[TheForge] OT: Government waste

Thu Mar 22 11:05:24 EDT 2012

1.	My wife has a problem seeing certain colors.  The sodium lights and fluorescents are very dim to her.  I won't repeat what she says that they do to the color of her complexion<G>.
2.	Fluorescents (particularly the ones with the new solid state ballasts) do not like the cold of my basement, are dim, buzz, and sometimes just won't turn on when I need them to do so.

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce .
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:56 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT: Government waste

This particular thread seems to be discussing mostly renovations of a major scale.

I, for one, have no problem with fluorescent lights in most circumstances.  I have fluorescents in half my basement, two pantry closets, and over my bathroom and kitchen sinks, and even in a couple table lamps.

AFAICT,  "compact fluorescents" pose no advantage over traditional fluorescents, they're just a different size and shape.  BTW, they do NOT fit anywhere traditional incandescent bulbs fit -- I have several fixtures that cannot accept compact fluorescents, and I will NOT spend ridiculous amounts of money on new fixtures just to accommodate these things.  This failure to fit in any fixture is one reason I don't use them more.

Another reason is their ridiculous price.  Yet another is that they don't seem to turn on fast enough to be useful to me, especially in areas I go in and out of quickly.  Yet another is that the common ones cannot be used on dimmer switches.  (Very expensive ones can, but that defeats the purpose.)

But for the most part, the difference in energy consumption is not a significant issue to me.  After dark, I typically have two or three bulbs burning.  One of these is likely halogen -- already energy efficient, but bright.  Since I use it for reading AND I suffer from S.A.D., I NEED it bright.  The other one or two are likely to be incandescent, 60W-100W.

The halogen and three of my more commonly used room lights are on dimmer switches, and are not glowing at full brightness, which, for incandescents at least, mean they're not consuming their full wattage rating.

 That's IT.  Not a whole hell of a lot of electric consumption.  When more than two or three lights are lit, I turn them off.

Now, I'm in NJ.  My furnace pilot light is lit from about Sept. to about the end of May because the furnace may have to cut in to warm the house.  That means that for nine months of the year, THERE IS NO WASTE HEAT from incandescent bulbs.  True, I wouldn't choose to heat my home with electric, but what heat is generated does not go to waste.

In the other three months of the year, the days are long and the lights are on less.

100W bulbs have already disappeared from most local stores.  (I'm not telling where I can still buy them, but most people wouldn't go looking for them there.)  I stashed a number of them away, out of harm's way.  I'm hoping that by the time I run out of those (I don't go through many), either there will be a better, cheaper alternative to compact fluorescents, or the backlash from the public will have restored 100W incandescents to the shelves.

What I've never understood is why nobody has come out with halogen equivalents for 100W bulbs.  Take a small quartz halogen tube of proper light output, and put it inside a frosted "light bulb" (perhaps of heavy construction and with vents for cooling).  If that's out there, let me know.  The halogens I find require special fixtures.
Very silly, considering all the brouhaha that has gone into fitting fluorescents into incandescent sockets.

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 8:52 AM,  <wmullett at bright.net> wrote:
> Most of the things you hear about upgraded lighting cost vs payback are over the fence rumors. People that don't have the facts or the knowledge.
>
> Here is a facilities article that shows why owners are 
> retrofitting-Retrofits-Myths-and-Misconceptions--
> http://tinyurl.com/6rr9nwe
>
> And here is a case study
> http://tinyurl.com/7o3ocjh
>
> Like a lot of things we hear that are incorrect "drill-baby-drill" - get the real facts first rather than spreading rumors that meet your own limited miss-conceptions.
>
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:36:54 -0500
>>From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net (on behalf of Andrew Vida 
>><osan at netlabs.net>)
>>Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT: Government waste
>>To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>>
>>
>>
>>On 3/21/2012 6:16 PM, xlch58 at swbell.net wrote:
>>> On 3/21/2012 6:04 PM, Andrew Vida wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>> The flourescent lights usually fail because of the electronics.  
>>> They overheat when mounted in a can, or even when mounted upside 
>>> down.   When mounted in a standard lamp they do well.   A good 
>>> example of not enough test cases and minimum standards.
>>\
>>Good to know, but it helps us not a whit.  I am NOT refitting an 
>>entire house for the sake of some idiotic law.
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--
Bruce
NJ
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