Light bulb rage

I am really angry over this STUPID idea someone got that we have to 'save energy' by buying these heatless, lightless, mercury filled, overly priced bulbs, because the old kind were made by Satan.

Save energy? I don't know that I buy this approach. Who am I saving it for, anyway? For me? If I use less energy is the surplus that I have 'saved' set aside in some account for me to take out later and use, payment free, since I bought these incredibly expensive stinking bulbs in order to save that energy? Why no! No. There is, in fact, NOTHING set aside in greater quantity for my personal use. So, exactly what is it I'm saving?

Hub and I were in need of bulbs and went to HomeDepot where we were staggered to find that a 100 watt bulb is nowhere to be found. There were the curly mercury ones (because mercury is a good thing to have hanging above your head) or the LED ones. Frankly, neither excited me, but the price tags DID get me heated up and not in a good way. There was a 'sale' on. A sale. In a pig's eye! The LEDs were on 'sale' for $11 each.

THe sale's person blabbed on...these bulbs should last you 20 years, they will save you tons of money. Uh...SHUT UP! I don't even know if I'm going to last another 20 years and if I have to live that long to START seeing a return on my investment in bulbs, to hell with that! I"ll go to Mexico, buy a case of crappy 100s and SUCK that energy up!

Has anyone sat down and figured out what it costs them to run a regular 100 watt bulb for an hour versus the cost to buy a new 100 (60) watt bulb? This does not pencil out well to our advantage. This DOES pencil out well for bulb manufacturers.

Fruthermore...why should I overpay to 'save' energy, while my next door neighbour owns 10 electronic gadgets that must be plugged in and re-charged? Am I paying through the nose for my light so this doofus can recharge his life saving iphone? No! No! I might as well just start paying his Hydro bill for him, why not do that? I consider light to be a life essential. Your iphone is NOT a life essential. Sorry. It's not. Addiction to gadgets is NOT life essential. Let's be clear on this point. YOu lived without one 10 years ago, you can live without one now. Sorry, but it's the truth.

So, for WHOM am I buying overpriced bulbs? WHO is this 'saved' electricity going to be used by? I can assure you that I will not live long enough to see the cost of all new bulbs come off my Hydro bill. Not going to happen. And despite this forced purchase of overpriced bulbs, our Hydro in BC is set to go up 25% in the next few years. It's a lose-lose proposition for the consumer.

I think heat, hot water and light are pretty basic essentials and we should be billed according to what GADGETS we plug in. If you expend electricity on a toy (phones are toys, I don't care how essential to your business you think they are, your type of business existed 20 years ago WITHOUT the aid of cellphones, yes it did! Instant convenience is NOT A LIFE ESSENTIAL!!) you should be billed at a higher rate for all non-essential electricity usages.

But really what prompted this rant is the fact that the absence of heat producing light bulbs makes it hard to build certain styles of incubators. So my incubator has been effectively done away with but there's room in this world to charge ipods and cell phones? Stupid.

I tried to warn people.

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The energy efficiency is a farce. The claim being that the evil bulbs waste energy as heat. Hello, we live in Canada. In January, heat is not a waste.


I hoarded some 100 watts before they went extinct. My plywood box incubator needs them.

Fortunately someone on ACE suggested ceramic heat bulbs that you get at pet stores for reptiles as an alternative.

Fowler, I do know that you posted about this not too long ago. Believe me, I thought of you!

As I age, and my sight goes down the tube, I find I need MORE light to be able to function as I used to. At this time, there were no 100 watt equivalents. Only 60 watt. THey are not bright enough for the lighting I need. This is a stupid, stupid idea. But some group who wants the perception of saving the world has pushed this through. But the TRUTH is that this is pointless and as you say, false.

If someone wants to get serious about energy savings in this country they need to outlaw a 6 inch stud wall! In no way conceivable is a lousy 6 inch outside wall adequate in this climate for either cooling or heating purposes! 10 inch with an air space in the middle should be the minimum! But... it looks good on paper to make a light bulb issue and make it look like you're saving the world.

I don't know about ceramic bulbs, but for my waterbator I need quick, instant heat not slow heat.

I don't think this has anything to do with saving energy. Saving energy wouldn't make both Canada and the USA ban lightbulbs. They won't ban stuff that is known to give us cancer for cryin out loud!

Eventually we'll hear that this was some sort of inside business deal.

According to your posted article, the average household can expect to save $60 a year on their electricity bill.

I have 28 bulbs that will eventually be replaced (more actually, this is a conservative count).

Assume I do not get them all on sale so I expect to pay $15 a bulb.
$15 x 28 = $420 for LIGHT BULBS!

$420/ $60 year = 7 years. 7 years to see any benefit from buying these bulbs.

With the cost of Hydro set to go up by about 25%, it is going to take 25% longer to actually see these bulbs pya for themselves. SO add another almost 2 years. That makes it 9 years before these bulbs have paid for themselves. If one or tow break or burn out...it takes even longer.

I am now 50 and at around 60 I should expect these light bulbs to be a good idea? I will be buying all the regular bulbs I can find...not that there are any to be found!

