The Lightbulb Theory – It`s Cracked!
January 4, 2008 by laura
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
First a little personal back story. I am not a huge fan of the light bulb. I much prefer the dark to light (any light) – although I have been known to smile at the sun, after its first appearance after hiding for 40 days – letting rain take centre stage. But only after I shake my fist at it first. When I am home, I prefer to have as little light on as possible. Just enough to see comfortably. When I am at work, I am known to wear sunglasses inside, because my eyes hurt and get tired from the fluorescent lighting. I may look like I am trying way too hard to be cool…but in reality, the sunglasses allow me to keep working. I work in a very very bright office.
Now the reason for this post. Going green, saving energy, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) are all over the news. It seems to be what everyone wants to talk about these days. So lets talk about it. Australia and Canada have both put a ban on incandescent light bulbs. By 2010 and 2012 respectively, these countries will be incandescent lamp free. Good news! The UK on the other hand is dragging their feet on this issue. In September, Britain`s environment secretary announced a voluntary agreement that would see stores stop selling incandescent bulbs by 2011. Here is where it gets a little sketchy. The British Migraine Action Association wants this ban lifted, because they think that compact fluorescents give some people migraines.
The BMAA thinks that the cause of the migraines are two fold.
1. The flickering of the lamps
2. The low intensity of the lamps cause eye strain
I decided to do a bit of thinking on this matter. I have compact fluorescents (CFL) in my house. Two types actually. I have a PL13 lamp that looks like this. Only when I am very tired can I see it flicker.
The rest of the compact fluorescents (CFL) in my home are spirals. I have never seen them flicker. Not even once. Spirals look like this
Seems that I just solved problem number one- flickering. So I took my findings to someone I know who is an expert in lighting, and asked for some clarification. This is what happened. If it gets technical, I am sorry – if its confusing, and you need some help sorting things out – just ask, and I will do my best to de-technify it.
I did an interview with the General Manager of a reputable lighting wholesale company (who prefers to remain anonymous), here is our conversation:
Laura – In the UK they are proposing to have the ban against incandescent lightbulbs lifted because compact fluorescents (CFL) can cause migraines. 2 reasons behind that 1) they flicker and 2) low light intensity. I have both PL13 and spirals in my house, and when I am tired (which comes with light sensitivity) I can tell that the PL flickers – but only when I am really really tired. I don’t notice the spirals ever flickering. Is it that easy? End of problem number 1….spirals don’t flicker?
Lighting Expert- Most of the old PL13’s operate with a magnetic ballast that operates at 60hz. At 60hz there may be a flicker noticed by the human eye. The more recent spirals are most often operated by an electronic ballast. The electronic ballasts operate at a minimum of 20Khz (20,000hz) this flicker is still there but not visible. The newer electronic ballasts operate at as high as 40+ Khz. There is no flickering going on then. At least that is visible.
OK, excellent. Would you like to mention anything else about Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL)
Lighting Expert- They would better off banning them due to the plastic and the mercury content…why don’t people think of the environment?
Think of where plain old glass and tin comes from. Then think about how it breaks down at a landfill or recycling facility. Do the same for CFL’s. Glass, rare earth phosphors, amalgam with mercury.
The problem is the power consumption of the two. It takes a great deal more power to run the household 60 to 100w lightbulbs. We need to take power plants and C02 emissions into consideration. I think the secret lies in newer technology…perhaps LED’s and induction light sources.
So the expert and I have put a huge hole in the lightbulb flickering debate. Human eyes can not see the flickering on the new compact fluorescent lamps (CFL). However, there are better reasons to ban these lamps. Like he said new technology is on the horizon…so all is not lost.
Special thanks to DL from clp for explaining this whole situation to me.
And a big hat tip to Marijke from Help My Hurt – a great new b5 blog, for bringing the article in question, to my attention.
Laura, that is so funny that you are like that because I am too! I hate having the lights on. My husband worries that I will do some serious damage to my eyes because I will read, work on the computer, crochet without lights on or with the least amount of light! I wear sunglasses all of the time when I am outside, whether the sun is shining or not. The light gives me a headache. I read somewhere one time (I’ve read so much, I can’t keep up with it all!) that CFS patients tend to have trouble with the light.
