[TheForge] OT: Government waste

[Andrew Vida]

On 3/21/2012 11:13 AM, wmullett at bright.net wrote:
> The BULB law is something we should have done awhile ago.  We waste
> an awful lot of energy and generation capacity on inefficient
> lighting. In our new buildings, we are using nothing but high
> efficiency lighting and most commercial structures are retrofitting
> as fast as they can.  The payback is just too fast to ignore.

Meh... laws FORCING people to buy this or not buy that are crap.  There 
is no moral basis for employing such force against people.

> Sure, some of the LED bulbs are expensive initially.  The bulb above
> though has an average life expectancy over 20 years.  And in this
> case, our local power company had a coupon the got me 50% off.  I
> ended up buying $120 worth of bulbs for $20.  The payback will be a
> very short time.

LEDs are WAY different from florescent bulbs of which I am not that 
fond.  We have a few in the house.  They are costly and have not lasted 
anywhere near as long as claimed.  I've had them go in as little as two 
or so months.  Driving 25 miles to return them is not worth the cost of 
the fuel.  They can shove those where the sun shineth not.

I have a Ray-0-Vac LED flashlight.  Cost me $19 and it was worth every 
penny.  That thing throws like crazy.  75 and 180 lumens from a single 
LED!  They claim a battery life of *60* hours in low power mode and 22 
hours in high power mode from 3 'C' batteries.  That is pretty impressive.
>
> BTW - pay attention to the manufacturer.  The bulbs Wallmart carries
> are usually junk.

Lots of the stuff they carry is junk and just about all of it made in 
China.  Jesus... we tried to find something like a toaster oven and 
could not find a single one not made in China.  Bibi refused to get 
one... and she's half Chinese! :)
>