the Otherpower.com Discussion Board || Comments It's Earth Day, April 22 2008

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It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 | 74 comments (74 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by jacobs on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 at 08:30:55 AM MST
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I agree valterra! When your income is small, you must conserve. Our county landfill is only about a mile away, they only charge $5.00/pickup load, but we only use them about once every two years.

This last winter, we switched from propane to electric heat and saved about 50% on our heating bill. In the process, we replaced our compact flourescent lights with incandescent lights. When heating with electricity, there is no advantage to using flourescent bulbs.

For us, it's pure economics.

[ Parent ]

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by wooferhound (tim((NoSpamAt))wooferhound.com) on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 at 08:51:53 AM MST
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-quote-
"we replaced our compact flourescent lights with incandescent lights. When heating with electricity, there is no advantage to using flourescent bulbs"

I'm not understanding this statement ?

W o o f -={(

[ Parent ]

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by finnsawyer on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 at 09:05:26 AM MST
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When heating the house at a given outside temperature that means you need to "burn" a certain number of electrical watts, so replacing the incandescents with those other bulbs doesn't really save you anything except that the heat from the bulbs is in the wrong place for creature comfort, at the ceiling. Heating the ceiling could also increase the heat loss through it. But at 100 watts per bulb?
GeoM
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Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#17)
by valterra on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 at 09:15:55 AM MST
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I see his point as far as that goes. Incandescent bulbs in lamp fixtures (which are usually lower than eye level) make sense. Any RE person's criticism of incandescents usually goes like this: Incandescent bulbs are space heaters that jut HAPPEN to also put out light.

So if you're using them as a 100W space heater, and you're getting light, that's great! Switch to the CFLs in the summertime. Well, or install a skylight. :-)

[ Parent ]

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#50)
by jacobs on Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 at 07:04:02 AM MST
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Yes, It's almost time to switch back to CFL's. We don't need or want the extra heat in the summer.

[ Parent ]

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#55)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 at 10:05:51 AM MST
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Incandescents also throw out infrared - more so than visible light. So even near the ceiling much of the heat is thrown toward the floor. (And reflectors that direct light downward do even better for infrared.)

[ Parent ]

Re: It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 (3.00 / 0) (#60)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 at 12:51:51 PM MST
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Also: A ceiling fan can bring the rest of the heat down (along with other heat that ended up there) using far less energy than adding more heat down low.

[ Parent ]

It's Earth Day, April 22 2008 | 74 comments (74 topical, 0 editorial)

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