Rant 2

Yep, another thread on Usenet set me off...."Switching to compact florescent lights doesn't save that much."

Saving energy, whether by producing your own or from the grid makes sense in ways that most people don't realize. As a conservative, I'm pissed that here in the U.S. we don't use as much of our own resources as we can but instead buy from abroad (whether in N. America or elsewhere). As a person who really doesn't want to help giant companies get gianter, I'm going to save as much as I can. At my main home (a condominium) I have no choice but to use the grid. At my cabin, I produce all my own power, every damn watt of it either by solar or by generator.

So, CF ain't going to save THAT much in the long run. Let's see, my time is worth $30 (US) an hour; I'm 50 years old, I know how much my time is worth. I buy regular bulbs in 4 packs, they burn out. I replace
CFs every 5 years or so. Going to the store to buy the bulbs costs gas and time. Take the hour of time, $20, the 8 or so bulbs in the 5 years, the time it takes to change all the damn bulbs as they burn out, say
another hour and we come up with $50. My question to myself is is it worth the time and energy (don't forget the wear and tear on the vehicle) to reduce the replacement cycle of the bulbs AND the energy
savings. Just screwing in the bulb and watching the electric meter spin isn't the real cost of the type of light bulb that you are using. If you don't take it to the Nth level, you don't get the real cost of the
whole deal.

Now, at my cabin, I run the whole thing off of the battery bank and solar panels. I know exactly how much each section of wire and each little plug and bulb costs me; I damn well better or I'm going to kill
a bunch of expensive batteries and be sitting in the dark wondering what the hell happened. Trust me, CF saves a LOT - I use the 75 watt replacements from GE. My CF bulbs use 5 watts each (about a 20 foot
average run on 14 ga romex cable) once they are warmed up - they need to warm up, call it what you want, they use less power the longer they
are on - they don't even trip my output meter by themselves, which starts measuring at 5 watts. If I have one connected by and extension cord (those ones with the 3 outlets on them), oh the power use goes up buy 2x. CF in ceiling fixture, 5 watts. CF in lamp with stranded cord, 10 watts.

In the end, just replacing the bulbs and sitting fat and happy isn't the whole story. You've got to consider the whole thing as a package. For me, turning on a switch and not seeing the flash of bulb death has
probably added 5 years to my life in lower blood pressure alone, which has to be added into my total energy costs. 

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