A Quick Note to the Instaman
April 22nd, 2007 - 7:03 pm
Dude, you’re lagging.
The only lights I haven’t changed are the standard-sized ones on dimmer switches. And that’s because nobody makes those. Yet.
Dude, you’re lagging.
The only lights I haven’t changed are the standard-sized ones on dimmer switches. And that’s because nobody makes those. Yet.
I work in a hardware store right now and just went to a SRP energy fair show. They do make bulbs that work on dimmer switches.
GE confirms it:
http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm#dimmer
Yes, they make R30 and R40 size bulbs that work on dimmers. I’ve got four of them on a fancy Lutron dimmer in the family room. But if you want, say, R20 bulbs, or just regular bulbs, to fit in a ceiling fan or a table lamp, then you’re out of luck.
For the time being, anyway.
um… you did see THIS article, right?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/ban_the_bulb.html
__________short quote___________
“And it gets worse. As Chinese manufacturers add enough manufacturing capacity to produce ten times as many CFLs , they will need several new coal-fired power plants to run the new factories. This comes on top of the already breathtaking pace today of construction in coal fired electric power plants in China – at a clip of one new plant every week. Don’t even think about asking about what kind of pollution control will be operating on those Chinese plants.
A tax on poor people in the US so the Chinese can add more coal fired power plants. Now there’s a bright idea.”
*I am not affiliated with the American Thinker in any way.
I’m switching to whale-oil lanterns. Lovely light and Gore will have a stroke…
Baby seal oil!
Well, yeah, but you were BORN Green….
55 bulbs?! I think that’s more than I have in my whold house! Have you been visited by Sheryll Crow and Laurie David (the Crow-David Entity) yet?
Our household has mostly switched too, and I like them. I put up fixures in my office that were 40 Watt Only, but they’ll run 60-Watt-Equivalent CFR bulbs very well, and the room is now bright, thank you very much.
I just have one problem: we have PAR-30 spots downstairs, and some of them are “just right” sized. The PAR-30 replacements I’ve seen so far are an inch too long for the swivel spots, so no switching downstairs.
Have you checked the mercury content of the CFL’s? If not recycled properly then yet another unintended consequence of the green movement will be high mercury concentrations in land fills. Not a problem currently, but once CFL’s are mandated by law in 5 – 10 years, then it will become a problem.
It seems that, to be completely fair, the calculator should include the amount of mercury you’re going to discard in four and a half years.
–just regular bulbs, to fit in a ceiling fan –
au contraire, just bought a pack at Wal-Mart -
Lighs of America Mini Decor 5 yr bulb, 40 W, shaped like an elongated egg.
Lighting is only 20% max of the energy consumption in an average household. Why not address the insulation, HVAC, and appliances before replacing standard lamps with a more enviromentaly damaging CFL (mercury & production mention above)?
Most numbers used by people to compare CFL’s to incandescents are false to begin with. When you dim or constantly turn on/off your CFL’s you dimminish the life and output. Also when most people compare CFL life vs. incandescents they do not factor in the lumen loss over life of the lamp. As CFL’s get older they get dimmer and dimmer.
I work in lighting and have some CFL’s as well as LED’s in my house but I think its foolish to replace all of my incandescent lamps with a technology that is not superior.
Make a difference by upgrading your insulation and appliances and/or plant some trees and shrubs to help insulate your home from the sun in the summer.
Yes! How dare you try to be energy efficient in one way without being energy efficient in all the other ways your environmental superiors demand! And how dare you keep your local energy demands low while increasing them halfway around the world! You greedy bastard!