Mercury; The cfl vs the thermostat

People are paranoid about the mercury present in compact fluorescent lamps but there is several times more mercury in an old thermostat I have laying around than there is in all the fluorescent lamps in my house combined.


Another thing with which I no longer have was a pair of "LA Lights" shoes from when I was in first or second grade. The early LA Lights (prior to 1994) used a mercury tilt switch containing roughly half a gram of mercury in each shoe which completed the circuit to the LEDs whenever one walked. Although very reliable, such mercury tilt switches presented problems with disposal once the shoes wore out.

http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/mercury/projects/legacy/novelty.cfm#s

Current light up sneakers (such as the ones by Sketchers) now use a spring and weight type mechanism

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• mercury
• thermostat
• tilt
• switch
• cfl
• compact
• fluorescent
• lamp
• light
• bulb
• toxic
• posion

[kiendl]

What function do the mercury vials in the prehistronic thermostat have? Are they rectifiers from a time when inexpensive semiconductor rectifiers for high currents were not yet available?

[yuandrew]

Look up "Mercury Tilt Switch"

It functions as a switch and also in a way that it adds some hysteresis to the thermostat's bi-metal element. Without hysteresis, your AC or heater would go on and off with just very slight changes in temperature.

[GunManOsh]

Sure that's alot of mercury but how often do we break thermostats compared to light bulbs? I've probably broken a hundred or so bulbs in my life but I've never broken a thermostat.

[bigjoe12345678910]

NOW THATS A LOT OF MERCURY!

[powermaks]

@yuandrew why they dont use a iron ball inside, or they want to show off the amount of mercury?

[67tr876]

@yuandrew I see ya that would do it.

[yuandrew]

@67tr876

The last time I was over at Wailing Siren Ranch in Moorpark, I spoke with the owner's wife about the light fixture that the bulb was in and it turned out they had accidentally put the bulb in one of those mercury vapor yard lights so it was getting a higher voltage than normal from the MV ballast.

[67tr876]

@jecwhiz fire issues? thats bullshit i have had two 100W CFL's in my basement for a dam year and nothing.

[FoodOrFail]

So what you said is the bulbs, the thermostats and sneakers should ALL be banned. I concur!

[Azteka]

how can i know if i got mercury on my body? when i was in mexico i used to play with mercury, i used to put on my hand, in mexico they sell mercury in pendants,

[stonerj0e]

your voice is very annoying !

[hdyudu]

that is something to think about you get the mercury from those switchs on your hands it can make you sick some whear in CFLs thare not is much to make you sick

[medabrundibar]

I think better are using linear tubes (but not "Alto" or similar crap) - for the same (or even less) amount of mercury they give way more light for way longer and with not as much power input, with nearly no fire hazard (compare to these CFL's) - so for the same lumens you have way less mercury, way less maintenance and fire risk, less electricity usage and mostli wider selection of better quality color rendition (except those cheapest "basic" versions)...