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DrumBeat: January 2, 2007
Posted by threadbot on January 2, 2007 - 9:05am
Topic: Miscellaneous
World's oil outlook frightening, group says
Food shortages, cars abandoned, another depression. It's the stuff of nightmares — and the type of future an eclectic group of engineers, computer experts and others in Seattle believe could await us.They're not religious zealots predicting Armageddon, nor survivalists digging bomb shelters. They believe the world is about to start running out of gas.
Literally.
Power-Sipping Bulbs Get Backing From Wal-Mart
Which is what makes Wal-Mart’s goal so wildly ambitious. If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.That would send shockwaves — some intended, others not — across the lighting industry. Because compact fluorescent bulbs last up to eight years, giant manufacturers, like General Electric and Osram Sylvania, would sell far fewer lights. Because the bulbs are made in Asia, some American manufacturing jobs could be lost. And because the bulbs contain mercury, there is a risk of pollution when millions of consumers throw them away.
A recent British report estimates that the projected costs of global warming to be as costly as both world wars and the Great Depression added together. Yet, with such consequences, some scientists still insist that climate change, if it is happening at all, could be a good thing.
At last, I'm hopeful about climate change
For those of us seeking to tackle the threat of climate change, 2006 was an encouraging year. At the start of the year, the conversation - when it took place at all - was about whether climate change was really happening. That discussion is now over.
Global warming: Our worst fears are exceeded by reality
During the past year, scientific findings emerged that made even the most doom-laden predictions about climate change seem a little on the optimistic side. And at the heart of the issue is the idea of climate feedbacks - when the effects of global warming begin to feed into the causes of global warming. Feedbacks can either make things better, or they can make things worse. The trouble is, everywhere scientists looked in 2006, they encountered feedbacks that will make things worse - a lot worse.
Global Warming is Here. Now What?
Changing the course of global warming could take a major upheaval to affect public policy -- a Pearl Harbor-type event in the environment.
Wind power faces gathering storm: Safety, reliability concerns raised
Energy Probe helped crank up the debate in November when it issued a report that said wind turbines are much less reliable than expected. Data collected from three wind farms near Lake Huron during the summer and fall showed the turbines produced only 22.3 per cent of their potential capacity for electricity generation. Another problem: The wind often died in mid-morning when customer demand was gearing up.
Consequences of scarce oil to go far beyond costly gas
The [Sakhalin 2] affair received scant attention in the United States, the world's largest consumer of oil. But it illustrates a future that will challenge not only companies such as Shell, but also America's foreign policy, economy and individual consumers. It illustrates some stark truths that are operative now, not some possibility for the far future thrown out by wonks with bad attitudes. Higher prices at the gas pump may be one of the most benign outcomes.
Energy to capture more attention in new year
"Manufacturing is highly dependent on energy, especially natural gas," said NAM President John Engler. "We all have to work together to develop a more sophisticated, comprehensive energy policy that invests more resources toward the aging infrastructure ... and strengthens our research and development into renewable fuels."
Ethanol: Not America's complete energy solution
Vic Knutson watches the boom in ethanol plants with guarded skepticism, because ethanol plants also require fairly large amounts of water. "We’re in a giant contest," he said. "You know it’s ironic, we’re on water restrictions looking at even stiffer restrictions, but ethanol plants get all the water they want."
Is energy independence finally in sight?
The gist being, are we going to face a monumental energy crisis in 2007? Reading Denning’s article and the news item from Agence France Presse (AFP), which tells us “Belarus signs last-minute deal to avoid Russian gas cutoff”, makes us think that something big in energy could be just around the corner.
"I" is for innovation. Problems of scarcity and depleting resources are often accompanied by dire predictions of the end of the world as we know it. Which is true. In fact, we read today that Barclay’s Wealth in the UK has recently told high net-worth clients that, "Given the likelihood of natural resource depletion and climate change it is feasible the next decade could represent the high watermark for wealth generation."Wow. So the rising cost of energy inputs into the economy has reached such a level that the world is simply going to cease generating wealth at this level. Hmmn. It’s possible. There are the laws of physics to consider, which determine how much energy you can get from carbon, and how efficiently you can turn that energy into work. But thus far, human beings, when confronted with an apparently natural limit on growth do what the species does best: adapt and innovate.
Kick back, chill out: It could save the planet
They found that the more hours a country's citizens work, the more energy it uses.Their point isn't that work consumes more energy than leisure. It's that more work leads to more pay (for some, anyway).
