Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

drew gandy said:
I thought the moon was hollow? ;)
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Have you ever seen a hollow cheese ball? The moon isn't made of swiss cheese, that's just silly.

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Re Coal for electricity, i am personally experiencing the unintended (?) consequences of EPA regulations that are ahead of the power industry's technology. While I am not a big fan or advocate for burning coal, I understand the desire to exploit a local coal seam (Quitman,MS) to help the local economy here. But the EPA has lowered the amount of carbon allowed per KWH to less than existing "clean coal" technology can deliver, so the local plant had to use still experimental technology. The delays and cost over runs are extraordinary and I have already seen a 15% rate increase in my electric bill for a plant that isn't even on-line yet. :-(

I will concede that the delays and cost over runs may not be solely because of the experimental technology, but it sure sounds like a plausible factor.

Oddly MS has another experimental green technology where a different facility converts harvested trees to make bio-fuel... Perhaps a play on our existing soft wood industry. (I worry that it is more likely another federal green energy boondoggle.)

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I find it interesting how little we really know or know with certainty about our sun and our planet. I have heard one theory that at first glance seems silly, but may not be completely crazy. This oil related theory is that new oil is being manufactured deep underground from the core heat driving a different chemical reaction pathway than the classic dead dinosaur photosynthesis blah blah.

I am not promoting any of these alternate theories. However the arm waving about peak oil and running out a while back seems premature in hindsight. I am old enough to remember the arm waving about global cooling and planetary global winter so don't know whether this new global warming alarm is some real imminent disaster like the bad sci-fi movies suggest, or just the natural temperature swings we have experienced over the millennium and a power grab from politicians always on the lookout for some crisis du jour to exploit to gain control. Time will tell of course. Ice ages and the like will be pretty disruptive. You think flood insurance is high now, wait until the oceans rise several feet (or fall several feet). Change is a biotch, and change is constant. :-(

JR
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

Steve Garris said:
No, the sun will never go supernova. It lacks the necessary mass as most stars do.
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OK, mea culpa, it doesn't nova, but goes red giant on it's way to a white dwarf. It will surely cause climate change here (like boiling off the oceans) when it doubles in brightness and expands in size 150x.

Relax we are in the middle of the sun's life cycle so billions of years before the fireworks, while it will heat up 10% over the next 1 billion years. (I'm not sure how atmospheric carbon here heats up the sun, 90 million miles away), but the heating trend must be true, I read it on the WWW.

JR
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

John Roberts said:
That seems unusual... I have electric resistance heat and it is generally the most expensive. We also just got a 15% electricity rate increase to pay for the new clean coal plant (yes clean coal is an oxymoron).
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Odd to me too. but after running 12kW 24/7 for around 3 weeks the monthly bill was $300 -and that didn't include the dryer, range, water heater and normal appliance and electronics load. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that it's a "co-op" and there's all sorts of laws involved too. We do not have natural gas infrastructure and propane is $2.25/gal right now so quite possibly electricity is artificially low but we have both that and propane along with a woodburner if necessary.

Yes the house isn't insulated well at all, (1920's) but it is small and I have storm windows in and plastic over the inside. considering that was the highest electric bill and we get that for about 4 months, it's going to take many years for insulation to repay that.
Since it would involve moving-out, removing interior plaster and replacing windows and re-drywalling everything it is not a cheap proposition. I figure well over $25K with me doing much of the work so that would be about 25 years to pay off if I could optimistically knock off 1000/yr of electricity costs.

Modern time of day thermostats are getting cheaper (maybe $45). I am currently heating my small bedroom with a 1kW baseboard heater, and so far it can keep up with low 20's outside.

I am using an in-wall heat pump to heat my main room, which in theory uses only 1/3 the electricity per BTU of heat as the old resistance heat. I don't think heat pumps work as well up in the colder latitudes.
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They do not, especially the air-sourced units. Also been working with an electrical contractor friend and they've been replacing quite a few of the ground-sourced ones as the owners haven't been happy with them (many moving up here from southern states due to the oil-boom and probably building things the way they did at home -quite possibly just undersizing the units for the local climate)

They say those type of systems can extract heat from anything (and in theory anything above absolute zero has heat energy available) but in the real world it probably takes more energy to extract it at -28 than you would just running resistance heat. Not to mention nobody seems to mention the ground cooling that must occur with those, we don't really need A/C so you won't get the balancing out of adding heat back in during the summer.
I'm thinking the ground source isn't being put deep enough nor large enough for what's really needed around here -and a standard in-town lot simply doesn't provide enough space. (although there are many vertical holes being dug around here going down miles but getting one of those rigs into town would really piss off the neighbors!)
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

I guess some of you have had a thorough "Arctic-test" of your heat pumps the last week, how did it go?
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

Per Søvik said:
I guess some of you have had a thorough "Arctic-test" of your heat pumps the last week, how did it go?
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My air-conditioner/heat-pump ran out of BTUs to keep the whole house warm with record low temps. I usually turn it off at night and don't heat the rest of the house when I'm hibernating in the bedroom, but the one coldest night I left it running all night. Some people near me had water pipes freeze up. MS is not accustomed to very cold temps.

My DIY time of day 1KW heater for my bedroom likewise had trouble holding temperature up during the coldest night, but I just turned on the old school in-wall heater to make up the slack.

Temps are returning to normal but coldest morning here last week was 10'F, probably colder during the night... Not cold for the great white north, but cold for the deep south with single pane windows and not much insulation. I'm sure many here, living north of me, can report colder temps.

JR
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

John Roberts said:
MS is not accustomed to very cold temps.
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No, I don't recall many songs about the freezing cold of Mississippi :razz:

That's the thing though, it is harder to cope with even moderate (by Nordic/Canadian/Alaskan/Siberian standards) cold in locations of hot climate because nothing is geared towards coping with it.
Our water pipes and sewers are buried deep in the ground so not to freeze, our houses have a foot of insulation (by the newest standards) and triple glazing and our roofs are specified for a snow load of 100lbs/sq.ft., we have lots of heating sources and a pile of firewood outside and clothing suitable for an expedition to the North Pole.
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

Per Søvik said:
No, I don't recall many songs about the freezing cold of Mississippi :razz:
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Not Mississippi, but Alabama:

"I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee,
I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see.
It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry
The sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna, don't you cry."

...Oh, Susanna

...we have lots of heating sources and a pile of firewood outside and clothing suitable for an expedition to the North Pole.
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To say nothing about karschk og kvinnor...
 
Re: Incandescent Lightbulb "ban" 2014

Per Søvik said:
So global warming just means higher crest factor then :razz:
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The story they are selling is about an average temperature trend, while it is human nature to draw too many conclusions from thin sample sets (like recent weather).

I think the current catch phrase is "climate change". If they call it global warming they have to explain the inconvenient actual temperatures. The climate has always been changing, and I don't expect it to ever stop changing.

I listened to a discussion on CSPAN this morning from the current "climate" opinion wonks (guys all pitching their latest books)... A little scary to listen to them pontificate and speculate about the science and (world) politics for next few centuries.

JR
 
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