Paul Murray's weblog, with news you may have missed and my $0.02 worth on a number of topics.

"You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it."
- Art Buchwald

I bet you don't have a friend who's an acupuncturist

E-mail me: pmurray [at] despammed.com

Incandescent innovations. I seem to have stumbled into writing about light bulbs on a semi-regular basis (the Google ads on this page are testimony to that). In today's installment, courtesy of the New York Times, we learn that incandescent light bulbs may survive the 2012 Federal standards, thanks to some recent innovations:

“There’s a massive misperception that incandescents are going away quickly,” said Chris Calwell, a researcher with Ecos Consulting who studies the bulb market. There have been more incandescent innovations in the last three years than in the last two decades.”

The first bulbs to emerge from this push, Philips Lighting’s Halogena Energy Savers, are expensive compared with older incandescents. They sell for $5 apiece and more, compared with as little as 25 cents for standard bulbs.

But they are also 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs. Philips says that a 70-watt Halogena Energy Saver gives off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb and lasts about three times as long, eventually paying for itself.

The line, for now sold exclusively at Home Depot and on Amazon.com, is not as efficient as compact fluorescent light bulbs, which can use 75 percent less energy than old-style bulbs. But the Energy Saver line is finding favor with consumers who dislike the light from fluorescent bulbs or are bothered by such factors as their slow start-up time and mercury content.

Read the article to find out some of the approaches they're using.

Labels: CFLs, energy, Light bulbs

posted by Paul Murray at 11:31 PM | permanent link |

Light bulbs for dummies. Another follow-up to a previous post, this one on the subject of light bulbs. The Washington Post has a nice infographic comparing the relative merits of incandescent, halogen and fluorescent light bulbs, and even explaining color temperature.

Labels: energy, Light bulbs

posted by Paul Murray at 3:27 PM | permanent link |

Little things making a difference. Too many people associate conservation with sacrifice. There are plenty of small steps we can take to reduce waste that require little or no sacrifice. Here's Exhibit A.

I'm becoming a fan of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) -- the swirly designs that screw into conventional incandescent lightbulb sockets. They're an ideal way to conserve a lot of energy without making a huge sacrifice. As Fast Company magazine recently explained:

Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

CFLs are not perfect. To me, their worst attribute is that they take a little time to achieve full brightness, whereas a incandescent is instantaneous. They can't be used with dimmers, 3-way switches or photoelectric switches. They don't work in little lamps where a shade clamps into place on the bulb.

While they cost more, CFLs more than pay for themselves over time. The cheapest place I've found them is Costco, where you can get them for $2 apiece in a pack of eight.

CFLs will never replace every incandescent, but I'm looking for opportunities to use them.

Labels: energy, Light bulbs

posted by Paul Murray at 1:45 PM | permanent link |