Which leads to shopping.
And the more stuff we buy, the more energy it takes to manufacture, transport and use it. Think TVs, DVDs, SUVs...
Coal mining deaths soared to a 10-year high in 2006, reversing an 80-year trend of steadily falling fatalities and raising safety concerns as coal production reaches record levels.
Some of the world's major energy companies are learning a hard lesson about President Vladimir Putin's Russia. It is the same lesson that Putin's political opponents have absorbed, along with independent journalists, human rights activists, and certain oligarchs who fell afoul of the plutocratic KGB veterans who form Putin's inner circle.
Once behind the WSJ firewall, Gentlemen, Start Your Plug-Ins can now be read by all.
Mini water wheel generates electricity from 8" drop
The water wheel produces one to two kilowatts of power and generates at least 24 kilowatt hours of sustainable green energy in a day, just less than the average household's daily consumption of around 28 kilowatt hours. It should cost around £2000 to install, and will pay for itself inside two years.
Astrolab Solar-Electric Hybrid Vehicle
Solar Electric CarAstrolab, the world’s first commercial solar car, will be available in January 2008 thanks to automobile designer Sacha Lakic. The car was developed by the French manufacturer, Venturi. The vehicle is powered by energy from the sun - the 16kW electric motor requires very little energy for propulsion. The solar hybrid can travel a minimum distance of 110 kilometres and has a top speed of 120kph.
Uganda: How the Current Power Crisis in Uganda Started
The greatest challenge facing Uganda today is the crisis in the power sector. The drop in the installed hydro-power capacity of 380 megawatts (mw) to 135mw as of May 2006 is unacceptable. And yet the downward trends have continued without any permanent solution in sight.Various reports, including the recent one by the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy, have recorded a big fall in the national economic growth. All accusing fingers point to the power crisis. This could have been foreseen and addressed in time by a caring government. Power shortage grew over many years till it reached the present crisis level.
Should the tie-up be reached, the Japanese firms will probably manufacture and supply steam turbines and generators that make up the core of reactors. Other topics of negotiation might include capital investment in Atomprom--a company modeled on gas giant Gazprom--and the provision of nuclear power technologies, the sources said.
Australian PM Says Nuclear Power Inevitable
SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard said on Friday nuclear energy was an inevitable option for Australia after the release of a report which found that 25 nuclear reactors could significantly cut greenhouse gases.
Let us see some more lists of New Year's Resolutions: How are we individually going to economize, localize, and produce in the nondiscretionary sector this year.
As I posted before, my goals are to lose seven pounds (economizing by eating less), reduce my driving to 2,000 miles or less; move to a walkable community to localize and produce a best-selling book with "Peak Oil" in the title.
Hi Don;
My Resolutions often take the form of 'Promissory Christmas Presents' to Friends/Family.
For my wife, I've started developing what we euphemistically call our 'Ice Storm Contingencies', which include systems which will keep the pipes from freezing and the icecream from melting should we lose Grid Power.. of course this applies to our home's survivability in a number of climate and energy scenarios.
A) I have been assembling the 'winter fridge'[experimental, but not rocket-science], which automatically keeps the icebox cool using the outdoor chill instead of (or before) the coal-fired electric compressor part has to do its work.
B) Solar Electric - which I've started buying and am gradually getting up to the roof and running.
C) Solar Hot Air Boxes.. cheap, glazed collectors which use a thermostatically switched fan to add heat to the home when the sun shines.
D)Continuing as ever to patch, insulate, tighten the house.
E) Cool Tube, using below-frostline ground temps [Long 'sinus' Piping around basement floor] to prewarm a fresh-air supply for the house (and pipes, preventing freezing), allowing more O2 to be avail for inhabitants, combustion in heating/cooking, but without having to bring that air all the way up from winter temps with burned fuels.
F) Experiments with LED Task Lighting- eg, I have strips of whites and yellows (whites are too blue-ish) as under counter lighting, also desk lighting, atmospheric lighting (4-watt, colored Xmas lights are pretty nice!). These will be directly run from Solar and Solar Charged Batts. LEDs are Not actually more efficient in many cases than CF's, but will win out if the fixture was originally a wasteful one. A lot of lighting is wasted and/or counterproductively placed, ie, the 'Center of the ceiling' light in many rooms, where you are trying to see into your own shadow as you work at any wall (counter) of the space.
