6pack said:
those old fashioned gls light bulbs which say 40W consume 40W but their light output is just about a fraction. It is mentioned as 415 lumens on a 40W gls lamp cover. Whereas the cfl of 8W gives out about 400 lumens and is comparatively more friendly on the eye. Even the gls lamps output diminishes with age as the gas filled inside it reduces due to heat, oxidation, etc.
You could save that extra wattage to run other thing in your home. In 32W maybe run a fan or so. See the difference removing just 1 gls lamp makes.
When comparing a bulb with a CFL for brightness use bulbs that are coated white (phillips calls them soft white) instead of transparent. Then compare the brightness you see between the two. Ignore what lumens are said on the cover, all that matters is whether you can perceive the difference. If you cannot then you are getting the same light output from a cfl as the bulb.
I'm not debating about the efficiency of a CFL, of course it is more efficient. A light bulb gives out three quarters of its consumption in heat and the remainder is light. But you need to be aware of the tradeoff's you pay for in exchange for this efficiency.
6pack said:
What i'm getting to at is not to save power and so on. You can use as much power as you like but use it wisely. Using energy efficient products will benefit you the most. how? instead of lighting up 1 gls lamp of 40w you could light up 5 cfls using the same amount of power. You could light up 5 rooms instead of just 1. Doing that you could help other to similarly light up 5 rooms in their homes. Since you would not draw 40x4 = 160W from the grid. That 160W would be used by other people to light their homes or you could use that 160W for something else. If everyone thought like this the world would be less starved of power.
All good provided the payback period works out. With a cfl its roughly 3 months depending on usage. I've not been able to get CFLs to last me more than 6 months, they start dimming out, the tube goes black etc and then its gone. This is with using them 8-10hrs a day, if you use them for say 2-3 hrs then they last longer.
All my lamp holders hold the cfl in a socket up, tube down configuration. I read that it works better the other way as heat buildup is less that way ie tube up and socket below, so that means changing the fittings in the house to accomodate them.
6pack said:
But that's just wishing for the impossible.
Not only that its completely futile, instead why not appeal to ppl's selfish & greedy motives. Too many idealogies that ignore these natural tendencies lose out to those that exploit them.
Why not come out with incentives like if you use 10% less than your avg consumptoin of the year you will get credits that can be used to lower your bill ? Initiaitves along these lines will have a much larger impact in changing ppl's behaviours with very little preaching, moralising & ultimately banning. Treat ppl like responsible adults and they start to behave like them.
--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
adder said:
Well those or steps by US congress do reduce global green house gas emissions.
Perhaps but its a drop in the ocean as the US has not signed any binding emission agreements on this because neither we nor China will agree to it. All talk about this topic from any of the three countries mentioned is hot air.
adder said:
The US people really like incandescent bulbs because under the CFL white light or tubelight they look like vampires or ghosts ,this is the reply i got from my caucasian american aunt when she was here in bangalore but was happy with warm color CFL lamps all tubelights and incandescent bulbs were replaced by warm color cfl lamps.
I agree with your aunt and warm white takes preference over cool white with me anyday.
The problem here is there are only two colours to choose from whereas there is more selection of colour temperatures abroad, which give a more natural colour. An incadescent bulb or light at its temperature gives you a 90% accurate colour rendition, not to mention being easier on the eye as well. Tubelight or cool white otoh only gives you a 30% accurate rendition Now i'm not saying that a warm white cfl will be as good as a bulb its like 66% but it will be better than a cool white. So understand the tradeoff's you make when you choose what to use
It's funny you say it makes caucasians look like ghosts, it makes us brownies look much more brown. Basically, it makes ppl look cheap & tacky.
adder said:
Our ban is for reducing power consumption not exactly aimed at cutting green house gas.
All depends on whether its justified and i've not seen the proof of that yet.
adder said:
Agree the blame for power shortage is the government.With a country like india where the cities are crowded with rapid change in lifestyle our energy demands are rapidly increasing,in my street alone 2 neighbors put 3 AC this summer which all contribute to increase in power consumption add multiply that in thousands we will have a severe power shortage.Setting a power plant will cost millions people need to be relocated,environmental damages.
But ppl are not going to stop buying ACs are they.
adder said:
No one is saying or forcing you to be less productive .
If we face regular power cuts thats exactly what will happen because there is a shortfall in generating capacity that is not being addressed.
adder said:
changing to CFL doesn't have any effect in terms of productivity.
Initially i hated CFL bulbs after being used to tubelight and incandescent bulbs ,but overtime i got used to it,like i said by reducing the power consumption a person in a village can lit up is home,now multiply that by the millions,our power shortage is solved or in check.
Let me demonstrate the mistake you are making here
You look at your house and figure so much goes for lighting, rest is for something else. Now if lighting makes up the majority of your power bill then going towards CFLs will give you a drastic savings. But you cannot extrapolate from your own personal experience in your home for the whole city.
Until we know what % lighting makes up of the total electricty consumption pie and what % incandescents make up of just the lighting section. Nobody has offered this data they are just saying if it works for your home then it will make a signficant difference to consumption overall for a city. I have trouble believing this claim until its proved.
adder said:
Also why do you think oil prices are going up its due to demand,if all the people started buying big suvs or gas guzzling saloon cars.the price of oil will shoot up,the poor man who don't own cars or bikes will still suffer ,since fuel prices will have automatically add to rise in inflation leading to higher food costs.
Yes but rising prices have changed ppl's behaviour already in terms of suv's.
adder said:
Again if i am selfish and waste all the power i want even if its unintentional ,our government will soon increase the power tariff since they have to now start buying from private producers and other states,while we can afford it.the poor man has to pay the price for our selfish lifestyle .
I have gone to villages its hell when power goes there.
And once they do that ppl will start to agitate and they will be forced to do something about it
adder said:
perhaps but it will be far less then coal burning power stations.
If we do not increase generating capacity then you have to also account for lost productivity in that equation. Everything is tied up you cannot look at these things in isolation.
adder said:
With the money saved in power consumption one can always buy a new CFL incase if it does go kaput.
Yes but then it makes no difference to whether you go for cfl or a bulb in that case does it. And this is my point of contention. Six months and the light output is decreased for me, so the 3 months payback subsidises the nextcfl purchase 3 months later. No difference at all is there.
Look, they can try this subsidising experiment with taxpayer money but i'm pretty sure it wil not last as its not going to make a difference. But we will have lost that money already which in hindsight could be put to better use if they just used their heads a little more
