Fast Company reports that, in the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers–100 million in all–one compact fluorescent bulb. In the process, it may change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. Teaming up with General Electric, which owns about 60% of the residential lightbulb market in the United States, Wal-Mart wants to single-handedly double U.S. sales for CFLs in a year, and it wants demand to surge forward after that.
Which presents a daunting challenge: Wal-Mart’s push into swirls won’t just help consumers and the environment; it will shatter a business–its own lightbulb business, and that of every lightbulb manufacturer. Because swirls last so long, every one that’s sold represents the loss of 6 or 8 or 10 incandescent bulb sales. Swirls will remake the lightbulb industry–dominated by familiar names GE, Philips, Sylvania–the way digital-music downloads have remade selling albums on CD, the way digital cameras revolutionized selling film and envelopes of snapshots. CFLs are a classic example of creative destruction.
This equals energy savings roughly equivalent to the needs for a average American city – each year. The effect is cumulative.
Bravo, WalMart, for being willing to prove you can make money with green marketing decisions. Probably more money than those afraid of progress.
Just a ploy to get people into their stores to buy more cheap garbage.
I love you Wal-Mart.
–100 million in all–one compact fluorescent bulb.
just think that 1100 pounds of mercury in the future landfills at 5 milligrams per bulb
you can’t win
I feel no need to deal with mercury contamination and will wait for usable LED replacements for my incandescent light bulbs.
Wal-Mart can go down in flames for all I care, though I do occasionally shop there for minor items.
There was an article in this month’s Smithsonian magazine about the history of the lightbulb, and it mentioned walmart’s plan, aparently if 100million people switch out an incadecent lightbulb for a cfl bulb, thats the same as pulling 800,000 cars off the road (not sure how acurate those figures are tho)… It also covered the evolution of these cfl’s apparently they were REALLY bulky back in the late 70’s… any of you old people remember those?
I read somewhere that the alleged energy saving is spurious. Most light bulbs are used at night, obviously, while peak power consumption happens during the day. Power stations are designed to provide for that peak and can’t simply be switched off at night when demand is low – they just keep on running. So while low-consumption bulbs will consume less electricity, the energy required to keep the power stations running will be reduced by very little if at all.
Yea… where are the story’s about the mercury in these things?
Not that I think the editors of this blog would only present one side of a story, or anything…
I have yet to have a “Swirl” light bulb outlast a standard bulb by 10x, or even 5x or even 2x. On average I see a bit better than 1.5x, depending on the fixture that it is used in. Certainly not worth the extra money that stores want for them.
I wonder how much of a kick back Walmart is getting for these bulbs?
It just took Wal-Mart a while to get their Chinese factories cranked up for CFL’s
I have had experience with a number of these bulbs, both at work and home. The claims at how long they last are ridiculous. In my experience, they last maybe a little bit longer than an average bulb, yet cost a whole lot more.
Savings from the bulb are also supposed to be noticeable, also something I’ve not seen in my own experience with them.
I read somewhere that the alleged energy saving is spurious.
They do draw fewer watts, but it isn’t necessarily that simple. Purely resistive loads, like incandescent bulbs, have a power factor of 1. Reactive loads, (pretty much anything that isn’t purely resistive, including CFL’s) usually don’t. (Look at a device that has its ratings printed on it. If the load is in Watts, it’s probably resistive. If it’s rated in Volt-Amps or VA, it’s probably reactive.) At any rate, the upshot is that even though less power is consumed, it isn’t necessarily cheaper to transmit that power, because it’s the amps that you have to account for. It’s a hidden cost that is rarely discussed.
…and they buzz like crazy! I tried them in my living room and i had to get rid of them after 1 minute because they were driving me nuts.
“I read somewhere” the Earth is flat and conservatives have a conscience. Let’s hear it for egregious behavior. Yaay!
Takes too much effort to change a light bulb, anyway. This from lamers with 600 watt power supplies.
Of course, we can all presume the flat-earthers among these comments DO have a mercury-based thermometer at home. Anal, of course. That’s 500mg of mercury, right there. I hope they dispose of it, safely.
Meanwhile, from a dangerous radical source – the US EPA:
“The highest source of mercury in our air comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal, the most common fuel used in the U.S. to produce electricity. A CFL uses 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb and lasts at least 6 times longer. A power plant will emit 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time.”
btw – is that same guy who holds the iPhone for the Apple illustrations?
I’ve been replacing with CFLs for a couple years now, and the only failure was a zero-hour. Mine don’t buzz at all, but they take a moment or two to reach full brightness.
Power stations are designed to provide for that peak and can’t simply be switched off at night when demand is low – they just keep on running.