Anyway, that's a sampling. I build and test things, I have a catwalk on the roof where I'm dismantling our 3-defunct chimneys, and look forward to using those shafts to send energy DOWN INTO the house for a change, including a Tracked Mirror system for consistent daytime lighting.. with a little natural variability, of course. Further mirrors will 'dip' into that shaft from adjacent rooms in the house, as desired, or the patch of sunlight hits a thermal collector at the bottom of the shaft, prewarming domestic water..
Little in our 'lifestyle design' seems more ridiculous than putting an opaque roof over our heads in the daytime, and then turning on a bunch of lights.. but I do it every day! (Not dissimilar to Heating a house because it's too cold outside, then Freezing your Icebox because it's too Warm inside!.. and then there's A/Cing your house because it's too hot outside and the fridge/freezer is making it even warmer Inside!.. and yet you STILL have a water heater making your shower-water hot, all day long..)
I've also promised to help Mom get something up on her roof this year, probably solar hot water for starters.
Complicit, but not Complacent..
Happy New Year!
Bob Fiske
Your program looks very well-considered to me. Do you have a web site with pictures?
Thanks.
I have the url and webhosting, but building a new page (pages) is one of the numerous heads of the technological Scylla (or is it Charybdis?) that my daily battle takes a few furtive swipes at. Not to get too grandiose, but I hear that DaVinci had a similar problem.. lots of great notebooks, but limited shopspace and time in which to birth them all.. That's not to say that all of the above lives purely in the land of Theory.. but the wheat to chaff ratio can be frustrating, none the less!
Baby steps out the door.. baby steps into the elevator, baby steps into the elevator.. I did it! AAAAAAAHHH !!!
Bob
Hello Bob and all TOD'ers,
Bob, thought you might be interested in the cold box I built for our off-grid home in northern VT. It's wickedly simple and works wickedly well for at least four mos of every year (tho climate change has me concerned regarding its long-term viability). You can read about it here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/home_journal_news/2453517.html
With the cold box in operation, we're running our 2200-square foot home on approx 3 kilowatt hours/day. In the summer, we use a conventional energy star fridge. But that's no problem, b/c we're making gobs of power.
For anyone who's interested in more off-grid insight (we have 1.8-kw pv, 900-watt wind, solar hot water collectors, and a hot water loop in our cookstove), I welcome questions/comments. We also run a micro-farm (four or five cows, depending on time of year), a few piggies, meat birds and laying hens, copious gardens, blueberries, raspberries, etc. We did all this before becoming PO aware and haven't really changed anything (hell, I still drive a F150 that pulls down 12mpg on a good day). Still, I am continually amazed at, inspired by, and grateful for the high level of analysis and commentary here at TOD. Thanks to all.
ben at bittergravity dot com
Maybe you could revive the old fashioned ice box ?
I'd think if you wanted you could harvest quite a bit of ice in the winter
in VT. You might even be able to concoct one from a industrial ice maker.
Depending on how much ice you could store it could be coupled with a heat pump and provide cooling well into the summer months.
Do you have any idea how much energy is expended in the harvest, storage, and delivery of ice? There's a reason refrigerators replaced the ice trade...
This wasn't a bad book:
http://tinyurl.com/y6urwk
Garth
Nice Setup, Ben, I'm jealous! (I'm comin', Mah-tha, I'm comin'!! Jest ain't theyah quoite yet!)
Garth and Memmel;
I know of a guy in Maine who does it, and the harvest and delivery is free. He made a deep, insulated trough off his north roof, as I understand it, and lets the snow pack in there all winter, then covering it in the early spring with an insulated top. Keeps a BIG block of ice way into summer,
as I heard it. He also gave his neighbors hot showers on the AFTERNOON of the big icestorm, 9-10 years back.
Could also be done by just freezing up a pool/tank of water-brine-or propy/glycol.. (designed to take the size changes) when the nights are cold enough to run a heat exchanger of some sort.. the magic is in the insulation, which is the key in your battery for keeping one season's power to aid in the next one!
You can also do solar refrigeration with a 2-stage ammonia evaporator/condenser, if you don't have to fight the farmers for the ammonia!
Bob
With a bit of thought I can't see it being that expensive or labor intensive.
In this use case it would be for in situ usage so the design is quite different from a commercial ice seller.
You can probably get away with a big tanks of water and a ethylene glycol aka antifreeze system to cool the water. In winter you freeze the tanks in summer you do the reverse. Old chest freezers could be used.
