wheredanton
Retired
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21254130-952,00.html
It's all well and good for Turnbull to get all Green before the election. But the impact of light bulbs on greenhouse emissions is tiny compared to high powered devices such as:
a) air conditioners;
b) electric stoves/ovens;
c) kettles and
d) pool pumps.
These items use many more kw/hours than a single light bulb. For example a small toaster is equal to 8 100w light bulbs. A greater emphasis should be placed on minimizing the use of these higher powered devices or at least it should be recognized that while reducing our power consumption is good idea banning ordinary light bulbs by 2009 is a gimmick which will have little impact on greenhouse emissions.
Additionally compact fluorescent light bulbs while excellent in certain environments...
1. cannot be dimmed and
2. many, due to their odd shape, cannot fit inside existing light fittings.
It would be better for the environment if everyone in Sydney who had access to gas used it for cooking, general heating and water heating. For example there would be hundreds of thousands of electric stoves on across Sydney for over an hour tonight. Each of these would be burning around 4800w (48 100w light bulbs).
Each house replacing 3 or 4 light bulbs with lower powered ones has little impact (saving about 30w per light bulb) is really a tiny drop in the ocean.
If I replace every bulb in my house and save 200w combined I only need to leave my toaster on for about a minute extra to offset the savings. I only need to leave my huge air conditioner on for a second to offset my savings (greenhouse/personal cost). If a school somewhere accidentally leaves the air conditioner on all weekend it pretty much offsets half the power saved in Sydney if everyone used low power light bulbs.
It's all well and good for Turnbull to get all Green before the election. But the impact of light bulbs on greenhouse emissions is tiny compared to high powered devices such as:
a) air conditioners;
b) electric stoves/ovens;
c) kettles and
d) pool pumps.
These items use many more kw/hours than a single light bulb. For example a small toaster is equal to 8 100w light bulbs. A greater emphasis should be placed on minimizing the use of these higher powered devices or at least it should be recognized that while reducing our power consumption is good idea banning ordinary light bulbs by 2009 is a gimmick which will have little impact on greenhouse emissions.
Additionally compact fluorescent light bulbs while excellent in certain environments...
1. cannot be dimmed and
2. many, due to their odd shape, cannot fit inside existing light fittings.
It would be better for the environment if everyone in Sydney who had access to gas used it for cooking, general heating and water heating. For example there would be hundreds of thousands of electric stoves on across Sydney for over an hour tonight. Each of these would be burning around 4800w (48 100w light bulbs).
Each house replacing 3 or 4 light bulbs with lower powered ones has little impact (saving about 30w per light bulb) is really a tiny drop in the ocean.
If I replace every bulb in my house and save 200w combined I only need to leave my toaster on for about a minute extra to offset the savings. I only need to leave my huge air conditioner on for a second to offset my savings (greenhouse/personal cost). If a school somewhere accidentally leaves the air conditioner on all weekend it pretty much offsets half the power saved in Sydney if everyone used low power light bulbs.
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