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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