Here's a brief comment on CFL's from the US Energy Star program:
"CFLs save consumers money in the long run, as these bulbs draw far less power (resulting in lower electric bills), and they last longer (so they don't need to be replaced nearly as often). But they also work to save the environment by lessening greenhouse gases. If every American home replaced just one standard incandescent light bulb with a long-lasting CFL, the resultant energy savings would eliminate greenhouse gases equal to the emissions of
I'm not sure if it's CFL envy, or what. But I've seen signs in back of stores, that fluorescent tubes are disposed differently than rest of the trash. So, there is some effort to contain the mercury.
I've seen LED replacments for tail lights. Any good? Dunno. Would be nice to see fairly priced LED replace for household bulbs. I've not seen them yet.
Haven't looked into home LED home lighting yet, but the basic problem with car taillights is that the fixture is designed for a point source and the "replacements" are anything but. An LED taillight assembly (as you can see on many cars and trucks today), designed for LEDs, works great.
Unfortunately, the "replacements" are bought by idiots looking for a kewl effect, who have no idea that they might as well just leave the wiring harness unplugged for all the good their taillights do them -- frequently the other end of the car has headlights with blue glass ('cause blue is brighter) hidden behind a smoked glass shield.
The brake light on my M109R consists of an array of *very* bright LEDs. I added a flasher module to make it even more noticeable. In SW Florida you need all the protection you can get, especially during snow-bird season. :^)
Not saying that CFL's aren't a good thing. But press releases full of SWAG numbers like that irritate me. Way too many uncontrolled variables for them to come up with a hard number. How many hours a day is this 'one bulb per house' supposed to be on and what wattage? What type of cars are those 80,000 cars, and how many hours a day are they lit up, and at what speeds? And so on and so on...
Apparently you don't understand the scale used for illumination by your silly comment used to attempt to disguise it. I will assume the rest is bullshit then too, for now.
It wasn't actually a press release, but that's not important.
I don't know but if I were to guess, I'd suppose the figures are based on "average" usage -- something that could be calculated by surveying a fair number of homes.
That kind of information is always being sought by various surveys. If you ask enough people what they drive, how many hours a week, etc., you can get a fairly good picture of what the "average" driver does. That the report gave a figure is nothing surprising. One could question the manner of surveys used if the methods are known. Short of that, the best thing you can do is try to determine whether the poll takers have an axe to grind. That's one reason I challenge comments from Bobby Green and Dave Houston. Both are always "on a mission" and neither seems above bending the facts to fit what they've already decided. That isn't meant to imply that both are dishonest. Bobby has an opinion and he sees as "facts" whatever ideas he comes up with in support of his ideas. Houston is much worse -- he flat out lies.
OK, that's my quota of nastiness for this week. Time to be nice... :^)
A lot of new cars already come equipped with LED tail Lights. They are very bright, and if one LED fails, you still have a lot of light. The only thing I don't like about them on my car is that there is no warmth generated to de-ice the lenses in winter. Tail light lenses are plastic, so there is a limit to how much you can do to clear them with an ice scraper without scratching them.
For sure, good lighting is essential. What's the bag limit on snow birds, or are they a nussiance creature, and you're encourged to shoot all you want?
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