Re: Anyone moved to LED Lighting?

[don@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Don Klipstein)]

In <4b393933$0$4689$822641b3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, D. Nebenzahl said:
>On 12/27/2009 9:13 PM Don Klipstein spake thus:
>
>> In <4b36f5e8$0$23825$822641b3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, D. Nebenzahl wrote:
>>
>>> That doesn't *necessarily* translate to the same amount of
>>> reduction in electric power plant generation. Think about it: it's
>>> not as if there are giant rheostats on coal-fired generators that
>>> the electric company can use to calibrate their generating capacity
>>> to meet the load. They can basically take a generating unit
>>> off-line or put it on-line.
>>
>> They do better than that - they can "crank down" generating units.
>
>Still somewhat of a fallacy; as someone else (Dave Houston) here pointed
>out, the power plants that utilities most easily can switch on- and
>off-line are natural-gas fired ones, which are less polluting and emit
>less carbon than coal-fired plants.

  I do agree that gas and oil power plants can be turned on and off and
cranked up and down more easily than coal.  However, coal gets cranked
up/down or turned on/off ahead of hydropower and nuclear.

>Plus he mentioned that the *net* result of a total switchover to CFLs
>for residential use would result in, at most, something like a 2% energy
>savings.

  2% of total USA energy consumption of all forms or 2% of USA's total
electrical energy consumption?

  Even if that is the latter, how much is 2% of USA's electric power plant
count?  I would guess a few of them, since the "greater Philadelphia metro
area" alone has quite a few largely to supply their needs including two
nukes and half of a third one well outside the metro area but working
significantly for the Philly metro area.

>So much for "saving the planet"[1] through changing to CFL bulbs.
>
>[1] Something I believe in, though it won't be accomplished by the silly
>half-measures now being suggested to us (drive a Prius, use CFLs,
>support a cap-and-trade system).

  It will be accomplished by achieving progress on a large number of
fronts, including more energy-efficient lighting, more energy-efficient
transportation, more energy-efficient refrigeration and indoor climate
control, improved building insulation, and many more.

 - Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)