Re: Anyone moved to LED Lighting?

[salty@xxxxxxx]

On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:04:49 GMT, nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)
wrote:

>don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Don Klipstein) wrote:
>
>>  Though that is not a mercury problem, those do emit CO2.  Meanwhile, a
>>long-term-sustained sharp reduction of electricity consumption by 2% is
>>worth taking off-line a few power plants, perhaps ones not so easily
>>turned on-and-off-quickly as natural gas ones and with higher online cost
>>than hydropower or nuclear - sounds like oil and coal to me.
>
>While natural gas fired generators do emit C2, they emit much less per kWh
>than coal fired generators.
>
>The 2% is only of the total US electricity not total energy - it's less than
>1% of total energy (and carbon). When you factor in the low power factor
>typical of CFLs that 2% drops significantly. While I've seen no data on
>average CFL PF, those I have measured as well as those measured by others
>and reported to me (an admittedly small sample) are in the 0.6 range. Had
>Congress truly been interested in improving efficiency they would have
>mandated higher PF for CFLs. But, I suspect they were only out to reward
>those who manufacture and sell CFLs who also contribute campaign funds. I
>was really impressed with how quickly Wall Mart geared up to market CFLs.
>
>There are much fatter targets, even within the typical residence, as the DOE
>statistics I've cited previously show.
>
>I'm all for reducing CO2 but think there are much better ways to do it. The
>anti-incandescent campaign seems like a classic case of deliberate
>disinformation and misdirection.

The real boost will be when LED's come down in price. At some point
(maybe now in some cases) it will be practical to use solar powered
low voltage DC for all most all household lighting. A few AGM
batteries fed from a rooftop array will take lighting completely off
the grid. Powering an entire house with PV solar may never be all that
practical, but may already be feasible for most or all lighting in new
construction. A lot of the expense (and power loss) in retrofit LED's
is the regulators needed to power them from the AC grid and existing
wiring.