LED's don't work with dimmers (unless the dimmer is built-in). Any type of voltage drop or spike for a LED can cause the LED to die. Most places that sell LED bulbs will specifically say, "do not connect to a dimmer circuit".

I have a mix of incandescents, CFLs and LEDs. I find the heat output from the CFLs and LEDs to be similar with one exception. I have one higher wattage LED spotlight over my kitchen sink. It gets pretty hot. It also has heat fins on the back side to help dissipate the heat. I tried it in a lamp and according to my Kill-a-watt it still only draws about 9-10 watts.

The biggest thing with both CFLs and LEDs is to use them in a fixture with proper ventilation. Even if they produce only small amounts of heat, if it is trapped in a fixture that heat will build up and damage the ballast, which will shorten the life of the bulb. Another thing that will shorten bulb life is poor quality power. I had a bathroom fixture in which CFLs would burn out every few months. It seems incandescents do have one use - they tolerated that fixture far better than a CFL. I replaced the fixture about 2 years ago and every since then I have had no burned out bulbs.

If I didn't have so many fully enclosed fixtures in my house I would have more CFLs and LEDs (finding them certified for enclosed fixtures is not easy at local stores and I haven't checked the net yet).

You obviously don't have kids. I do not let them play with lamps, but accidents happen.

I'd be more worried about them getting shocked or cut than them coming into contact with miniscule amounts of mercury once in a blue moon. If they're regularly breaking bulbs and playing in the aftermath, I'd suggest different lamps and different bulbs.

Whats wrong with a little mercury? I am already going to die from MSG, Trans Fat, Cholesterol, salt, caffeine, the radiation from my cell phone, the Teflon on my pans, UV radiation, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, anthrax, green house gasses, yellow dye #5, and rectum cancer from wiping my butt with bleached toilet paper.

Seen it already but I will echo it. Compact Florescent has Mercury in it that will end up in land fills then make it's way to the water table, nice huh.

The difference is that a coal powerplant is a point source and as such can be controlled. Mercury emmissions limits for coal burners are in the process of being legislated to a fraction of current levels. Technology is being developed to meet a removal target of 90% - which would drop emmissions from coal PP's to 5 tons or less per year... and that's to generate 50% of US energy need.

I'd say that if there's a chance that CF bulbs are adding 2 tons of Mercury to the waste stream per year... it's a big problem for that product.

There are solutions to the problem, but they're ugly. Something like a $5 or $10 per bulb 'Deposit' would keep folks from chucking them in the garbage, but for that to work incandescents have to be off the table as an option or folks simply won't buy CF's. This IMO is the direction Europe is moving... and lately it seems that where Europe goes... we follow.

@kaby
Coal power plants don't pump out Mercury that is more dangerous than lead, you eejit.

All things being equal, I'll take the LED's. I don't like the flickering of middle-aged CFL's, the time they take to turn on, and the fact that they are more fragile than LED's. However, things are not equal, and LED's have a way to go before being reasonably priced.

I have a low-wattage full sized FL that has been running continuously for 7 years. Damn impressive. I hate it, but it is what I can afford right now...

CFL bulb are a joke. They don't have 10 000 hours of lifetime... and they contain mercury.

LED all the way...

I converted my whole appartement to 12 CFL that i bought at IKEA 3 years ago and since then I have only 1 CFL that died, that saved me tons on electricity and no more changing a bulb every 2-3 months like before. For the one that died I recycled it at IKEA free of charge.

I like the idea of a CFL bulb deposit to get people to recycle intelligently.

You sheep should simply have no choice in bulbs or anything else for that matter. Americans, like Europeans are too stupid to think for themselves. Therefore, we now have a gov't smart enough to think for us. If ze Furor says use CFLs zen use CFLs. None of us are capable of making choices like wanting real dimming ability, not having mercury in lamps that can be knocked over & broken, and preferring one color temperature over the other. I can't wait for more 'Change' to be stuck up our, uh, well you get the point.