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

[Stewart Fist]

Turnbull's non-incandescent bulb promotion requires some answers before we
even begin to accept his 800,000 tonne a year "greenhouse gas' saving.

1. Since we are said to produce about 500 million tonnes of the stuff a
year, the saving is bordering on the trivial.

2. And what is the energy budget on manufacturing one of these bulbs.  What
is the cost in terms of energy input in manufacture, transport, retail etc,
compared with energy saved.

I suspect that it is considerably on the plus side, but I'd like to be sure.
does anyone have any figures?


3. Moreover, what is the expected life of these bulbs.  People keep quoting
4x that of an incandescent, but in my experience both types are very highly
variable -- with new incandescents being much less reliable in recent times
than they used to be.


I bought a couple of the new fluro type about six months ago and one only
lasted a month or so. The other is still going, but it is certainly not as
bright as is claimed on the packet.


Until last year I had one incandescent bulb in my home (an American screw
fitting) that had lasted nearly twenty years.  I was given it by a friend,
who was an electrician, from his stock, so I can remember when it was
installed.  Other incandescent bulbs in our house last only months.

What would the manufacturing energy budget-saving be if incandescent bulbs
were longer lasting I wonder?


4. What happens when you put these bulbs on a thermister-dimmer circuit.  I
haven't tried.  Does anyone know?


5. Were the old bulbs inefficient anyway?  In summer, the excess energy
consumption will obviously emerge as heat. This will be warming up a hot
house so that is clearly a waste of energy.  But in summer the lights are
only for only half the time they are in winter, and usually we have less of
them on at night because family members tend to be doing things elsewhere.

In winter, any loss of light-generating efficiency will result in household
warming and so part-substitute for other heating methods.  This means that
there is no loss of efficiency at all.  And winter is the the major time we
use lighting. 

So about 500,000 tonnes of Turnbull's 800,000 tonne saving in CO2 is not
actually a saving at all.  To maintain the same ambient household
temperature it will require thermostats to be turned up another notch in
winter to compensate.

Maybe they might legislate to require us to use fluoros in summer, and
change to incandescents in winter.

-- 
Stewart Fist, writer, journalist, film-maker
70 Middle Harbour Road, LINDFIELD, 2070, NSW, Australia
Ph +61 (2) 9416 7458