[NCLUG] Re: "Green" power.

[Yuri Csapo]

Again, I'm no expert in any of this but I have a personal anecdote about 
CF lamps: a few years ago while I was living in Brazil, the government 
implemented a plan to reduce power consumption by 20%. The way they did 
this was to offer significant incentive in the form of tax breaks for 
electric companies, to be directly applied to the bills of any consumer 
who could show a 20% economy as compared to a 3-month average from the 
previous year; and at the same time to impose heavy taxation to anyone 
who didn't (in the first year), still going through the power companies.

The actual numbers, legislation, etc., are fairly complex (and keep in 
mind temperatures vary more between night and day than summer and winter 
in most of the country) but the bottom line was: you either reduced by 
20% the number of kWh you used or be prepared to pay more for electric 
power than for rent or house payments.

Needless to say this sent everybody to the books or the web in search of 
information on how to reduce consumption. In my apartment I did two 
things: I hooked up all my electronics to power strips with switches and 
starting turning them off before leaving in the morning (thus actually 
turning everything off instead of going to stand-by); and I replaced 
ALL my lamps with CF.

Now I don't know if this is effective, efficient or even if it makes any 
sort of sense beyond that of some government bureaucrat; I do know that 
these two measures did lower my average consumption of electrical power 
by more than 20%, as measured by my power company.

Yuri

Brian Wood wrote:
> Matt Taggart wrote:
>>> Chad Perrin wrote:
>>>> Brian Wood wrote:
>>>>> I always used those as much as I can, but lately I'm wondering about the
>>>>> energy to produce and transport them (in China, with whatever
>>>>> environmental rules they do or don't have), the possibility of toxic
>>>>> materials in them (mercury?) and other such considerations.
>>>>>
>>>>> Am I really helping by using them?
>>>> Not much.
>>> I think the they hurt more than they help.  Every one is labeled
>>> "dispose of properly".
>> I read somewhere that with the average mix of power in the US, the extra 
>> power consumed by an incandescent over what a CF would use results in the 
>> release to the environment of more mercury due to coal emissions than is 
>> contained in the bulb itself. So even if it does get landfilled it's a net 
>> gain, although you get the polution in one spot rather than spread across 
>> the planet (I'm not sure which is better...).
>>
>> I think in Colorado you still have a higher percentage of coal power than 
>> the national average. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have less so it 
>> might be a wash or maybe even worse. But if you are truely able to recycle 
>> the bulbs (or at least sequester) then it's a win everywhere.
> 
> This entire discussion has shown that there is a lack of reliable
> information on the subject, as well as a lack of a global perspective
> (moving the pollution to China is NOT the solution).
> 
> I suspect a lot of the promotion of CF lamps is simply to make a profit
> from selling them, not to help the planet. Most of the information
> available comes from the government or industry, neither of which is a
> particularly good source of true information about anything.
> 
> Mentioning proper recycling does not help to sell CFs, and might
> actually hurt sales, so it is not emphasized, or even brought up.
> 
>> Waiting for cheap high efficency LED bulbs,
> 
> As am I, but the CF industry will fight it as long as they can.
> 
> beww
> 
> 
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-- 
Yuri Csapo
Academic Computing & Networking
Colorado School of Mines
CT-256
Phone:  (303) 273-3503
Fax:      (303) 273-3475
Email:   ycsapo at mines.edu

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