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You must not be very old or you would remember that people cried just as much about doing away with leaded gas...
I wasn't alive or was too young during that, I wouldn't be surprised if people complained as much about losing leaded gasoline as they have with incandescent light bulbs.
I live in an electrically heated town house and use the "wasted energy" from my incandescent light bulbs. My antique 100/200/300 Watt Mogul base bulb ads considerable heat to my living room. It is getting difficult to get lamps for this light.
I was amused by the loss of leaded high performance gasoline as one of the highest octane gasoline was AMACO unleaded 105 octane "white gas".
Changing bulbs hasn't changed my usage one bit. Lights are a very small part of my electrical usage. Computers, TV's, the blower on the furnace and appliances are the big part.
I haven't measured it but would guess that lights are maybe 1 % - 2% of my electric costs. AC is by far the most expensive. Probably 75%. Especially if you include refrigerators.
If I never turned on any lights I would not notice the impact on my electric usage.
I haven't measured it but would guess that lights are maybe 1 % - 2% of my electric costs. AC is by far the most expensive. Probably 75%. Especially if you include refrigerators.
If I never turned on any lights I would not notice the impact on my electric usage.
Which means, given the high costs of LEDs, we'll never see the return on investment for these light bulbs.
I haven't measured it but would guess that lights are maybe 1 % - 2% of my electric costs. AC is by far the most expensive. Probably 75%. Especially if you include refrigerators.
If I never turned on any lights I would not notice the impact on my electric usage.
I'm surprised that I didn't see some impact because I have one light I leave on all the time and a couple we forget to turn off (all in the basement). I have this phobia about walking into a dark basement. Near as I can figure something happened in my grandmother's basement when I was a child. To this day, I get cold shivers just walking down there in daylight. My own basement is different enough but I still can't walk into it with dark corners so the far light is left on all the time. I can turn on the near lights as I come down the stairs. Didn't make a difference when I replaced the bulb but it's just one bulb. I do not believe that CFL's or LED's even come close to paying for themselves over their lives. With the high cost of the bulbs this is just costing us money.
I'm not even convinced that this is worth it when you consider the collective impact of all homes switching over. I think we could save far more electricity by requiring that all houses with central air put the central air on an interruptible circuit. That does save me money (lower rate) and I only notice the interruption about twice in a summer.
Which means, given the high costs of LEDs, we'll never see the return on investment for these light bulbs.
This was never about us saving money. It's about the left wing nut jobs controlling our lives. They want to control everything from the food we eat to the light bulbs we put in our houses. I'm surprised they haven't mandated electric vehicles by now which, again, wouldn't save the consumer anything by the time you factor in the higher cost of the vehicle and I have no clue what the costs will be to dispose of all those batteries. Now, if electric vehicles ever come down in price I'm game but while they still cost so much more, there is no savings for me to switch over. Gas would have to be $6/gallon before I'd even consider it but I could car pool so I probably wouldn't even then. (I'm pretty sure that if gas ever got that high the two teachers who live near me and teach in my district would be game for sharing rides at least some of the time. As things are, we wouldn't save that much. With gas at $4/gallon it costs me $28/week to commute.)
This is the law and you guys are arguing about something that is already done. I had nothing do to with this law so I have no obsession unlike some of you. All I am saying is let's just move on to something more important to us.
Then stock up on those obsolete bulbs because they aren't being manufactured anymore. Besides, LED bulbs are far superior with a much better quality of light and lifespan.
I can't afford LED. Maybe the government will give me some.
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