[Elecraft] totally OT, except to the extent that it's QRP: LED lamps

[Bill Coleman]

On Apr 3, 2009, at 5:22 PM, Don Wilhelm wrote:

> Wayne, that may be fine for your warm California weather, but for  
> other
> places the wattage benefit is not as great.  Consider that, during  
> cold
> weather, the heating plant must now make up for those 234 watts no
> longer being dissipated by the bulbs. :-)

You laugh -- But!

My father was a Chemistry professor at a small college in West  
Virginia. In the late 60's they designed and built a new Science  
building, which opened in 1971. In the mid-70s, during the energy  
crisis, the college decided to try and save money by turning off all  
lights in the building at night. This was OK until winter came.

They found that the heating system in the new building was running  
100% of the time overnight, but the building temperature was still in  
the low 60s in the mornings. It turns out that the architects of the  
building had factored the heat output of all the florescent lighting  
in the building hallways. In fact, the lights were positioned just  
below the air returns for the HVAC system for this purpose.

It was actually a brilliant bit of engineering.

So, they ended up leaving all the lights on in the winter.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901