I don't think "her upstairs" would like my sunpipes passing through her lounge.
I don't think the neighbours, landlord, or conservation officer would like external reflectors.
Actually, I have an external reflector. It's called the building opposite and at certain times of the day I have to draw the curtains to kill the specular reflections off its pebbledash.
An additional window would be nice, but apart from all the above people who woudln't like it, "them downstairs" might object to me putting windows through their chimneys concealed within the 30" thick walls.
On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 07:24:16 +0100, David Hansen wrote (in article ):
Why should one have to mess about with that nonsense?
It clearly is a serious problem because people don't buy them.
If you stand at any self service fixture in a supermarket or DIY store for
5-10 minutes and watch what people are choosing to buy, it is standard tungsten lamps, halogen lamps and spot lamps. Occasionally one sees somebody pick up a CFL.
These things are not flying off the shelves and the reasons why are obvious.
I have had about three that were DOA or shortly after. They were NOT cheap.
The current crop seems to be pretty good. I managed to smash the tube in one as I inserted it. It STILL WORKED with a section of glass missing - the discharge happily jumped the gap. Weird eh? No, I didn't leave it there to see how long it would last :-)
With a decent CH system you won't save ANY power at all.
The CH system will use precisely the same amount of energy less as you have used to boil the excess water.
And since the conversion efficiency of the power station and transmission is pretty similar to the central heating boiler, no fossil fuel savings result whatsoever.
Ok in SUMMER when you aren't running the heating, there are gains to be made...but one tends to drink cold drinks then anyway...
It is serious; I don't buy them cos their light makes me unhappy. I can't be alone.
I try to do my bit for the planet but won't let it make me feel ill (or is that off-colour?) I have a tendency towards SAD and CFLs don't help.
(Big south-west facing windows at the back of the house and north-east windows in front do help, though I'm a tad hot right now...)
They will need a much better emission spectrum, they'll need to fit most luminaires, they'll need to be easily available in all sizes and shapes etc, etc, etc...
On Tue, 04 Jul 2006 18:29:07 +0100 someone who may be The Natural Philosopher wrote this:-
Do tell us about this perfect heating system, installed in a perfect house.
That will be why all houses are heated by electricity then.
If what you said was remotely true then nobody, other than a few enthusiasts, would go to the bother of a wet heating system with gas boiler. Electric heating is always going to be cheaper in initial and installation cost, if its running costs were low enough it would be very popular.
On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 18:05:19 +0100 someone who may be Andy Hall wrote this:-
What nonsense? Plug the control gear into the bayonet, fit bulb. When the bulb fails replace bulb. No mess, no nonsense.
The reasons are indeed obvious. Many people don't know much about lighting, but are keen to follow what they think is the current fashion. There are other reasons, but I think ignorance is the most important one.
On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:06:16 +0100 someone who may be Helen Deborah Vecht wrote this:-
With regard to your last two points things have changed a lot in the past couple of years. For example, there is a fair range at
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regard to your first point things have also changed a lot in the past couple of years. However this has not always been for the better with some lamps:-(
The message from David Hansen contains these words:
The trouble is it's very subjective. You can't take someone else's word for it, you have to experience that particular bulb yourself, and for many people the prospect of buying half a dozen different CFLs just to find one they like doesn't appeal.
On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:06:16 +0100, Helen Deborah Vecht wrote (in article ):
That I do understand. I have a number of friends and acquaintances in northern parts of the Nordic countries and this is a big issue. Light boxes are popular and effective, although this tends to be through light intensity and the higher end of the light spectrum.
On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 20:41:06 +0100, David Hansen wrote (in article ):
It is nonsense. The light should fit the fitting that the customer already has. That's it. People don''t want to tit about with extra bits.
This may be how you justify the situation to yourself. You would score 0/10 in business school with this argument.
The product has to be the right price. It has to look right. It has to be appealing. It has to fit easily and right and be no worse than what the customer can easily buy.
Until you can address those arguments, you are pissing in the wind.
You can make points about ignorance as much as you like and feel smug if you want to. The cemetery is littered with the corpses of people, businesses and technologies who thought that they knew better than the market.
It was once said, in the context of exchange rates
" ..if by artificially controlling the exchange rates between countries you try to buck the market, you will soon find that the market bucks you ? and hard."
CFLs are nothing like as important as financial exchange and economics but the principle is the same.
Here we have a situation where you think that CFLs are the greatest thing since Adam had intercourse with Eve. Unfortunately, the market doesn't share your passion.
I know that that may be a disappointment, but life is hard.
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