Panic-buying lightbulbs....

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Digital TV is not being introduced as a green measure as I understand it. It's to allow more channels and better signal quality. Never been touted as green.

The changeover to Digital TV will allow the Government to sell off the wavelength spectrum vacated by the Analogue system. The frequencies will be used to enhance mobile phone coverage and next generation networks and are potentially worth billions which will wnd up in the Treasury coffers.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

100w fluorescent bulbs cannot be sold by retailers after May , the main supermarkets dont stock them now anyway. 60w bulbs face the same fate next year with 40w bulbs in 2011. New LED light bulbs will soon be on sale , which turn on instantly , work with dimmer switches and are long life.

 

[Cian]

but they dont last any longer. i thnk its the ikea ones that keep failing too, which might explain it.

quick look on tesco shows the energy ones are about £1-2 while the incandescent ones are £1.20 for 6. frankly a couple of quid for a bulb once or twice a year isnt really much, for me its the lie that they are everlasting is whats annoying me.

If you've got clean power supplies in your house, they do last ages - theres one here bought off the electricity boards 'special offer' for them in about 1992 - only IE£8 (about £11 stg even taking a direct conversion now; let alone inflation)... still working grand.

However, normal incandescent bulbs last an age here too - not as long as CFLs but long enough. Supply is amazingly stable due to the electricity board putting huge money in to keeping it clean for the two electronics factories nearby!

 

[RexCathedra]

In re mercury. Here in the US, where coal is the source of 50% of electricity, significantly more mercury is released into the environment from coal-burning power plants than from even the most pessimistic CFL-disposal scenarios.

Over the 7500-hour average range of one CFL, then, a plant will emit 13.16 mg of mercury to sustain a 75-watt incandescent bulb but only 3.51 mg of mercury to sustain a 20-watt CFL (the lightning equivalent of a 75-watt traditional bulb). Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into the environment over its lifetime.

And since we're downwind from the whole bloody country, all that mercury winds up rained out into our lakes and streams. Pregnant and nursing women here are advised limit their intake of local fresh-water fish due to their mercury content

 

[steward 433]

For anyone on benefits

Freelightbulbs.co.uk

 

[Nottseagull]

What about people with vivaria? These bulbs don't need to be banned; people should simply be made aware that 93% of the electricity going into a tungsten filament bulb is used as heat, only 7% for light. Knowing this fact alone should be all that is needed to produce change.

 

[Nottseagull]

. New LED light bulbs will soon be on sale , which turn on instantly , work with dimmer switches and are long life.

They are already in supermarkets, but a rip-off at £5+. Light Emiting Diodes are cheap, eg there were 5 of them in my front-and-rear bike light set bought from the Pound shop.

 

[London Calling]

back to earlier post we have put in ikea energy savers, still waiting to replace the first ones we put in. we have a box of replacements waiting!

 

[drew]

Guy Fawkes = Luddite

 

[Storer68]

For example - If the Government were so worried about global warning and damage to the environment then why are they going to force everyone to switch to digital TV's etc, which use upto 20 times the power of the traditional analogue systems currently used. - due to the switch over by 2012. and what happens to all the old redundant equipment too?

As I used to work on the Government's Digital TV swicthover plan, I thought I'd answer.

There is no need for any equipment to become redundant. All present analogue TV reciving equipment can be converted to receive Digial TV signals (most easily via a set top box of a "dongle" not unlike the ones now being used for mobile broadband reception)/.

and grateful to know ehere you get this "20 times" figure from. News to me

The increase in consumer energy use of completing digital switchover in 2012 is likely to be between 966GWh and 2816GWh per annum above that predicted for market take-up in the absence of a set switchover timetable. The increase is equivalent to a 0.37% increase in domestic electricity consumption. The increase also represents a cost to consumers of between £68 million and £197 million per annum and a total cost (including the net carbon cost) of £75 million and £218 million per annum. It should be noted that the extra energy costs of a single terrestrial STB might be in the region of £2 – £3 per year and consumers will probably take this into account when purchasing or using equipment. The Net Present Value to consumers from the annual figures described above is between £0.7 billion and £2.1 billion.

 

[Gritt23]

Yet another radical idea. It even improves the apperance of your totty

Ding dong.

 

[Nottseagull]

100w fluorescent bulbs cannot be sold by retailers after May , the main supermarkets dont stock them now anyway.

They can and they do; you mean tungsten filament bulbs.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

They can and they do; you mean tungsten filament bulbs.

Sorry got my bulbs mixed up , which may explain why we haven't got any daffs this year. the tungsten filaments have been declared ungreen so we can buy the more expensive replacements which cost less to run if they last 7 years.