Kate at SmallDeadAnimals.com points out that there’s a new hockey stick afoot. With some homogenization and principal components analysis, I’m sure the past can be smoothed out.
From: United States Unemployment rate, Aug. 2010
Meanwhile, light bulb workers of America go dim as one of America’s proudest inventions disappears from production. Mr. Edison is scowling, wherever he is.
From the Washington Post, Sept. 8, 2010;
The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s.
…
What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.
Now the hoarding begins.
Expect container loads from China arriving on our shores soon, at least until 2017 when they’ll disappear there too…or will they?
And the first runner up is……….PLASMA!!!!
The candle power of the new lamps drops off to such an extent that in three months they are not fit for purpose. After several replacements, all culminating in eye strain, I have replaced them with incandescent lamps and thrown the imposters into the rubbish bin where I hope they contaminate the earth leading to an early grave for the greenie weenies and the idiotic politicians who listened to them. Rant over – roger and out.
[Were the new LED’s or new CFL’s getting dimmer so quickly?] Robert
Here is another hockey stick you should review.
http://bit.ly/c98a3t
I debating whether to stock up on incandescents or just switch over to LED’s. I hate CFL’s.
“Mr. Edison is scowling,”
No he wouldn’t. Head be beating the AGW drum louder then anyone (but behind the scenes). GE makes a lot more money off of green lighting then they could off of regular bulbs. And didn’t you know, Edison was a class A loony socialist.
Nice add to this post; Beautifull LED lights; 6 build-in’s for E 79,95..
And what do ordinary light bulbs cost? 6 for E 10,- ?
Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. I throw up at the thought of CFL bulbs in my crystal chandelier.
I suggest we go back to whale oil lamps – it’ll give the govenrmnet incentive to grow pods of whales to supply our energy needs, revive our merchant marine as whalers and start a whole new fire protection industry.
Does that unemployment statistics include those who are not receiving government money anymore?. Any guesses on Mannipulation?
Energy saving light bulbs are efficient because they produce less heat. In cool climates, the difference is made up by your thermostat as it compensates for the heat loss (albeit more efficiently.) The savings end up being less than advertised and heavy metals from the new bulbs create a worse problem once they are disposed of.
Alas! The specter of unintended consequences!
It’s the same in the UK. You can’t buy them in the shops but you can buy them from importers.
I have a la-a-a-rge basement with nothing in particular in it. I’m seeing investment opportunity here. Light bulbs will hold their value against inflation better than U.S. dollars.
(Shhh! That’s my new retirement plan.)
I will never, ever, purchase a compact fluorescent. They are full of toxic metals, and a significant potential hazard in the home (especially with young boys around). I have already stocked up on standard bulbs, and anticipate the availability of bright LED bulbs coming. I’m not worried about the high price since they should last a long time, and consume even less energy. See, e.g., http://www.earthtechproducts.com/energy-saving-led-light-bulbs.html.
At least until the liberal elite decide that us peasants can learn to read by candlelight. And then decide that books are a luxury we can ill afford as they harm the environment through the cutting of trees.
Hoarding begins? There are some of us who began quite awhile ago……
I have been using (some) CFLs for a while.
I am heartily fed up of:
* Stumbling around in the dark until they “warm up”.
* Having to pay a fortune to replace them when they last a fraction of the time they are supposed to.
* Living in the green-blue light they produce – even the “warm” variety”.
* Being told I have to live like a caveman by “my betters”.
Well I remember vividly as a boy watching the B&W movie about the life of Thomas Alva Edison; and I recall being totally fascinated. A similar movie about Alexander graham Bell did not grab me nearly as much; although I do recall bits of it. But Edison was something else; and I don’t remember much about the donnybrook with Tesla.
But his search for the perfect material for his incandescent filament was electrifying (pun intended).
It so happens that there was a wooden building that was part of the physics Department at the University of Auckland; might have been the radio-Physics building but I can’t swear to that. But there is one thing about that building, and that was that nobody ever turned off the power to that light. I have no idea how it survived through any power outage that might have occurred once in a while due to thunderstorms; but nobody knows of that light bulb ever being off; it apparently had been over that door on day and night for something well over 30 years; and it was a carbon filament lamp.
It became the subject of conversation once in a while; and there wasn’t anybody in the department who would dare to turn that light off. Come to think of it; I’m not sure if anyone even knew where the switch was; if there was one.
I think it has burned out since then; that was 50 years ago.
So maybe all the “Science Guy” type cheats; can try to reproduce their CO2 heating experiment using a CFL lamp; or better yet try an LED bulb.
So now building designers will have to increase the heating capacity for their building heaters to compensate for the lost heat from the absence of incandescent lamps.
Well I am among those who collects incandescent lamps and stores them in the garage for the day when they will no longer be available for sale; They can have my incandescent lamps after they pry my cold dead fingers off them.
Ironic that the Google advert shown with this entry is …….
Ads by Google
100 Watt Light Bulbs UK
Huge Inventory Still Available! Low Prices. Fast Delivery. Buy Now.
TheLightBulb.co.uk/100-Watt
These incandescent bulbs have been ‘illegal’ here for a year or more. Everyone I’ve met who has tried the CFL bulbs has binned them as they are effectively useless for domestic purposes, even though the electricity suppliers have been sending them out free! (They get some form of rebate for their attempts at ‘greening’ the population.)
One problem raising it’s ugly head is the Factory Safety legislation which requires all rotating machinery to be illuminated by an incandescent bulb to prevent the optical illusion that machinery spinning at a certain rate appears to the human eye to be stationary when illuminated by fluorescent lighting which flickers 50 times a second. This flicker can cause all sorts of other problems, too.
I have a goodly stock of incandescent bulbs stashed away!
Joseph said: “I’m not worried about the high price since they should last a long time, and consume even less energy.”
Joe — that’s the same crap they gave us with CFLs.
DesertYote says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm
“Mr. Edison is scowling,”
And Mr.Tesla is having a party…
Oh the times they are a changing…I guess we will have to wait for the good guys those capitalists from Asia to ride in and save our bacon from the socialists in Wash, DC.
It’s already happened in Oz. Just an excuse by the manufacturers for massive price increases of the alternatives. You can also now put solar cells on your roof and sell power back at 3 times the price that you buy it from the power company. “Alternative” energy is wonderful … as long as you’re in the business of manufacturing related to it.
Tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Robert Austin says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Where there is a demand, there will be a supply. I throw up at the thought of CFL bulbs in my crystal chandelier.
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My crystal chandelier was converted to electric way back when. Is it time to convert it back to gas, whale oil or candles????
I thought it was the same people that told us to not eat fish?
Now they want light bulbs with a magnitude higher mercury content, and a house full of them at that.
If this was anything else, those same people would be raising hell about those light bulbs.
Cfl’s ever try them below freezing, next to useless.