There is a lot of pressure to switch over the light bulbs in my house to fluorescent. Can you go over the pros and cons?

Well, we found some expert opinions for you. (And we changed ours over some time ago!

Here goes:

Did you know that over half the energy consumed by an incandescent light bulb produces heat, not light? According to onebillionbulbs.com, compact fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs because they typically use 65%-75% less energy than a standard incandescent bulb to provide the same amount of light AND they last up to 10 times longer than a regular light bulb.

Although CFL bulbs typically cost more than a standard incandescent bulb, the cost savings over the life of the bulb can be significant. If you replace multiple bulbs in your house, the savings can really add up.

And, don’t forget the heat. Given that standard incandescent bulbs throw off most of their energy as heat, your home cooling costs in the summer increase in order to offset the heat generated by your standard incandescent light bulbs.

There are environmental benefits as well.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, if every U.S. household replaced just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb, it would prevent 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the road.

All that great stuff said, there are some cons to using compact fluorescent light bulbs.

According to Energystar each bulb contains a small amount of mercury, which can be hazardous if broken in your home. The EPA recommends the following steps if you need to clean up a broken bulb:
(1) you immediately open windows to reduce mercury concentrations inside your home; (2) you do not touch the spilled mercury; (3) you clean up the broken CFL glass carefully and immediately (but not with your hands or a vacuum cleaner), and (4) you wipe the affected area with a paper towel to remove all glass fragments and mercury. EPA further recommends that you place the paper towel and glass fragments in a sealed plastic bag and bring the sealed bag to your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Site.

Also, you need to contact your solid municipal waste agency to determine how to dispose of your burned out bulbs. Some jurisdictions have specified sites and some allow you to put them in your regular trash.