time fer ask umbra!

[Guest guest]

Light Reading

 

Sage advice on when to turn off fluorescent lights, campus activism, and more

 

 

by Umbra Fisk

 

16 Jan 2003

 

Questions relating to the environment?

Ask Umbra.

 

Dear Umbra,

 

You'd be so proud of us! We just had an hour-long meeting about conservation and

environmentalism here in our office. In the course of our discussion, the topic

of leaving the lights on came up. I am a religious light-switcher, meaning I

turn lights off in the bathroom or wherever they're left on. One of my

colleagues was under the impression that it takes more energy to turn

fluorescent lights on and off than it does to leave them on. I'm shocked! Is

this true? And are there eco-sensitive alternatives to standard fluorescent

tubes?

 

In the dark,

 

Matt

San Francisco, Calif.

 

Dearest Dark,

 

Here's a simple rule to remember whenever the lights-on/lights-out controversy

pops up: Think of Lady Macbeth. Out! Out!

 

 

The brilliant Anne Ducey, residential lighting program coordinator at Seattle

City Light, laughed with delight when I asked her to settle this debate once and

for all. Here's her unflinching bottom line: Turn out the lights if you are the

last to leave a room, unless you are coming back within two minutes. Contrary to

popular belief, turning lights on consumes no more electricity than they use

when already lit. This is true for both fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. Out!

Out!

 

Fluorescent lights do have a finite number of starts built into the " ballast, "

the mechanism in the bulb that translates electricity into illumination, and

another reader wrote in concerned about wearing them out. But in order to wear

out the starts before the rest of the bulb burned out, you would need to turn

your lights on and off 20-50 times a day -- or, as Anne put it, you'd have to

have 20,000 cats run past the motion sensor in your backyard. So. Out! Even in

the office bathroom.

 

 

I'm not sure whether you want to replace your standard fluorescent tubes for

environmental or aesthetic reasons. If it's the former, don't; they are highly

efficient and hence a good option for the environment. If it's the latter --

that is, if you don't like the quality of light they cast -- you may have old

light fixtures that reflect light poorly, or you may just have older fluorescent

tubes that have been up there forever (because they're so efficient, remember?).

Modern fixtures and well-chosen tubes should result in well-lit, warm,

energy-efficient spaces.

 

That leads me to the other Earth-shattering revelation Anne Ducey shared with me

when I spoke with her about lighting controversies. Are you sitting down? " Full

spectrum " lighting is a marketing hoax. This evocative phrase, used by marketers

to imply a grievous lack of spectrum fullness in other, inferior products, is a

red herring. All typical household bulbs emit the all the colors of the

spectrum, although they may differ in the amount of one color or another they

emit. The two ways to measure light quality are in degrees Kelvin and using the

Color Rendering Index (CRI), neither of which has anything to do with the

fullness of the color spectrum. According to Anne, those " full spectrum " gadgets

have never been proven to have any particular benefit. The placebo effect, on

the other hand, is one of the most powerful tools known to humanity.

 

Brightly,

Umbra

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Umbra,

 

Here in Texas, where it is very hot in the summer (granted, we deserve to be in

hell for having produced George Bush), some of us have been enthusiastically

switching our light bulbs to cooler compact fluorescents. Is this a bad thing

due to the mercury they contain?

 

Lisa

Smithville, Texas

 

Dearest Lisa,

 

 

Thanks for your question, as it will allow me to keep shedding light on the

compact fluorescent issue. Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) last far longer and

use electricity more efficiently than conventional incandescent bulbs. Buy them

if you can. They do contain a miniscule amount of mercury -- roughly four

milligrams, or an amount the size of the period at the end of this sentence. (By

comparison, a watch battery can contain up to 25 milligrams of mercury.) Hence,

when a compact fluorescent bulb has reached the end of its long life, you

should, if possible, take it to a hazardous-waste disposal facility rather than

dumping it in the trash.

