Compact Fluorescent Lamps at Walt Disney World

[clarkstallings]

I'm just curious to get the opinions of other park enthusiasts on Disney's increasing use of CFL's in the park. While such lamps are energy efficient and beneficial to the power bill, am I the only person out there who thinks they're slowly ruining the nighttime look of Disney parks and resorts? The big glass globe lights in the hub and on Mainstreet have had fluorescent lamps for a number of years now, and I always remember those areas being warmer looking and more inviting before they got fluorescent lamps. Now it seems, every single light fixture in the parks and resorts where one can't see the physical bulb is going CFL, and with it, the nighttime look of the park is becoming colder, less inviting, and dingier. Lights that used to flicker gently as if they were a lantern surrounding a flame are no longer able to do so due to CFL technology. Particularly in areas of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot where the lighting is in place of what would have been lantern technology for the time period being modeled, IE Frontierland, Liberty Square, Adventureland, and Fantasyland, the problem is very noticeable. These areas which used to have a very warm, magical glow at night are now awash in the garish light of CFLs. Now many of the CFLs Disney uses have color temp specs of between 2700 and 2800 degrees Kelvin. A typical incandescent lamp's color temperature is around 2850 so it's actually cooler from a color temperature standpoint than the CFLs Disney's using. What Disney's failed to take into account is an incandescent lamp of a cooler color temperature has a broader color spectrum than a CFL of a similar or even warmer color temp. The result being, Disney thinks that by replacing incandescent lamps with CFLs of similar color temperature is going to result in the same or similar look as when the incandescent bulb was being used. Anyone with an eye for lighting can tell that this certainly isn't the case. Anyway, sorry if I've rambled in the technical realm a bit too much. I just wanted to get the opinions of anyone else out there who has noticed this trend?

 

[raven]

I do lighting design for theatre so I can relate somewhat. I don't really look at the type of change that has been made but the mood it relects and intends to do. While most of these changes have been so subtle that only few would notice, most of the changes are due to Disney's stand on conservation and is making changes where they can. The parks have their own power plants but it's still better to conserve. That being said, I think the subtle changes are welcoming where they are currently.

 

[clarkstallings]

I should have included that I'm not interested in the conservation aspect or perceived benefit. While the CFLs might benefit the power bill, from an environmental standpoint, the mercury in the bulbs I feel offset any "energy savings." I'm more interested in a commentary regarding the aesthetics of the switch. I'm afraid that with the green movement we're seeing a sort of technological regression. Humanity on the whole is, I would like to think, always aiming for progress. With that being said, progress does not happen when one sacrifices lifestyle or aesthetics for the environment. That's simply going without, and no matter how noble it might make one feel, one's not better off by sacrificing one thing for another. Progress is when one can have their cake and eat it too. I worked for a company a few years ago that had a very public "going green" campaign where they advertised they were no longer washing costumes in hot water, and were being more mindful of energy usage in terms of lighting for rehearsals and what not. In the end, the campaign was really a preachy exercise in narcissism, as nobody was better off in the end. This company had a lot of excess cash sitting around. If they really wanted to help the environment, they should have made a cash gift to a research university or other firm that's working on sustainable, cleaning, non-lifestyle sacrificing energy technology that will allow use to use energy to excess with less consequence. What they chose to do however, was highlight their participation in piecemeal solutions that in the long run, on result in comfort regression, not progress.

 

[wdwmagic]

Agreed with you on the visual look. I noticed recently that most (if not all) of Port Orleans had been switched to CFL on the outside of the rooms. The whole thing looked very cold and has lost a lot of the warmth of traditional lighting. Hopefully the CFL life will be short, and they'll switch to LEDs that promise to fix this problem (whenver they actually become mainstream).

 

[MissM]

To my eye, there are good CFL's and there are bad CFL's. The ones that are very blue or cold drive me batty. My friend had ones which purportedly claimed to be "natural" light but were HORRIBLE and fake and made everything sickly. (And gave me headaches.)

I use the warmer, yellower ones that better mimic old incandescent bulbs and I don't have a problem with them the way I do the blue CFL's. I'm weirdly quirky about light though due to having migraines and photophobia. (The medical term for extreme photo sensitivity due to biological reasons, not actual "fear" of light or psychological reasons.)

Still, I'll be curious to see how future LED and OLED lights come into play and how they'll look in the next few years. Changing lights can be a scary prospect when the wrong kind can trigger migraines for you.

 

[Soundstage'95CP]

I think the use of CFLs would certainly affect the lighting mood of an area. It's been several years since I've visited the World and am sure I will notice the difference on my upcoming trip. There are other ways that they could have maintained the original look while using recycled energy. Heck, they could use oil burning lamps in Liberty Square and Frontierland (using recycled/reprocessed cooking oils). Even LEDs prove to be cheaper than CFLs in the long run and have customizable coloring effects.
The use of CFLs does bring up the question of whether or not Disney has a localized evacuation policy in place for when a CFL bulb breaks (as recommended by the EPA at http://www.epa.gov/hg/spills/index.htm). I'm very interested to see how CMs are trained to react when a CFL bulb breaks in an on-stage area.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

Agreed with you on the visual look. I noticed recently that most (if not all) of Port Orleans had been switched to CFL on the outside of the rooms. The whole thing looked very cold and has lost a lot of the warmth of traditional lighting. Hopefully the CFL life will be short, and they'll switch to LEDs that promise to fix this problem (whenver they actually become mainstream).

It seems like Disney is trying to use LED's wherever they can now. I wouldn't be surprised if everything is eventually changed to that.

 

[dragongirl]

Ah-ha!!! Port Orleans switched to CFLs! The cheapy low-level brightness high color temperature white ones to boot.

This so explains why my three-year-old had seizures while there earlier this week. I think I need to write a letter on behalf of those with epilepsy...

CFLs vary. The really good ones that do not bother people with flickering light issues, are warm and still as bright as an incandescent are rather expensive. The cost of power saved doesn't really break even for quite some time. Too bad CFLs last so long. There's no incentive to upgrade to the new types which fix past problems due to the cost of the bulbs themselves.

And still no one has a good solution for the mercury...

 

[vwayfan123]

does anyone happen to have some pictures to relate to?