Rick's b.log - entry 2009/12/26

Light bulb frenzy

The reasons are...

• I really don't buy the "better for the environment" ruse. You can chuck normal bulbs in the rubbish when they are done with, "eco" bulbs need special handling due to what is inside them. Better for the environment?
• Some fluourescent bulbs give me headaches, and at around €8 a pop, I don't plan to experiment.
• Some of these low energy bulbs turn on instantly. Some need to warm up. The tube in the kitchen gave up the ghost a few years ago, so I wired in a light holder and fitted a low wattage bulb. This is how bright it is after being turned on, and then I got the camera, focussed, tried again on the macro setting, was told I needed flash, turned on flash, focussed again, took the picture. Seriously, it takes a while for it to reach a decent level of brightness.
  Look at the shadows behind the bulb where the flash didn't illuminate to see how bright it wasn't. Look at a reasonable quality camera pointed straight at the bulb from about a metre distance asking for the flash to be on...
  Again, this is not a problem with all low wattage bulbs, but at around €8 apiece, I don't plan to experiment.
• We're actually pretty frugal with electricity. Right now, for instance, our heating (which is electric) is a 500W fan heater in my room and a 1000W oil-filled radiator thingy in mom's room. The difference is made up by making hot water bottles, short bursts of 2.2kW. The light I usually use in my room is a 20W 12V desk lamp pointed upright, and mom uses a 60W bulb. We don't leave lights on all over the place when we are not around. So let us use a few 60W tungsten bulbs without governmental-environmental whinge. Or would you rather we kept our house at a minimum of 16°C like everybody suggests? That'll take a lot of running of 2kW heaters. You do the math...
• And, finally, have you heard the interference coming off of those things? EMC okay, my ass!

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