The expense is limited to the cost of pumping the antifreeze.
Considering you have all winter to freeze the ice you could easily use wind power to power the pump. In summer a electric pump powered via solar could be used.
I've done pretty much all I can on the energy front since I've been doing it for a really long time. However, I'm adding more fruit trees to our orchard (and, maybe, another dozen grape vines). The ones I'll plant this spring will bring us back to about 50 trees. I also started converting our raised beds to high carbon/Terra Preta soils a couple of years ago and I'll be continuing that into the future. I'll also be putting on a short presentation about HC/Terra Preta soils in January or February at our place. If anyone is in coastal northern California and interested in attending, you can email me at detzel(at)mcn.org and I'll keep you up to date. I'm in northern Mencocino County.
Todd; a Realist
All that sounds pretty good, and sort of parallel to what I am doing. Except as of now we hardly have had a winter. I have a big cistern near my house which I am trying to cool down to use for room cooling during the hottest days of summer. That somewhat tepid cistern worked quite well last summer and would be adequate if it started the summer cooler.
And (drum roll here) my wood stove stirling is now working pretty well and can easily keep up my house load, which is a not so frugal 8kW-hrs/day. I am thinking of putting the whole set of drawings on a proper web site for one and all to sue me for when they get killed trying it out, but so far have been too lazy and inept to do it.
There is absolutely nothing proprietary in this stirling- just details that make it work, as contrasted with those that don't. I have made plenty of stirlings that don't work and can tell the difference.
And of course that auto transmission for bikes. Works great up hill and down hill, absolutely no shifting ever, and efficient, cheap, durable and light. Maybe next year. ---Unless, of course, the Chinese steal it, which will make it available much quicker and cheaper, and maybe even better.
Sic transit gloria mundi. ( ubersetzung- fuhgeddaboudit)
I intend to gain about 7 pounds. I am 20 pounds underweight all my adult life so I will probably fail.
After changing all the light bulbs last year, this year I intend to safe as much money as possible, to be invested in solar and/or http://www.windside.com
Keep the veggie garden as usual. Fish as usual, as much as possible. Build rabbit cages and keep a few.
The woodstove I promised to install last summer....
Play with the kids, hug my wife, and learn as much as possible.
>I intend to gain about 7 pounds. I am 20 pounds underweight all my adult life so I will probably fail.
I would gladly send you some of mine :-).
I'm going to stop using the dishwwasher. I'm going to need a rack to dry them on. This will require energy to go to the store.
How about just putting them in the rack already in your washer after you hand-wash them? No new rack or energy needed.
I was recently pointed to another big energy saving possibility in my house: Exchange the heating water circulation pump with a more efficient model.
When opening my gas boiler (high-efficiency condensing model by Weishaupt), I found it uses one of the most inefficient water pumps - and was set to full power mode, drawing 90 Watts. A sticker on it claimed it must be run in the high-powered mode (without saying why).
When I turned it down to the lowest level (still draws 45 Watts power), my heating system and the hot water generation still worked absolutely fine.
I will soon exchange the pump with a super-efficient one made by Grundfos, the Grundfos Alpha Pro http://www.grundfos.com/web/homeUK.nsf/Webopslag/DMAR-6EGDHG (I have no affiliations with Grundfos whatsoever). It draws less than 7 Watts in its lowest setting! Given that an outdoor-temperature-compensated heating system usually lets the water circle all the time the system is switched on, this should cause quite some saving and an estimated amortisation period of only 1.5 to 3 years.
Cheers,
Davidyson
I have to say, my own experiences with power compact flourescent bulbs have been underwhelming. I've used them for years on my planted fishtanks, but if I had to do it over again, I think I would go with regular flourescents. I'd need more of them, but they'd be a heck of a lot cheaper. The brightness of PCFs drops off pretty rapidly, IME, even though they're not supposed to. Changing the bulbs every six months, as the hardcore types do, is a lot cheaper with regular flourescents.
For household use...I've never gotten close to the eight years claimed in the NY Times article above. If anything, the PCFs don't last as long as ordinary incandescent bulbs. I put them up first in a couple of areas where it's a real pain to change the bulbs...but I find myself changing them just as often, if not more. I suspect PCFs are more sensitive to voltage fluctuations than incandescents.
