The feng shui art of Space Clearing - by Karen Kingston

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© Karen Kingston
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Lighting

Light at the end of the tunnel

Written by Karen Kingston Wednesday, 11 March 2009 01:54

Driving through rural Bali a few evenings ago, it was sad to see how quickly compact fluorescent light bulbs are replacing incandescent bulbs, giving a ghostly white glow to what used to be heart-warming night-time scenery. Tourist areas by and large have retained incandescent bulbs, with their characteristic inviting glow, but they are now few and far between elsewhere.

Unlike most western governments, there has been no legislation in Indonesia banning the manufacture or use of incandescent bulbs, but most Balinese have switched to CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) in these challenging economic times simply to save money. However no public education at all has been given about how to safely dispose of broken bulbs to avoid mercury contamination, and it seems unavoidable that there will be seepage from garbage tips into groundwater in years to come that will affect water supplies – a disaster waiting to happen.

But now, just in the nick of time, I have some very good news! A team led by Colin Humphreys at the University of Cambridge in England, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (bless ‘em) has now developed LED lights that can be produced cheaply enough to replace incandescent and CFLs completely. Not only do they last for 100,000 hours on average, which is 10 times as long as CFLs and 130 times longer than incandescents, but they do not contain mercury, they switch on instantly (CFLs take time), and they can be engineered to give full spectrum light. I haven’t seen one myself but I am very hopeful LEDs will be the viable alternative so many people have been waiting and hoping for.

Humphreys laments the UK government’s decision to phase out incandescents so quickly. "We should have stayed with tungsten for another five years and then switched to LEDs," he says. I totally agree.

The UK government’s Technology Strategy Board is apparently providing funding to develop production LEDs at affordable prices, so my advice in the meantime is to stockpile incandescents, avoid CFLs like the plague, and sit it out until LEDs come of age or some even better alternative is found. I am encouraged to see that there are a lot of people working on this technology at the moment, and I’m very hopeful the CFL issue will soon be resolved.

I heard from a reliable source, by the way, that fluorescent lights were only ever invented as an emergency measure during World War II to save on energy. It was known at that time that long-term exposure to fluorescents posed health risks, and it's my guess the inventor would be turning in his grave to know that they are still in use today.

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Light your home with sunlight!

Written by Karen Kingston Wednesday, 31 December 2008 02:12

Following on from my blog earlier this month about CFLs, I have just heard about something called Hybrid Solar Lighting. It's a system that captures sunlight and uses optical fibres to channel it directly into buildings. The only power needed to operate it is a 9-volt battery, and the energy savings and health benefits are immense.

Developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and licensed to a company called Sunlight Direct, it has already been installed in a whole range of buildings in the USA, including San Diego State University, the University of Nevada, a Wal-Mart store in Texas and a Staples store in Long Island, New York. Initial studies claim that retail store sales improve by as much as 40% more when they switch from fluorescent to hybrid solar lighting and there is a significant improvement in the attention span and educational achievements of students in school classrooms. I'm very interested to see how this develops and hope it can be made economically viable for households as well as commercial properties.

Watch this short video for more information and/or click on this link.

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Energy saving light bulbs are a good thing, right?

Written by Karen Kingston Tuesday, 16 December 2008 03:06

Incandescent light bulbs lose up to 80% of their power in excess heat. So phasing them out and replacing them all over the world with CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps, also known as energy saving light bulbs) is a good thing, right?

From 2009 in the UK, and from 2010 in the USA, it will be illegal to manufacture incandescent bulbs. Not illegal to own them or use them, though, so millions of energetically aware people are currently stockpiling them for future usage.

Similar legislation has been, or will be, introduced in many other countries. It's soon going to become very hard to find incandescent light bulbs to buy.

So what could possibly be wrong with saving 80% heat loss? Well, nothing, except that at the moment the only alternative to incandescents is CFLs, which are not the best replacement by a long way.

Mercury content
Take the mercury content of these bulbs for a start. Some manufacturers are now investing in research to reduce the mercury content but the fact remains that if you accidentally break one of these bulbs, the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) safety instructions are as follows:

Before cleanup: Vent the room

~ Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.

(My question: What if the breakage happens in the type of room where windows have been designed never to open or in a public place that cannot reasonably be evacuated for such a trifling cause?)

~ Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

(My question: What if this happens in a large open plan office complex – will they really let you evacuate the entire floor and turn off the system for the whole building?)

Cleanup steps for hard surfaces

~ Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.

~ Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.

~ Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.

~ Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Cleanup steps for carpeting or rug

~ Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.

