Re: Power Supplies, Saving Money, and switching vs. Linear?

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

"Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Everything costs something.  The end result is still the same, reduction of
>fossil fuel use at the residence.

But that doesn't necessarily mean an overall reduction in fossil fuel use.
Even the ABS plastic housing of either type power supply is petroleum based.
And what happens to the discarded linear supply? Its copper, steel and
plastic goes into a landfill and none of it is biodegradable. While
California has mandated more efficient wall transformers, it's governor
still drives a fleet of Hummers.

What you propose on a small scale is to transfer part of the true cost to
someone else. Its what economists call externalities and is how much of the
extractive industries like mining, petroleum, and lumber make large profits
while damaging the environment. Markets cannot deal with externalities.

>> And the 18 years is also rather iffy. There might be some new technology
>> that comes along in 2-3 years that obsoletes both types of power supply.
>
>Meanwhile doing nothing helps, how?

It _may_ reduce the total consumption of fossil fuel. When the economics are
marginal and the future is unclear, doing nothing may, indeed, be best.
There are lots of issues where neither the economics nor reduction in fuel
use are marginal like banning Hummers instead of subsidizing them through
tax deductions or taxing fuel at a level that will reduce consumption as the
Europeans do instead of subsidizing OPEC as we now do.

Thoreau wrote, "A man has not everything to do, but something; and because
he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something
wrong." It's not always clear whether something is more beneficial than
nothing.

I pay $0.06 per kWh and my monthly utility bill is usually less than $40. A
1W reduction by switching to a switcher would be inconsequential both in
dollars and in fuel savings (it would probably increase total fuel use).
That doesn't mean that when I buy something new I don't try to find the best
value both in dollar terms and in energy use. Usually, there's no choice as
the new equipment comes with a power supply (most are now switchers) but you
might have noticed that I researched the issue and posted a source for an
X-10 (and Insteon) friendly switching power supply here just a few days ago.
If you have to add a filter (enclosed in petroleum based ABS plastic) after
replacing your linear supply, it stretches the payback by a century or two.

When you have reduced your use of fossil fuels to my level, you can lecture
me. But not before.

BTW, I have the +5V regulated switch mode supply plugged into my Kill A Watt
meter to see how much energy it uses while not loaded. I'll post the results
in a few days.