I did not notice any change in my electric bill after making the switch. That might be because I've never used a lot of light, anyway. Or maybe the rising cost of electricity disguised my savings. In any case, I'm seriously considering switching back to incandescents. I am not convinced PCFs are helping either my bottom line or the planet.
I often use very low wattage incandescent bulbs for places where I don't need much light--fifteen watts is a lot less than sixty.
For reading I like the old desk lamps that use a few watts to focus a small beam of light.
To get a feeling of light and warmth in the winter I use my fireplace and sometimes a kerosene lamp or candle lamp for "romantic" effects.
"I often use very low wattage incandescent bulbs ..."
I've done the same simply because PCFs don't function at all in some of the old light fixtures in older homes.
I've also had many of the same problems Leanan describes for PCFs.
I wonder if it's the old wiring? The building I live in is at least 40 years old, and the wiring isn't great. I had to wait a long time to get broadband, because for several years, they kept telling me both my cable and phone lines were too old to support digital transmissions. (Not sure what eventually changed.) I've had problems with the electricity; they replaced the fuse box, and that helped, but I suspect the wiring really isn't up to the demands of modern electronics.
Though it's not as bad as the beautiful but old house my sister once lived in. The wiring had no ground. She couldn't use anything with a three-pronged plug.
It seems to be a problem with only a few of the older fixtures. It could be the wiring but I think it is more likely the individual old fixtures (replacing them is #472 on the Should-Have-Been-Done-Yesterday list).
Are you buying good bulbs or off-brands?
My experience says stay away from anything from Lights of America or Feit; both have failed rapidly. The LoA 3-way circle-tube CF's have replaceable tubes, but the ballasts will self-destruct if you let the tube go all the way to failure. This is a pity, because otherwise they are great. I have 3 or 4 of them sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to find a source of 0.18 ohm 1/8 watt resistors to replace the blown ones.
Though it's not as bad as the beautiful but old house my sister once lived in. The wiring had no ground. She couldn't use anything with a three-pronged plug.
Umm...she does realize they make adapters for that particular situation...
Yes, she did, but she also knew that it's not safe.
She used one of those for her computer, but unplugged it whenever she wasn't using it.
My experience has been quite different over the last dozen years.
The first CF bulbs I bought were made in Switzerland, and only cost about $20 - they were incredibly inexpensive at that price at the time, by the way. The lighting element could be replaced, like a normal lamp, not the entire bulb - generally, only German businesses seem to have such fixtures, as the 'bulbs' are normally what die, not the electronic base. At that time, halogen lamps were also very common. The very first CF bulbs commony available did not have a 'starter' (this made the Swiss one a real steal) - that is, when turned on, there was a noticeable delay, and turning them on and off quickly tended to damage them. The light output is also temperature dependent, and falls off very noticeably in the cold for the circa 10 year old Phillips unit we use as a porch light (one of the old non-starter types - they are no longer sold it seems).
In the mid-1990s, the first really inexpensive units, generally manufactured in Eastern Europe, started appearing, with dramatically lower prices and dramatically varying quality. That first wave of truly cheap CFs was again decent proof that quality has its price, but over time, the cheapest manufacturers improved their quality and lowered their price, forcing the name manufacturers to increase their price/quality ration to justify their higher costs - and cutting into their business model of selling incadescent bulbs (a few years ago, CFs were at the top of shoplifted goods in Germany).
At this point, the price for a standard CF bulb ranges from about $1 to somewhere over $18 - the most expensive bulbs come from companies like Osram, and they warranty an 8 year life (averaging 3 hours a day) - 6 years for their basic models.
The packaging now shows the energy class and the lumens in addition to the wattage - providing information in terms of energy consumption seems to one of the major ways the EU is trying to get its citizens to use less - after all, it saves the purchaser money, and as the EU imports energy, less energy importing means a better balance of trade.
The name brands generally have a better quality - the color temperature is better, and the amount of light higher. I just replaced some 5+ year old CF globes from a cheaper manufacturer, and the newer ones are brighter - the bulb being a gas filled glass tube, this is not a real surprise.
The CF bulbs are essentially considered toxic waste, but apparently, mercury is being significantly reduced for new bulbs in the EU.
The economics certainly work in my case, but then, Germany has the EU's highest electric rates for private customers - export countries tend to favor their export industries.
It is now possible to buy LEDs for a standard socket, but this is a longer term idea. At this point, CFs can be found for essentially all socket types and fittings, which was not true years ago.
I would like to echo this. The newer bulbs seem to be of better quality.
