Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Endarkenment

Once there was the Enlightenment. It was the emergence from the Dark Ages and largely a product of man dissociating himself from religion as an explanation for everything good and bad. Science, art and literature could prevail over blind faith and superstition. Now we face an Endarkenment and nowhere does the term apply more precisely than here:

The Mandatory $50.00 Light Bulb

When I was growing up in Chicago the good folks at Commonwealth Edison supplied electricity and if you had a recent utility bill you could take your light bulbs to a local department store and get new ones whenever you needed them. No charge at all. Tell them how many of what size and they filled up a bag for you.

Light bulbs got more exotic with three-way and various color spectra for various uses. They come in hundreds of shapes, sizes and wattages for specialized applications. But the commonality is they are relatively cheap. They fit the socket and the lamp-shade. They turn on and off instantly. With the three way versions and response to a wall rheostat they offer flexible and reliable lighting for your home and business. What's not to like?

Obviously that is too easy a target for government!

There is nothing at all wrong with trying to reduce energy consumption, minimize waste and improve the environment. What is wrong here is that the legislation quite obviously precedes the science necessary to support it. You don't outlaw a product until you have a superior replacement in hand. That means one that does the same job, at least as well, for a similar cost and without requiring a Haz-Mat Team to respond if you drop one and break it.

How long must you use a $50 100-watt bulb to reap a savings benefit on your electric bill compared to an incandescent?

4 comments:

MagiK said...

AND the reports of the "Life" of these new Bulbs are completely unfounded in the real world. My wife Decided we wanted to save energy so bought about $1000 of these bulbs to replace all our incadescent bulbs....most of them only lasted a year or two a few have lasted 3 but none longer...not nearly long enough to get a pay back on the price investment.

MagiK said...

I was referring to the CFL bulbs not the LED bulbs. LED's have potential but are also not ready for prime time due mainly to the cost.

Dweezil Dwarftosser said...

The compact flourescent bulbs could be a reliable and energy-saving thing (if you can stand their spectral difficulties during the 20 minute warmup) - except for two problems:
-- They require swap out on a calendar basis. (Annually is pretty-much standard in industry, concerning flourescent tubes.)
-- All of the CFLs you can buy are made in China, with some of the lamest quality standards (if any) on the planet.

I just stocked up with incandescents: a dozen 100-watters, and three $5.99 boxes of 18 each 60W bulbs from OSRAM/Sylvania (owned by Seimens). That's 33 cents apiece!

Get 'em while you can; Obambi probably has plans to permit only renewable, organic beeswax-candle lighting should that Marxist get reelected.

B-47 Driver said...

I'm with Dweez. I just stocked up on some incandescents myself.