Right, but they can’t generate current that goes nowhere…it has to go somewhere. Or more correctly, when the load (demand) decreases the amount of energy required to maintain the voltage decreases. This is easy to demonstrate with a simple hand-crank generator.
Maybe 50% less demand doesn’t turn into 50% less coal burned, but the decrease is significant nonetheless.
Just when we all hate Walmart, they do something special like this. I listened to that idiot Hannity last night trying to say Time is stupid for not listing Bush as “Influential”, but this is what presidential influence is supposed to do…get people and corporations to do the right thing for the good of the entire country. Regardless of party, this is what we need in our leaders. Thanks, Walmart.
7,
I think flourescent bulbs are akin to the development of catalyst bags for gas lamps, a stopgap measure at best. One reason prices are dropping is that flourescent bulb manufacturers are pumping out all they can before solid-state lighting devices mature to the point where they displace those mercury bombs .
The best thing about CFLs for me is the fact that they put out very little heat. I live in hot FL and an incandescent bulb by my chair puts out tremendous heat. The CFLs make a huge difference.
I replaced all the lights in my house with these CFL lights a couple years ago and they scarcely last longer then a traditional light bulb. I’ve gradually switched back to traditional bulbs as the CFL’s eventually burned out. The only way to get longer life out of one of these bulbs is to leave it on 24/7. They just can’t handle the on/off cycle in daily use and are more expensive to boot. I’d rather wait till L.E.D. lightbulbs become cheaper and switch to those.
Most nights the only bulb running in my home is a 40W bulb. That is a tiny fraction of the electricity that my computers and entertainment center pull. You will pardon me if I just wait for solid state lighting.
I use CFLs in my apartment. I have to wonder what kind of crazy wiring some of you people have, because I’ve been using CFLs for more than four years now, and in that time I’ve had exactly two bulbs (out of about 12) fail “early.” The bulbs in my outdoor fixtures were replaced first (in 2001, actually) and they’re still going. Compare that to having to replace my incandescents annually and the savings are obvious.
Plus, they’re cheap– you can get them at the dollar store for a buck each. I think they’re a nice stopgap for LED/solid-state lighting (I, too, am waiting for the revolution, but I do professional lighting and it’ll take awhile for LED to get cheap enough for household use) and I welcome this move by Wal-Mart, whom I despise. It’s a step in the right direction.
Just to add to the mess here — I switched 1.5 years ago, haven’t had to replace a single bulb yet, no buzzing, and my elec. bill has gone down by about 15%. As for the mercury etc. bulb disposal, try to get rid of 15 old computers in an ‘environmental’ way. Almost enough metal to build a new lawn mower.
You will pardon me if I just wait for solid state lighting.
Comment by Improbus — 5/4/2007 @ 1:18 pm
Quick, I can’t wait!
Man, this is REALLY OLD news that I knew I’d read before. NY Times reported on this back in January 2007. SHEESH.
http://tinyurl.com/yruehn
I’m all for this. I agree with #13 DOUGLASS TRUTH above.
Why bother? LEDs will be the way of the future.
In other energy news, there’s an interesting tale about
Lake Kivu.
So if Walmart is in the story headline does it automatically make some of you hate the story or is just the Walmart name thing? I thought it would be interesting if DU posted a headline that had Walmart in the headline but was not in the story and what would be peoples reactions…..yes it is a slow Friday night in case you were wondering.
None of my CF bulbs have ever burned out… going on 5 years for the older ones now. Perhaps there are some quality issues for these bulbs that have not been realized yet?
I recommend that over at CNET we create a consumer rteview of the brands and models we buy. Then given a couple of years some trends should appear to guide future buying decisions.
I thought you guys hated Walmart. Now they’re a hero?
Walmart sucks, for all the well known reasons.
What I find most entertaining is how consistent posts from some people are:
– There is no such thing as global warming-
– CF light bulbs are a scam that save no energy, are inconvenient and pollute.
– Hybrid cars consume more energy than they save.
– There is no proof of evolution.
– If we don’t fight them there they will come over here.
– Freon has nothing to do with the ozone hole
– If you don’t support the government’s policies, you don’t support our troops
– All immigrants are hardened criminals, and all real Americans are faultless god loving servants of humanity.
– Using the word Nigger on a couch label is hilarious.
– Gays are all evil, straight people are all good.
– and so on, and so on, and so on…
I wonder how much of the national debt is due to the trade imbalance created by Wal*Mart “buying” so much merchandise from China?
The local supermarket has had these bulbs for 10 for 10.00 for almost a year. I have them in all my light fixtures and they never buzz, put off no heat, and are heading into their 3rd year of service without a burn out.
I seem to have about a 7.00 a month reduction in my power bill(but, my bill has always fluctuated due to my weird hours), since installing them.
My biggest gripe is that they look so strange in the bathroom light bar. 🙂