[LINK] Here's one that will snag a few

[Karl Auer]

On Tue, 2007-02-20 at 18:15 +1100, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> they don't fit all fixtures

No - not all. Only about 99.9% of them. I've found one light that I
can't get a longlife substitute for - a peculiarly shaped 40W bulb in
our range hood. And I suppose specialist bulbs (like fridge lights etc)
will continue to be whatever the manufacturers want.

> they interfere with remote controls for tv

Sounds totally bogus. Proof please. Our house is full of longlife bulb

> they cause epileptic reactions and migraines in some people

So do some incandescent lights.

> the light levels are 1/4 of the incans used in LV downlights, so you 
> need more to get similar light levels

What's an LV downlight? Low Voltage? This is probably true. On the other
hand, I've never seen the point of littering the ceiling with ten or
twenty 50W halogens, whose chief purpose appears to be heating up the
ceiling space.

> dimmer switches need to be fitted with balasts at costs of a lot of money

A temporary problem. Plus we are not talking about, at a stroke,
removing all incandescent bulbs from the country. Plenty of people will
do as you intend to (hoard), and that will smooth the transition very
nicely.

> the sales pitch about length of life is not always reliable,

Nor is it for incandescents.

> up to 200 times the cost of incans, there will be a lot of unhappy campers

Only those who can't do the maths and work out that a bulb that lasts
200 times as long is worth it. Well, the number "200" is probably bogus
on both sides of that argument. Unreasonable prices won't survive the
first couple of months, though. And asking people to pay a litle mor
efor their energy, even indirectly, is a Good Thing.

And people can replace their bulbs (and, much more rarely, fittings)
over time; it's not like they will have to replace them all at once.

> they contain toxic elements like mercury, so will require special disposal

Not all of them. And is special disposal such a terrible thing? Or is
the Great God Convenience too powerful?

> the minister had no answer for having businesses turn out office 
> lighting that is unneeded rather than punishing individual consumers
> (again)

And this relates to incandescent vs longlife exactly how? Or are you
saying that because there is no solution over there for that problem we
shouldn't bother with a solution to this problem over here? Sounds like
Perfect getting in the way of Good again.

> they claim savings that are outlandish on electricity bills - rubbish!

Prove it. Show us the numbers. Until then it's just claim against claim.
Assuming a 20W longlife replaces a 100W incandescent bulb, it is
directly saving 80%, or 80 cents in every dollar. Is that outlandish? If
so, how?

> Another example of policy on the run. I'm going to stock up on incans 
> while I can.

Go for it. Keep a few in their boxes, in a few decades they might be
worth a lot... as antiques :-)

> Better solution: turn off the damn switch!

Absolutely! Turn off the longlife bulbs, too.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)