Household Compact Fluorescents

[Brad Ramsey]

In an effort to become "greener" and save on electricity costs, I have been replacing bulbs in our home with household compact fluorescents.
I have also used one as a basking light for my female veiled.
They do not produce the temperatures that an incandescent bulb produces, but there is some heat ... and it brought her basking area to an acceptable temp.
My question, however, (Dave Weldon) is: should I be afraid of using these with the animals. I don't believe the same danger exists as with the bulbs designed to provide UVB, but ???
Any thoughts?

-Brad

 

[SuperRad]

What temps are you getting with the compact flourescent?
I don't know about any real dangers but i did find an article on flourescent lighting. Have yet to read it though
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chr...ur_health_dangers_of_fluorescent_lighting.htm

The only concern that i can really see is if one of those compacts were to pop, maybe from being on too long, and being in a humid enviroment with mist being evaporated on to them, especially with the bulb being in a standard heat lamp fixture. But as we all know they do contain a small amount of mercury which would be harmful to your cham.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I was getting a basking temp of 80 to 85 degrees for her with that bulb.
I changed it when it became evident that she was cycling eggs and I wanted her to be able to get a little warmer.

-Brad

 

[Eric Adrignola]

The amount of mercury in them is minute - you've got more danger from stepping on the glass than anything. Besides, the CF bulbs are tough - I've had many fall from great height and not break.

I wish they came out with higher wattage ones... that throw off more heat and light. To hell with effeciency - my lizards need heat! They can make a 50 W CF bulb if they tried!

 

[lele]

I was getting a basking temp of 80 to 85 degrees for her with that bulb.
I changed it when it became evident that she was cycling eggs and I wanted her to be able to get a little warmer.

-Brad

Brad - what watt bulb did you get that temp with? I had the same idea when i was replacing household bulbs last year and tried one with Darwin and couldn't get a temp anywhere near it. i think I used a 75w. I never bought any higher b/c my old house fixtures don't handle anything higher than 60 & 75

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I believe a 40 watt.
I should add though, that there is also a double tube fixture (1, 5.0 tube and 1 full spectrum tube) and that the room is kept at 75 and the basking spot is nearly at the ceiling.
The CF radiated a very small amount of heat ... enough to bring a small area to these temperatures. If the basking spot was lower in the room, or the room was kept any cooler, this bulb would certainly not bring the basking spot to 85.

-Brad

 

[joefarah]

I've recently finished switching out all the conventional bulbs in our house to the corkscrew flourescents too... except the ones over my chameleons, of course

 

[kinyonga]

Brad...I wondered about these bulbs too.

I have them throughout my house now...except on the reptile cages. I'm going out in the next couple of weeks and buy LOTS of the old incandescents before they disappear from the shelves here!

 

[joefarah]

Brad...I wondered about these bulbs too.

I have them throughout my house now...except on the reptile cages. I'm going out in the next couple of weeks and buy LOTS of the old incandescents before they disappear from the shelves here!

That's a great idea to buy some up! Imagine if all you could get were those crappy and expensive incandescents made specially for reptiles... You'd be spending a fortune for nothing!!

 

[Brad Ramsey]

No one has answered the initial question.

-Brad

 

[Dave Weldon]

...My question, however, (Dave Weldon) is: should I be afraid of using these with the animals. I don't believe the same danger exists as with the bulbs designed to provide UVB, but ???
Any thoughts? -Brad

Howdy Brad,
I haven't given much thought to using a household CF lamp as a basking lamp . They certainly don't have the dangers of the "bad" UVB CFs that we've talked about recently. Making HEAT takes WATTS of electricity. Basking lamps "waste" electricity watts as heat instead of light. CFs make light efficiently by not wasting electricity as heat. Our wasted watts/heat turns out not to be wasted at all because our chameleons need it. It would be inefficient if that heat was not reasonably well-directed to our chameleons. Reflectors help with pointing things in the right direction.

Another important factor is how well the light/heat source's visible light spectrum copies the sun's natural light spectrum. Beyond vitamin D3 production, sunlight is important to a chameleon's physical and psychological well-being and the closer the artificial light comes to the sun's spectrum, the better-off they will be. What I don't have at my fingertips is the spectral content of various basking lamps and household CFs to compare against sunlight's spectrum .

Let's see who out there can come-up with the graphs first .