I’m lucky enough not to have too much trouble with brightness – but I certainly do have a problem with fluorescent light. I haven’t done enough experimenting to find out if I’ve got a cycle-rate tolerance, but I get nauseous and my eyes stop wanting to focus properly the longer I’m around fluorescent light. Seems particularly problematic when I’m staring at a CRT screen (which has it’s own flicker rate, and the two can create peak-trough interference).
I’m holding out for LED lights myself. Meanwhile, I don’t have that many lights on at home!
Sandy,
I wear coloured lenses in my sunglasses, I have a whole collection, mauve, blue, red, yellow, peach, and regular sunglasses.
For me, the coloured ones work better inside. I don’t feel so freakish for having to wear them. It takes a bit of adjustment (for example the yellow ones….took forever to get used to – everything becomes very green)- but right now, those yellow glasses are easiest on my eyes during the fall and winter months.
It reduces the intensity of the light – but you aren’t sitting in the dark. It might be worth experimenting. They are fairly cheap glasses. I have yet to spend more than $20 on colourful sunnies.
Jenna,
other than removing yourself from fluorescent lighting (not always possible these days) what is your solution for dealing effectively with the problems that come up for you.
LED technology is exciting. They haven’t even tapped the potential there. Lots to look forward to in that realm.
I think the ban is a great idea. My partner and I switched over all our light globes close to a year ago, and apart from some CFLs having a very white coloured light (instead of the nice yellow of normal globes), we haven’t had any problems, and haven’t had to change a single one yet. And the cost of lighting out apartment is now about 1/10th of what it previously was. I am concerned about the mercury issue though. Bring on the LEDs I say – as you say they haven’t fully tapped the potential yet. I love the new(ish) LED traffic lights, and bike light, and I just think there’s plenty more we can do with LEDs that we haven’t tried yet!
Oh, and as for low intensity light – have they ever seen one of these globes in operation? The low wattage certainly doesn’t correlate with a lower intensity light – they’re bright as can be!
Ellie,
Congratulations on going green!
Isn’t it amazing what those CFL’s can do for energy savings ($$$).
I am excited about the LED technology as well.
Well, fortunately for me I’m mostly in total control of my lighting environment (at least until they ban the sale of incandescents) these days – it’s just my kitchen that has fluorescents, and I usually can’t work in there long anyway (fatigue) so the light hasn’t been a problem.
When I was in school, we had light wars in the office
. I took out the tubes immediately above my desk, and would take breaks in the lunch room (usually had lights off during the day because of all the windows) or outside to give my eyes a break. I was lucky enough that I was usually able to keep the lights off until lunch, when the two light-insistent people showed up, so it was only afternoons I had to wander about!
Read all about our experiences in our home. We’ve replaced nearly every bulb possible. Read the latest blog on our comparison of LED flood lights to CF flood lights. And watch our month-by-month comparisons of our 2007 and 2008 electric, gas and water bills as we green-size our lifestyle.
http://livinggreenlivingwell.com/blog/
I like having natural light and at the same time, it does hurt my eyes. At work, a bunch of petitioned that a lot of the flourescent lights be taken out because it was giving all of us headaches. Between those and the computers. It really helped. It’s not just the lights, it’s the awful noise flourescent blubs have. We have the spiral lights in our home and SOME of them have the NOISE that I just can’t stand. That buzzing sound just makes me want to go crazy.
Interesting–the myth that we all have identical sensory systems (identical numbers of rods and cones in the photoreceptors; identical neurobiology and, hence, identical photo-sensitivity; identical “volume control”; etc.) lives on. Just because Person A can’t “see” flicker, doesn’t mean that someone else can’t possibly have a neurobiological system that is disrupted by the flicker that IS inherent in fluorescent light. We’re all a little cracked–there is absolutely NO scientific proof that fluorescent lighting is 100% harmless to 100% of the population — in fact, the scientific evidence indicates the opposite. Significant numbers of people struggle with headaches, migraines, eye-strain, fatigue, visual instability, AND epileptic seizures due to fluorescent light. And we’re banning the incandescent bulb in favor of fluorescent? Heaven help the “sensitifs” like my children who struggle horribly in school with visual instability and illness BECAUSE OF fluorescent tubes. And, what about all of the other children out there who struggle and suffer with school because we want cheap illumination? How many children do you think are being prescribed medication for ADD or being diagnosed with dyslexia when they are really struggling with crappy lighting? Shame on us. –Rhonda Stone, Author, The Light Barrier, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.