<p>Question for all you engineers:</p>
<p>I just replaced a bulb in my kitchen with an energy efficient thingie. (That’s all they’re selling these days.) When I turn it on, it is not at all bright – in fact, I initially thought that its wattage had been misrepresented on the package. But now I notice that, after about 20 minutes of being on, it gets brighter.</p>
<p>Why? It’s downright annoying.</p>
<p>I’m assuming you are referring to those odd-looking curly-Q light bulbs. Believe they are fluorescent bulbs and must ‘warm up’ for a few minutes before the are fully illuminated. I agree that, with certain applications, they can be annoying. I had one in my basement, but changed it. When I want to head down the stairs to my basement, I need to see as soon as I flip the switch. In other applications, we’ve found them to be acceptable and are happy that we are able to do a little something for the planet.</p>
<p>Incandescents give light almost immediately upon the application of voltage. CFLs take a perceptible time to achieve full brightness, and can take much longer in very cold temperatures. Certain styles of lamp using a mercury amalgam can take up to three minutes to reach full output. Coupling this with the shorter life of CFLs when turned on and off for short amounts of time may make incandescent bulbs more attractive for applications such as outdoor or motion-activated lighting, until solid-state lighting becomes cost-effective.</p>
<p>Wikipedia [Compact</a> fluorescent lamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp]Compact”>Compact fluorescent lamp - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>ive noticed that ours take about one minute to become fully bright</p>
<p>Is it true that if you break one of those bulbs, you must treat it as hazardous waste?</p>
<p>toledo, you’ll find the answer to that (and probably more than you ever wanted to know) on a thread from last month:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/701705-great-light-bulb-revolt-coming-here-soon.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/701705-great-light-bulb-revolt-coming-here-soon.html</a></p>
<p>All flourescents, compact or otherwise, have mercury in them and should be disposed of as toxic waste. Cleaning up after one breaks is serious business. [Spills</a>, Site Cleanup and Disposal | Mercury | US EPA](<a href=“Mercury | US EPA”>Mercury | US EPA)</p>
<p>Note that you should get people and pets out of the room immediately following a breakage and air out the room thoroughy before cleaning up the spill.</p>
<p>Also, flourescents don’t work well on dimmer circuits. </p>
<p>IMO we are creating a huge problem for ourselves with flourescents. I’m hoping that LED technology becomes practical soon.</p>