I received another Designing With LEDs post today, reviewing the Feit LED replacement for a four foot two tube fluorescent light. She says it is $33 but only available from Costco.
The fixture is meant to replace a four foot, two T8 tube fluorescent light fixture. The fixture is integrated – the tubes that hold the LEDs are a part of the fixture and are not removable.
The fixture is shown disassembled. There are photos of the guts of the lights; PC boards, LEDs, etc.
With the current ban on the sale of most fluorescent light lamps, in a few years, as more lamps are replaced by LEDs, the amount of mercury in the environment will be reduced greatly. Of course the old lamps will have to be recycled. Most will be because most are being used in commercial buildings where they are all removed when the contractors relamp all the fixtures at the same time. In California, in the U.S. this typically happens when the utility company is using a government grant to upgrade the company’s lighting to cut down on electricity usage.
I have read that more mercury is emitted into the environment by coal burning power plants than the mercury inside of the fluorescent lamps. So cutting electricity use also reduces the mercury in the environment.
