Have the engineers lost it

[shankle]

Those present excepted. :bg
In my state which has loads of lightening, they want you to connect
a ground for the house into the footer steel. So when lightening hits
the drip cap on the roof blows straight out and the footer is shattered etc. etc.

Years ago they decided to put a water flow restriction on the toilets to save
water and the same on the showers. So now instead of flushing once you
have to flush twice using more water than before.

Now they have come up with a light that saves electric. Only trouble you will need two
lights now in order to see what you are doing thereby using more electric.

What's wrong with the logic???
I'm waiting for the next one.......

[MichaelW]

The problem is not with the engineers, but with the idiot politicians that control our governments.

[jj2007]

Now they have come up with a light that saves electric. Only trouble you will need two
lights now in order to see what you are doing thereby using more electric.

What's wrong with the logic???

There is nothing wrong with the logic of engineers.

If you don't want to read all of this, here is the key point. If a CFL bulb lasts for longer than 50hrs, then the total life cycle energy consumption of the CFL will be lower than that of an incandescent bulb even though they are more complicated to make.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, lighting in the U.S. accounts for 22% of electricity consumption and costs American's $58 billion a year. If every American home replaced just one light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (your everyday energy "efficient" bulb), we would save $600 million per year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 800,000 cars.

[clive]

The problem with CFL and Neon tubes is that they contain some mercury, not human or environmentally friendly. The don't work well with regular dimmers, several people have burned down their houses.

Some of the original Philips CFL type bulbs (European Bent Tube style) I bought my folks in ~1990 still appear to be serviceable today, while the newer/cheaper one are far more inferior. I think that comes from using cheaper components, and PCB's. The original ones were quite expensive, even when bought from the Philips company store.

That said, I've used dozens of 4ft neon tubes in my basement for decades because they are very efficient once started. Some people don't like the "warmth" of the colour, or the AC flicker, although on my last trip to the hardware store they different white temperatures. Although the ones people will probably like the most are almost twice as much.

As for the toliet/water issue, back when they first introduced water meters in the Isle of Wight, people cut their water use dramatically, putting bricks in toilet tanks, etc to limit the flush volume. What happen were all the sewer pipes soon blocked up with solid waste, because the solid/fluid ratio was all buggered up.

But MichaelW is right, it's idiot politicians and their knee-jerk responses to almost any issue. The terrorists have ALREADY WON, flying is now a bloody miserable experience these days.

[dedndave]

i have heard they intend to stop selling regular bulbs here in the US
that is sad - i have a hard time seeing with the neons

[FORTRANS]

i have heard they intend to stop selling regular bulbs here in the US
that is sad - i have a hard time seeing with the neons

Hi,

   Neons?  Beer signs?  <g>  Yeah, sad or silly IMO.
They should tax them if they want to discourage their
use.  Start out small and ramp up as the others come
down in price.

   With Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) I have
had mixed results.  A third to a half (at a guess)
fail early.  Some are noisy.  And I have a bunch
of dimmer equipped sockets which can't use them.
Some of the first did seem to flicker.  So a bad
taste of sorts here.

   Regular fluorescent lamps (cylinders) seem to have
their act together.  The few (two?) in my house
have lasted a _long_ time.  (~1982 for one?  Came
with the house.)  Though usage rate is rather low.
Color is odd, though newer seem to have a choice
of colors.  Remember "Gro-Lux"?

   The LED bulb replacements are a bit odd.  I have
two now (different brands).  Color is different to both
fluorescent and incandescent (minor).  Both came in
hard plastic packaging that was a real pain.  Broke the
bulb on one because of that, but made no real difference
in actual use.  Just had to clean up the broken glass.
(It _seemed_ weaker than an incandescent, maybe due
to a lack of vacuum?)  One has the odd pause when
turning on, like CFL's.  (Both annoying for whatever reason.)
The other one can cause noise on my radio with a weak
signal.  (?)   Both replaced a 60 watt bulb, and work well
so far.  I'll be getting more of them eventually, but they
are expensive.  So I'll wait until a failure rather than getting
a spare.  Maybe they will be cheaper by then...

Regards,

Steve N.

[dedndave]

yah - i meant flourescent   :P

[MichaelW]

I have doubts about the eye-safety of CFLs for long-term use. To produce such a bright output, I would think that the discharge must be emitting some seriously strong ultraviolet radiation, and I'm not sure that all of it is converted/blocked by the phosphor coating/glass envelope. Yea, they should have been well tested, but many/most of them seem to be produced in China and I've seen too much junk from there. And didn't they manage to kill a bunch of pets a few years ago?

[hutch--]

I first found the low wattage bulbs in a chinese bargain store about 5 years ago before they became politically correct. Some of them are still running where the later politically correct ones fail about as fast as an old incandescent bulb. An inbetween technology is bulbs with a halogen insert that fits into the old bayonet fittings. Near perfect visible light spectrum, not yellow like old incandescents and not pulsed like fleuros. I mainly use the night light colours of low wattage bulbs which are a bit yellow in colour when switched on, easier on the ewyes than the higher Kelvin range bright white ones.

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

   Halogen lamps are interesting.  They are more efficient
than incandescent.  They don't have mercury in them.
they are bluer/whiter than incandescent.  And they are
expensive compared  to incandescent to purchase.  And
cheaper to operate.  Not sure about the lifetime.

   Hmm.  How to test for UV?  Digital cameras are supposed
to have IR sensitivity with some models.  Maybe they have
UV as well?  But glass prisms won't transmit much, if any, UV.
So how to produce a usable spectra?  Now I wonder where
the diffraction gratings I got from Edmund have gone off to.
I do have a UV EPROM eraser to use as a control.  Lovely,
having to trust the manufacturer for health and safety.

Grumble,

Steve N.

[MichaelW]

Halogen lamps are incandescent lamps.

[FORTRANS]

Hi,

   True.  Still, a bit different than "regular" incandescents.  Easy
to forget that though.

Regards,

Steve

[Bill Cravener]

CFLs average less than 4 milligrams of mercury each about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. By comparison older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury an amount equal to the mercury in 125 or more CFLs and people pitch those in the trash everyday. I don't really have a bad opinion about them, my home is all CFLs and most are 3 to 4 years old.