In the past, my main beef was that the color was all wrong. My girlfriend's kitchen has 8 65-watt floodlights, and as a test I replaced one with a CF floodlight but I didn't tell her that I had done this. I waited a couple of days, and she didn't say anything, and then I mentioned that I had done it, but didn't tell her which bulb I had replaced. She asked "which one", and I told her to guess. She guessed wrong 3 times before giving up.
My experience is the same. Time for consumer reports to to a comprehensive study.
I noticed the smell of burning electronics one day and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It was coming out of the CF in the lamp. It definitely didn't last 8 years. Regular lights won't emit toxic smoke when they burn out. I will use the pack of 8 I bought, but I may never buy them again. I think CF's are already obsolete. I think LED's will be the way to go. I only have one light which is on alot and it is CF. The other ones don't see much use because I just grab my LED flashlight to go to other rooms to get things.
Leanan;
I have CF's in virtually every socket in the house and shop, and there are certain ones that have had to be replaced more often than the promises would leave me to believe. I don't know about the sensitivity to voltage fluctuations, but if one of mine is enclosed in a tight fixture, I think the heat has been their undoing. The whole trick of MFRing these was to squeeze those electronics into an inconspicuous package, and the subsequent over heating is a fast killer of circuits.
Also, that burning electronic smell has some truly unpleasant VOC's in it, doing nothing to improve the buildup of the same in our lungs and bloodstream.. For me, I'm still using them, as it beats the increased Mercury and assorted Coal Residues that I'd be dumping onto my and all other kids' heads, (and paying for every month) but I'm extremely eager to get past the burnouts with better placements and cooler fixtures, as well as the Daylighting and LED's mentioned above.
Bob
None of mine are enclosed. I actually removed the shades, covers, etc., because the package says not to use them in enclosed fixtures. The bare-bulb look isn't very aesthetic, but given how often I have to replace the @#8$ things, it's convenient.
As for mercury...what about the mercury from the PCF bulbs, as described in the article?
I've read somewhere that the mercury in the CFLs is less than the mercury emitted by coal power plants to power the equivalent incandescents -- and much easier to dispose of in a controlled fashion.
I've had better luck than you with the CFLs, most of them seem to last from 2 to 10+ years, depends how much they are used. I've replaced some old-style fluorescents that had consistently short life with CFLs. I did have bad results with CFLs from the "Lights of America" brand (made in China, of course - but so are the better ones these days).
I've read somewhere that the mercury in the CFLs is less than the mercury emitted by coal power plants to power the equivalent incandescents -- and much easier to dispose of in a controlled fashion.
A couple of months ago I threw that question out here and someone responded with some great info. I can't remember when that post was, but basically with the current state of power plant regulations you wind up with less mercury using the compact fluorescents. However, with future regulations...it was sometime by 2011 or so that it was going to be a wash (because of tighter emissions regs) and after that, increasingly in favor of incandescents. However again, and you caught it...the emissions from power plants gets sprayed everywhere but CFs can be recycled or at the very least, wind up in a landfill.
The whole trick of MFRing these was to squeeze those electronics into an inconspicuous package, and the subsequent over heating is a fast killer of circuits.
I've always wondered why they don't add heat sinks to the ballast...they can get beastly hot and a few cooling fins would probably extend the life a good bit.
CFs are just too complex and the mfrs only care if they can be sold, not if they work.
A classic case for standards and regulation of the market.
What exactly is "complex" about a CF? Coating a glass tube with fluorescent powder and filling it with glass? It has been done for the past 60+ years. The main difference to a regular fluorescent light is the electronic starter and ballast, both of which are close to trivial circuits. Don't take my word for it... I just happen to earn my money by designing not so trivial electronics.
As for cost: I get mine for 33 cents each. I replaced almost every lightbulb in our home with them and not one of them has failed, so far. I don't expect them to, either. Initially some of them have a slight smell which is solder residue and organics from the cheap printed circuit boards in the Asian models "burning" off. That does not mean they will fail, it simply means they did not clean them well.
I've been using CFs for years and haven't had a single problem. I've bought cheap ones at the dollar store and they work fine.
I am getting mine from a Chinese grocery store where I suspect they are being sold to the one group of people the utility thinks will take them: the cost conscious Chinese. I haven't made any quality comparisons but believe that these are the cheapest CFs they could find in quantity. Yet, for me, they work just fine. Not a single problem in over two years of operation.