electricity
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18 Seconds
Posted by rick on 27 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: electricity
Yahoo has launched a website that tracks the number of compact fluorescent light bulbs sold all the way down the the ZIP code level. From what I can tell, Nielsen is providing the statistics on how many bulbs have been sold. The information can be shown in an in-line map. Not a bad idea, but I’m always kind of skeptical about this kind of “up to the minute” data. Big, confident numbers flashing across a screen basically make me assume that it’s more of a vague estimate. In order for those numbers to be correct for my ZIP code, the supermarket where I just shopped today would have to somehow accurately let Nielsen know how many CFLs they have sold. My experience today was that they couldn’t even keep their scales zeroed. The idea for the website is somewhat clever but I’m going to stand by my assessment of its overall hokiness. And, the fact that there are two major typos on the site gives it a slapped-together feel. I’ll send $5 to the first person who can email me what those typos are.
GE shoots not quite for the stars, but maybe the treetops
Posted by rick on 25 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: electricity
General Electric said it is working on improving the incandescent bulb to make it comparably efficient to compact fluorescents. I have to admit, this is something I had no idea was on the horizon. GE’s goal is to have a bulb that is almost as efficient as a CFL in a few years. Of course it’s not really important which technology is used, incandescents, CFLs, or LEDs, but it doesn’t seem a very lofty goal to be almost as good as something that already exists today. I won’t dismiss it as useless because there is the issue of the mercury content in CFLs, that is not toxic to individual consumers but could cause problems in landfills. On the other hand, CFLs cause an immediate reduction in pollutants from power plants. GE says this about the benefits of using its future product:
Adoption of new technology could lead to greenhouse gas emission reductions of up to 40 million tons of CO2 in the U.S. and up to 50 million tons in the EU if the entire installed base of traditional incandescent bulbs was replaced with HEI lamps.
Yes, or the greenhouse gas reduction would be even greater if CFL lamps were used today. GE also talked about its high-efficiency incandescents having the instant-on advantage over CFLs. There are still some CFLs that take a second to come on and then to get to full brightness but I must say that out of about the seven bulbs in my apartment I only have that problem with one of them so I think that is probably a mostly moot point.
An interesting point to all this talk of CFL vs. incandescent is that in a few years it’s likely that we’ll be wanting to replace CFLs with LEDs. Let’s sit tight and wait for laws decrying the wasteful CFL! Maybe GE has a point after all.
Lights out for incandescent bulbs Down Under
Posted by rick on 21 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: electricity
Now, I hesitate to write so soon again about another government entity seeking to outlaw the sale of incandescent light bulbs, er…”globes” (because we’re talking about Australia here, which is not only a different country, just like California, but, for the geographically uninitiated is even its own continent). I think the next time Australia gets lip from anyone, they should just say: “Does your country cover an entire continent. No, I didn’t think so.” That should end most discussions.
So the government (the same government that didn’t ratify the Kyoto Protocol) of this powerful country that covers an entire continent has decreed that by 2010 the sale of incandescent light bulbs will be outlawed within its watery borders. Wow! A whole continent banning the sale of an energy waster. Take that, California! California with its insignificant 37 million people is always thinking it’s so important and such a trendsetter. Oh, lookie here, our Austrian governor drives a Hummer that runs on hydrogen - see how practical we are? Well, in 2010, none of Australia’s 20.6 million residents will be able to legally purchase an incandescent bulb. Um…what? That raft of a country only has 20.6 million people living in it? Well, no matter: all that empty land can be used to set up secret light bulb black markets in the Outback. I’m sure the energy police can’t cover every square kilometer - and imagine the fuel they would waste if they tried. I’m sure New Zealand’s smuggling community is already licking their collective lips, too, and outfitting their fast, fuel slurping boats to handle the fragile cargo.
Ground floor opportunity for black market incandescent bulb sales
Posted by rick on 07 Feb 2007 | Tagged as: electricity
California Assemblymember (say that three times fast) Lloyd Levine is introducing legislation to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs in in the state by 2012. It really is amazing that compact fluorescent and LED light bulbs face such stiff competition from a technology that hasn’t been improved upon in about a hundred years, but that is the sad truth. I think a lot of people find it hard to believe that incandescents really are that wasteful of the energy they use. Incandescent bulbs served their noble purpose for many years but are now the poster child for inefficiency. Look at this from the US Department of Energy’s Kid’s Page:
As a nation, we spend about one-quarter of our electricity on lighting, at a cost of more than $37 billion annually. Much of this energy is wasted using inefficient incandescent light bulbs. Only 10 percent of the energy used by an incandescent bulb produces light; the rest is given off as heat.
Ten percent is an abysmal number.
Click on the light bulb on the left if you hate bunnies and dolphins. Click on the light bulb on the right if you have any sense of decency and/or live in California where it will soon be illegal to click anywhere else.
A special thanks to Rocketboom for calling my attention to the California story!