(My comment: A study conducted in 2008 by the Department of Environmental Protection in Maine found that plastic bags leach mercury vapours that are well above recommended safe levels so they recommend that only glass jars with metal lids are used. But this assumes that glass jars won't break when thrown in the garbage...)

~ Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.

~ If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.

~ Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Disposal of cleanup materials

~ Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.

~ Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing cleanup materials.

~ Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken lamps be taken to a recycling center.

(My question: How many people are really going to be bothered to take or send broken bulbs to a household hazardous waste center? Estimates at the moment are that only about 3% do.)

Future cleaning of carpeting or rug

~ For at least the next few times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.

Even though CFLs have been on sale for many years, most people are completely unaware of these clean-up precautions and just toss broken bulbs in the garbage along with everything else. The mercury is sure to seep into the landfill and find its way into the food chain. It’s not an ‘if’ situation, it's only a matter of time.

Also most people don't realize that the amount of mercury released into a room by one broken bulb can exceed the U.S. federal guidelines for chronic exposure by up to 300 times all in one hit. The 2008 Maine DEP study found that even following this very specific clean-up programme, high levels of mercury still remain in carpet and children playing on it could release toxic spikes of up to 25,000ng/m3 of air several weeks later (this is more than 80 times the level considered safe). Children are particularly susceptible to mercury, and exposure can cause severe neurological development problems.

So mercury leakage is a big problem, but there's more.

Health effects
CFLs also flicker and emit radio frequencies. With some bulbs the noise is within the range that can be heard as a constant, irritating, low buzzing noise. Others are quieter but within the hearing range of pets. No one knows the prolonged effect of living and working in places that are constantly flickering, buzzing and pulsing with radio frequencies, but some studies have shown serious health effects.

In the UK, as an example, the British Association of Dermatologists, the Migraine Action Association, and Epilepsy Action, have all independently reported symptoms such as headaches, migraines, fatigue, confusion, dizziness, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), eyestrain, nausea and various skin disorders among members who have used CFLs. Other studies have shown that CFLs cause muscle and joint pain, sleep disorders, respiratory problems, rashes, anxiety, depression, physical pain in people who suffer from lupus, and dizziness, loss of focus and discomfort among epileptics.

Professor Magda Havas of Trent University, Ontario, one of the world's leading researchers on the biological effects of EMFs, explains that "CFLs operate at high frequency using an electronic switching ballast to chop up the 120 volts - that's how they are able to use less energy when compared to incandescent bulbs. Their typical operating frequency is in the region of 20kHz to 100kHz, a frequency range known to produce adverse effects on health."

Not only that but she states that “CFLs produce radio wave frequencies that radiate directly from the bulbs and also go on the electrical wiring in the home or school. The closer you sit to the bulb, the greater your exposure. Because the high frequencies travel along the wire, you can be exposed in other rooms of your home as well as in the room that contains the CFL."

Then there is the colour. The reason why fluorescent lights emit such a cold, ghostly hue of white is because they are at the blue end of the spectrum whereas incandescent bulbs are nearer to the red end. Apart from the romantic deficiencies of CFLs, blue spectrum lighting also inhibits melatonin production, the hormone that is essential for cancer prevention. A number of reputable studies have found that it is office workers who are constantly exposed to fluorescent lights who are at higher risk for skin cancer whereas people whose main outdoor activity is sunbathing are much less at risk. There are also studies that show how poorly children fare in schools lit with fluorescents and how much brighter ('scuse the pun) they become when classrooms switch (sorry, another pun) to incandescents.

Energetic effects
Lastly, and most importantly in my view, there is the way CFLs affect us etherically.

We humans do not thrive energetically under fluorescent lighting. Incandescent light bulbs are bad enough (all spiritual practices are better done in natural daylight or by candlelight) but fluorescents are just... well, wrong. Our essential energies recoil from them. The spiritual repercussions of a whole world lit by CFLs are seriously worrying. It's not just our health that will suffer but deep levels of emotional wellbeing and spiritual development. In effect, a whole generation could become spiritually stunted. Not entirely because of CFLs, it's true, but allowing governments to dictate the type of light bulbs we use can have far-reaching consequences I don't think most people are even aware of. I am something of a lone voice speaking up about this now but I'm sure there will soon be many more scientific studies to support the information I've given here.

Alternatives
So are there alternatives to electrically energy-hungry incandescents and etherically depleting CFLs? Not yet, but LED lighting shows promise annd may soon come of age. Here are some websites to check out and keep watching:

www.philipslumileds.com
www.ledlight.com
www.superbrightleds.com

More information about CFLs

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