Edison Is Spinning In His Grave
The latest push by the “We are the world lovers” is to switch the world from the current light bulb to fluorescent lighting. Poor Thomas Edison, the man who provided humanity the opportunity to party 24/7, is being thrown aside for the new and improved version of energy saving lights. Yes, fluorescent lights are the newest savior for the wild and whacked warriors of the return to the Stone Age movement. We can save the planet and get back to living in caves much sooner if we would just convert our houses to fluorescent lighting. The incandescent light (our current bulb) has been around for more than 100 years. The fluorescent bulb, in its modern form, was invented in 1926 and has become the standard for offices and factories. When you do not need instant light, the fluorescent bulb works great but the slowness of the glow run counter to Americans need for speed.
Today’s Yahoo article talks about Americans being slow to adopt green technologies for home construction. When it comes to lighting, we are not in step with the rest of the world. What is confusing is that my computer does not have a light bulb in it. My oven, fridge, washer, dryer and freezer all have light bulbs but I do not think that a fluorescent bulb would be advantageous for those applications. You would waster more energy waiting for the bulb to come on. So now we are just talking lights. If you have kids in your house, you know that there is an inability to understand the physics of the light switch. If the light switch is up the light is on (unless you have a two or three way switch) and when you exit the room, it should be down. For some reason, we end up with every light in the house on and no one home. I can’t imagine that the dogs are afraid of the dark.
So what other green technologies are there. I guess better hot water heaters and higher energy furnaces and air conditioners. Most new houses put in the energy saving models. The article in Yahoo has this line; “Nothing is stopping building owners from making investment in plants and equipment except they don't want to do it." It is attributed to Peter Fusaro, founder of Global Change Associates, an environmental consultancy. Apparently someone has a vague grasp of capitalism. There is no altruism when it comes to making money. It is about turning out a product as inexpensively as possible and selling it for what the market will bear. Supply and demand baby. That is something that Edison knew oh too well. He managed to convince Europe to implement direct current instead of the easier to transform and transmit alternating current.
The next wave in lighting is the light emitting diode or LED. I do not understand the push for fluorescent when a better, safer, energy saving device is right around the corner. I guess they do live in caves. There is no other explanation for the way they think.
Icool
Cobb
Today’s Yahoo article talks about Americans being slow to adopt green technologies for home construction. When it comes to lighting, we are not in step with the rest of the world. What is confusing is that my computer does not have a light bulb in it. My oven, fridge, washer, dryer and freezer all have light bulbs but I do not think that a fluorescent bulb would be advantageous for those applications. You would waster more energy waiting for the bulb to come on. So now we are just talking lights. If you have kids in your house, you know that there is an inability to understand the physics of the light switch. If the light switch is up the light is on (unless you have a two or three way switch) and when you exit the room, it should be down. For some reason, we end up with every light in the house on and no one home. I can’t imagine that the dogs are afraid of the dark.
So what other green technologies are there. I guess better hot water heaters and higher energy furnaces and air conditioners. Most new houses put in the energy saving models. The article in Yahoo has this line; “Nothing is stopping building owners from making investment in plants and equipment except they don't want to do it." It is attributed to Peter Fusaro, founder of Global Change Associates, an environmental consultancy. Apparently someone has a vague grasp of capitalism. There is no altruism when it comes to making money. It is about turning out a product as inexpensively as possible and selling it for what the market will bear. Supply and demand baby. That is something that Edison knew oh too well. He managed to convince Europe to implement direct current instead of the easier to transform and transmit alternating current.
The next wave in lighting is the light emitting diode or LED. I do not understand the push for fluorescent when a better, safer, energy saving device is right around the corner. I guess they do live in caves. There is no other explanation for the way they think.
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
3:08 PM
1 Comments:
Actually, there are thousands of "green" ideas for housing out there - but the problem is not that we're lazy in adopting them, but that they are expensive.
For instance, think of turning on the faucet, waiting for the water to get hot. Now you're wasting two precious commodities - energy (electricity or gas) to heat the water in the pipe, and water itself.
A hundred bucks gets you a thermocouple that gets the water the exact temperature you want it. A point-of-use hot-water heater keeps us from having to heat a hot-water tank all the time. Instant-on heat. But there's $100 for the thermocouple; $150 for the P-O-U heater, and then the plumber to install it. By the time you're done, you've burned $350 easy. It's easy to lose the cost/benefit measure on things like that...
And trust me, my sister and brother in law (at 47 and 53, respectively) still don't understand this light-switch phenomemon. I don't get it....
By
Steve F., at 9:24 PM
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