Comment Re:There are times (Score 1) 619
I have a love/hate relationship with Compact Fluorescents (CFLs). I live in a large house with lots of canister type lights in the ceiling. I attempt to cut energy costs by replacing as many bulbs as possible with CFLs.
The first problem is that the CFLs only last 6 to 12 months in my house. I suppose I have pretty poor power, since I live in the country, but the incandescents seem to handle it much better. This failure rate adds significantly to the cost of CFLs, and makes mockery of those little marketing charts that show that CFLs last 7 times as long as incandescents.
Secondly, I am fairly athletic, and quickly learned that I have to keep at least one incandescent on each circuit to avoid crashing into any furniture that my wife recently moved, or stepping on the kids' Lego creations. Even the new "instant-on" CFL's are not as fast as I am.
In my view, the problem is not how much power we use, but that we are using power from a limited, dirty source. I now feel that the solution is to move to individually generated solar or wind power. If I want to use more power, I obtain more solar panels. That way, any limitations are self-imposed, and the State does not have to tell me what kind of light bulbs I can or can't buy.
The first problem is that the CFLs only last 6 to 12 months in my house. I suppose I have pretty poor power, since I live in the country, but the incandescents seem to handle it much better. This failure rate adds significantly to the cost of CFLs, and makes mockery of those little marketing charts that show that CFLs last 7 times as long as incandescents.
Secondly, I am fairly athletic, and quickly learned that I have to keep at least one incandescent on each circuit to avoid crashing into any furniture that my wife recently moved, or stepping on the kids' Lego creations. Even the new "instant-on" CFL's are not as fast as I am.
In my view, the problem is not how much power we use, but that we are using power from a limited, dirty source. I now feel that the solution is to move to individually generated solar or wind power. If I want to use more power, I obtain more solar panels. That way, any limitations are self-imposed, and the State does not have to tell me what kind of light bulbs I can or can't buy.
