Monday, July 18, 2011

Light Bulb stockpiles

A commenter last week reminded me that I really haven't spotlighted one of Free Republic's more amusing quirks - spite-based economic decisions seens as triumphs over Obama. Sure, a few Monday roundups that include some Freeper leaving their lights on all day 'cause there is no global warming, but there are entire threads.

Like this one about how there may or may not be light bulb efficiency standards.

SUSSA has been thinking ahead:


I have stocked up enough to last me, my children, and grandchildren, the rest of our lives, plus enough to have made some good money selling real light bulbs on the black market after the ban.
mojitojoe feels good about wasting money and space:


The day the light bulb Nazis decided to try to force me to use those pos bulbs was the day I began buying 100 watt bulbs by the case. Buy one get one free, a good sale, I bought everything on the shelf. I have enough bulbs to last 3 generations. I won’t say how many I have now in storage but I can assure you, the number is astronomical. I detest those other bulbs. I’m stocked up up on enough 60, 75 and 100 watt to last for generations.
It just made me feel good to buy them. Each time I paid I said to myself.... FUBO!!

Never mind that the efficency regulations were put into place under Bush.


ELVISNIXON.com also thinks this lightbulb thing is super important:


Obama’s Jihad against capitalism has suffered a defeat
maine-iac7 may be a bit paranoid:

I was contemplating sewing blackout shades for my windows to hide my illegal use of contraband bulbs
cherokee1 has been stockpiling way before Obama, cause he hates Chineefreekingbulbs!

I started laying in extras back around 2005 when I started seeing GE bulbs made in China. I bought only US and Mexican made bulbs and now GE has closed their last US plant. I figured that 20 years would give me enough time to set up some tools to make my own bulbs if Congress couldn’t get it right So my plan is still operable since I have no intention of buying Chineefreekingbulbs.
Jotmo brings us science:

if you're heating your house, CFLs save save no energy.
Every BTU that the bulb puts out is a BTU your heater doesn't have to. So you can reduce any expected year round energy savings from CFLs by 1/3 to 1/2, depending on your climate and type of heating system.
And nothing conducts heat like a vaccume!

WMarshal:

I recommend that you take a box of these poisonous mercury squiggly bulbs to your congress critter’s office in August and ‘accidentally’ drop and break them in the waiting area. See what happens....

3 comments:

  1. "Nothing conducts heat like a vacuum..."?

    Ozy, love ya, _but_....light bulbs don't contain a vacuum, they contain an inert gas, and heat doesn't really need a medium to travel in (the sun heats the earth despite being separated by millions of miles of empty space!). Radiant heat travels perfectly happily through a vacuum.

    Small quibbles of physics aside, love the blog. Keep up the good work!

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  2. /physics hat.

    Radiative heat transfer is super inneficent compared to convection or conduction. A vaccume is actually a pretty great insulator, though it isn't perfect.
    /physics.

    Though since lightbulbs have an intert gas in them, it's a moot point.

    And I'm no engineer, but I'd wager they still won't make a lick of difference in one's house heating bill.

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  3. Yeah, any difference in the heating bill is going to be negligible. (And true, radiative heating isn't as efficient -- if we do imagine a vacuum-filled light bulb, the filament will reach a higher temperature before an equilibrium is reached, but an equilibrium _will_ eventually be reached, such that the heat and light exiting the light bulb will precisely equals the energy being put into it.)

    Got to love thermodynamics! ^_^

    Anyway, as I said before, love the blog and keep up the good work. You risk your sanity so the rest of us don't have to....

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