 

That said, the mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs currently does not pose a

major problem -- and you know I don't take pollutants lightly. In municipalities

such as Grist's hometown of Seattle, which is emphasizing conservation as a

cost-cutting measure and pushing CFLs to the point of sending them free to

ratepayers, there is an attendant concern about the solid-waste-disposal effects

down the road. But let me emphasize: The tiny punctuation of mercury should not

stop you from buying CFLs, any more than it stops you from wearing a watch.

 

One final note: Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity creates mercury

pollution. Thus using compact fluorescent bulbs actually reduces mercury

pollution, because CFLs use far less electricity than incandescent bulbs.

 

Lightly, Umbra

 

 

 

 

Dear Umbra,

 

I may be asking the wrong person, but I hope you can help out. I am a student at

the University of North Carolina and my group, the Student Environmental Action

Coalition, is undertaking an ambitious campaign to raise student fees by $4 per

semester in order to bring renewable energy to our campus. While $4 doesn't

sound like a lot, in the end it would amount to nearly $300,000 per year, which

we hope to increase by corporate matching-grant programs.

 

This, then, is a two-part question. First, can you think of any creative ways to

convince the students to vote in favor of our referendum in February? We will

already be showing The Lorax and having guest speaker Ross Gelbspan come to

campus, but we are at a loss when it comes to fun and clever ways to get

students' attention.

 

Second, do you know of any benevolent companies that would love to donate

matching funds for such a cause?

 

It isn't easy being green,

 

Not Kermit

Chapel Hill, N.C.

 

Dearest Not Kermit,

 

It's not knowing the answer that counts; it's knowing where to find the answer.

Taking your hint that I may be the wrong person to field this question, I called

my chum Jennifer, a campaign organizer extraordinaire, who had scads of ideas.

 

Jennifer's main suggestion was to contact the U.S. Public Interest Research

Group. PIRG often convinces campuses to levy an optional student fee, which goes

into PIRG coffers and is used to pay a staff organizer to work on campus-based

environmental and consumer issues. Not only does this result in environmental

improvements on campus, but students like yourself learn organizing strategies

from a professional. It's a good gig they've got going, when you think about it

-- the campaign that keeps on campaigning. Most important, the folks at PIRG

have plenty of experience in passing student-fee increases, and they should have

great ideas for you.

 

 

A student movement on the move.

Photo: Sierra Student Coalition.

 

As for other options, have you covered the obvious bases? Get articles into the

student paper about the campaign and its benefits. See if the student radio

station will accept humorous spots or run public-service announcements. Seek out

like-minded professors who would be willing to advocate for the campaign in

their lectures, or administrators who might be willing to give some cash toward

publicity efforts via a student activity fund. Work with other student groups to

get your message out, either by going to their meetings and persuading the

membership, or by getting them to help with aspects of your campaign. Set up

information tables in highly trafficked areas of campus. And, of course, poster

the heck out of all vertical surfaces.

 

And, as a little editorial addendum to Jennifer's professional advice: I think

you're wise to keep the emphasis on fun and clever. No one likes to be made to

feel guilty, but anyone worth talking to loves to laugh. Go find the funniest

people you know and enlist their goofy help. It can work. Trust me: I was once

elected to campus office on the strength of a pun involving cockroaches.

 

As for fundraising, let's return to my adage about knowing where to find the

answers. Not only is our space here too short to properly answer the second part

of your question, but you as a student are in the perfect position to ask

fundraising experts for help. And that is what you should do. Start with the

development department of your university, then move on to local nonprofits,

especially those interested in environmental issues. Ask them how you should

proceed. You're bound to find someone who will not only point you to appropriate

local funding sources, but also assist you with learning how to ask for money.

If you follow through, fundraising may be one of the most useful things you

learn during your sojourn in those hallowed halls. (That is, aside from my

adage, which you can't count -- unless you're taking Grist for credit.)

 

Power to the people,

Umbra