I don't think there will be any savings because I don't think those bulbs last as long as they claim.

If I'm not mistaken, the bulbs last 20 years if used Continuously, ie, never turned off. There's still one of those old style bulbs burning at Livermore's Centennial light exhibit that's been going for 112 years, minus one or two power outages.

Imho, this is a way to continue to expose us to heavy metals on a daily basis in order to contaminate our bodies and make more stupid people. Most people won't throw open the shutters and sashes when they break a mercury bulb, yet you're supposed to air out your house for 6 hours, should one explode. LED lights are filled with lead and also have 'contamination protocols' to follow when they burst. I think it's ridiculous, really and it is just a ploy.

I believe you can still order off amazon until stock is gone. I've been stocking up myself on the red heat bulbs.

So the red heat bulbs have been eliminated as well and replaced with.... ceramics only?

Yep

 

I didn't realize they had targetted heat lamps as well. How interesting, people will replace those with 15000watt radiant/space heaters. How energy efficient!

Yes that is what I'm thinking they want. We already have an over head radiant energy efficient heater in one of the coops but we run it with two heat lamps on too. Otherwise I don't think it would be enought heat for the birds. That's in an 8x10.

I don't heat my birds.  This year is the first time we have (the muscovies), because the idiots sit with their feet out from under them.

Those energy efficient heaters increase my monthly power bill by 200 bucks a unit.  2 - 4 heat lamps, maybe 60 bucks a month, same results.

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Hmmmm weird not sure what's up then. Lady at UFA said the red heat bulbs were discontinued. Husband also heard something on the radio last week.

Now i feel real dense for buying that lavalamp this Christmas.

Those arses steadily raise the rates anyhow. Money saving and durability claims on energy efficient items sickens me!
It's like those water saving tiolets....they suck! You end up using more water trying to get the darn thing to flush properly.

? They still sell the regular bulbs here as well as the red heat bulbs ? Has anyone tried the dollar stores ? they sell bulbs as well and seeing as how most of there stuff is third world stuff ? I guess I better stock up then just in case ? ...........I thought they had pulled those "" special "" light bulbs off the shelves , something about people getting headaches ?.......Better put up your "" No Smart Meter "" signs on your meters as well or they might just replace it without your consent ! just has to be hanging around the meter and they can not change it unless you approve it ......................that way they can sell more  energy for cheaper then what we get it for !

Wow! Not just a rant but a rage!

Ok, Uno, I am going to give you a little more ammunition. I took some of my students to an energy fair. There was a great demo with a bike, a bulb, a blender and a kettle. Here is the set up. The guy with the demo had the bike hooked up to a generator that would in turn power each of these electric devices. We all took turns getting on the bike and trying to power the devices. When it was my turn I climbed aboard the bike.

First he hooked up the bulb. It was a regular incandescent. Easy peasy. I could have pedalled that bike for hours to keep the bulb lit. There was almost no resistance in the pedals.

Then he hooked up the blender. Ok, I had to pedal harder. More resistance. But it took a little time and my smoothie was done. I wasn't even puffing.

Then he hooked up the kettle. OMG! I could barely turn the pedals! I struggled for a minute and then tentatively dipped my finger in the water. It was still cold!

This little test drove home the point. Light uses little electricity. Movement uses more. But heat! Heat really sucks it back.

So maybe we should lay off the bulbs and come down heavy on those Ontarians who heat their homes with electricity, eh?

Oh, one more thing. One of my smartass kids asked the guy if he ever made the kettle boil. He said he was a life long biker and in good shape. He once pedalled his butt off for 20 minutes and the water was not even warm enough to burn his finger.

SUe, I often think about the people who had to leave their homes in the ice storm and seek warmth in public buildings. Victims of electric heat.

Why doesn't every single house have an emergency wood stove, just a little one, with an emergency stack of wood? IT would keep you from freezing, even if you had to sleep in the kitchen (or wherever) to be near it. YOu could boil water, make soup, make coffee and have heat, all for a little woodstove and a small pile of firewood. But this sensible, safe solution is denied us by the ignorant insurance companies and town bylaws making wood smoke illegal.

We are stupid. We deserve all the crap we get.

I am developing the opinion that there's a reason why there's city people and country people. You have to ask could most of them handle doing what you or I do in a day just to stay alive? They are the one's driving the economy of stupid.

Guess I better get shopping for light bulbs.

I so agree Uno. One of my prerequisites i've had when buying a home (both in town or countryside) is it had to have alternative wood heat. The only time i have ever been without wood heat, from birth till now, is when Darrell and I bought a house in Fort St. John. They had removed it. But everything was still there for it, so all we would of had to do was buy a woodstove and pipe if need be. Wood stoves are life savers!

I have a wood stove in the studio if we got really desperate, but we also have generators.

Guess I should stash all the light bulbs my husband is bringing home from replacing home owners bulbs with compact florescent bulbs -Bwa-ha-ha! I'll make a fortune in three years selling them to people wanting to heat their brooders....

Police will wonder why that woman on the street corner is wearing a trench coat that clinks when she moves.

Don't blow my cover now Fowler!