Just to back up Tony1M, I still have traces of mercury in my bone marrow from the 60's when I worked in a plant which used large quantities as part of the process. Not that bothered as I now have Lead, Cadmium, and Arsenic as well from the 80's. can you now see why I dropped out of industry ?

 

Sorry but I'm going to wind your misgivings up even further. A survey showed that most schools with science labs had dangerous concentration of mercury from broken thermometers dropped by students. Why do you think all us scientists are a few cans short of a 6-pack ?

 

Many people have remarked that I resemble Yoda. We have never been seen in the same room at the same time. Hum. makes you think doesn't it.

 

we have a central vacuum but it vents to the basement, not outdoors. ive never heard of them venting outdoors...

 

In every house I've been in in Edmontonthat has central vacuum system,it vents outside. Think about it.Expensive, restricting HEPAfilters are completely unnecessary on outside-venting systems. If one lives in a really air-tight house, one should crack a window before vacuuming the carpets - to let air INTO the house so that your walls don't implode!

falklore, as I said, the thing to do if any fluorescent bulb breaks is simplypick up all the pieces and dispose of them at a recycling facility. I don't think it's necessary to vacate the room if a CFL breaks. That's a bit overkill, imo, but here's what Wikipedia says about broken CFLs (my emphasis in bold):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

"Cleanup of broken bulbs
Broken incandescent bulbs inside a house or an office do not pose any environmental hazard beyond that of broken glass. However, like other fluorescent lamps, broken CFLs release mercury vapors, and require special handling to clean up. The EPA warns against vacuuming, suggesting instead that you vacate the room and open windows for fifteen minutes to allow any mercury vapor to air out, then clean up the breakage while wearing protective gloves, and use double plastic bags for all broken pieces. They suggest using duct tape to pick up small pieces.[3] Special handling upon breakage is currently not printed on the packaging of household CFL bulbs in many countries."

As one begins to understand the full impact of CFLs, including their manufacturing costs, disposal costs, and possible environmental impact of bulbs that are improperly disposed, one has to wonder if the energy savings are worth it. LEDs may be a better way to go in evey respect. We'll soon find out.

 

My personal favorite type of lighting is fiber optic. No hot spots wasting lighting power and the heat can be removed from the space easily to save on the AC loading. You'd be surprised at the efficiency cost created by the hot spot that is emitted by incandescants an halogen bulbs. Fiber spreads the light evenly and you can light a lot more than you'd be able to with the bulb that powers the system. I think you can get these systems up to 2000W Metal Halide powered ..... maybe even dual 2000's. Obviously this large of a system can't be used residentially, but a few smaller ones could. A downside is that HID lighting can't be dimmed; the output can be, but there is no energy savings by doing that. They do make incandescant versions that can be dimmed, but the Halide ones are more common.

 

For anyone who is intrigued by the notion of a mercury-boiler power plant, take a look here:
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEU...ry/mercury.htm

The plant I referred to is the Schiller Generating Station, in Newington (Portsmouth), New Hampshire. It is mentioned about half way down the page, and there are some pretty good photos, too.

I worked a short distance away at the Newington Generating Station - a 420 mW, oil-fired plant.

 

Bring back tallow lights ! or Eat more carrots ! Just two slogans you could use to march on the White House. [You do know that we burnt it down, dont you. Why did you rebuild it ?]

 

Because it's an elegant jail to keep all of the useless people contained.

 

Absolutely true ! Try, try, try again. You must strike lucky sometime. When the next election for prez ?