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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] CFLs vs LEDs
  • Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:00:43 -0500

Fluorescents don't seem to work well in cold temperatures, such as outdoors or in unheated or poorly heated areas.

Given grid access:

Embodied energy probably has some relation to cost, and the notion of applying all that embodied energy to something which may be used say 20 minutes per week in a cold cellar doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Where utilization is high, temperature is reasonably warm, and the bulb is not being switched on and off often, fluorescents do make sense. I think it's an area where rigid rules (fluorescents good! incandescents bad!) are not appropriate.

Then there are some applications where an incandescent bulb makes a good, cheap and widely available heater.

I would appreciate guidance to a good source of information on the materials used in LEDs and prospects for cost reductions with high efficiency.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



On 15/11/2010 5:59 PM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
On 11/15/2010 5:46 PM, Rain Tenaqiya wrote:
Regardless of the supposed false advertising for CFLs, they are a huge
improvement over incandescent bulbs overall,
hence the phasing out of incandescents in certain countries and the
subsidies for CFLs. The amount of energy used by
incandescents is insane. We would never be able to live off our 2 amp
microhydro generator during the Winter if we
had incandescent bulbs. Just one bulb would take more energy than our
little turbine could put out.

Flourescents = same illumination (for the most part), less wattage and
less energy wasted by generating heat and not more light
(incandescents). How can one argue with that. Or am I still wrong?



  • [permaculture] CFLs vs LEDs, Rain Tenaqiya, 11/15/2010
    • Message not available
      • Re: [permaculture] CFLs vs LEDs, Douglas Woodard, 11/16/2010

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