As a lighting designer with more than 50 years of experience, having designed more than 2,500 projects including the relighting of the Statue of Liberty, I encourage people who care about their lighting to contact their elected officials and urge them to re-evaluate our nation's energy legislation so that it serves people, not an energy-saving agenda.I've been stockpiling incandescent bulbs, but I'm still uneasy. Last week, I walked through a beautiful Art Deco building lobby and hallway, where there were gorgeous bronze light fixtures that no longer glowed: The incandescent light bulbs had been replaced by fluorescents. The whole look of the interior was destroyed. I felt like crying. All of our rooms and lobbies and hallways are about to have the life sucked out of them, by a Congress that has no feeling for beauty and the effect of light on human emotions.
May they walk barefoot forever on a sidewalk paved with crushed CFLs.
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52 comments:
(the other kev)
Shame on you. GE paid good money for this mandate and they deserve a return on their investment.
I'd rather light a candle than curse the fluorescents.
I think, at least at home, that is the way around the dim bulbs in congress.
the effect of light on human emotions
This is no myth. I'll sink into a permanent melancholia if I'm surrounded by fluorescents, even in my own home.
Achtung! The required penance for CO2 sin is bad light bulbs for life. There will be no indulgence granted for energy using unclean people. Dim bulbs Macht Frei in this New World colony which is a subdivision of the Kingdom of Kenya.
GE paid good money for this mandate and they deserve a return on their investment.
This is no myth. GE's business model seems to be to invent something then lobby for the govt (us) to pay for it, whether we want it or not. Then, to add insult to injury, they give us MSNBC.
I think the funny part is that many Congressmen didn't bother reading the bill, and thus had no idea that they'd actually banned incandescent bulbs...
(the other kev)
Knox, don't forget the green lobbying on all the other GE-owned networks: NBC, USA, Siffy and the rest.
Kev:
Good one!
Althouse:
Nothing lasts forever. 57% want to replace the entire Congress so this incandescant mania will be gone soon.
Hilton Kramer described the failed liberalism that coerces conformity and adopts a philistine perspective, saying it
"values the arts only when they can be seen to be an appendage to social policy."
The destruction of beauty across eastern Europe was described by Croatian feminist and journalist Slavenka Drakulic, where the architecture of rich ages past declined because communism stripped the nation of its wealth, and only drab greys and decayed beauty remained.
The same horrid political beliefs animates the current administration as did the socialism which made lipstick an ideological sin in Croatia.
I hate the gov't telling me what to do in any situation.
But to object on the basis of light quality is silly. That your choice of light quality is being taken is the better argument.
But what really galls me beyond my inherent distaste for government intrusion is that the stupid flourescent bulbs are garbage. They don't last as long as incandescent bulbs much of the time. So the theory, as bankrupt an idea as it is, that the gov't knows best how to spend my money, isn't even valid on the most basic level.
The glaring brain-fart of the fluorescent advocates is this: Incandescents are BETTER: when you use cheap incandescents, your home is heated and 0% of the energy is wasted. You do not have to pay elevated prices, join the Obama religion or deal with mercury and special disposal. Of course, this applies only to climes and seasons where A/C is not being used, probably 75% of the time in the USA.
In some cold regions of the country, gas, oil and firewood heat may be more efficient than electricity, but none of them provide you heat, and along with it, enough free light to read by!
Sign me up as one of those who will stockpile (or fabricate) incandescents for use for the rest of my life!
Sign me up as one of those who will stockpile (or fabricate) incandescents for use for the rest of my life!
Last night my husband and I calculated just how many bulbs those are for us.
We are in our late 50's. A 75 watt bulb in my office desk lamp lasts about 1 1/2 to almost 2 years. Bedside reading: 2 years or so. Bathroom over the mirror: 1 to 1 1/2 yrs. We have skylights and built our home to be solar energy efficent so we rarely have the lights on during the day.
We figure about 50 light bulbs of varying wattage will last for the rest of our lives.
"Then, to add insult to injury, they give us MSNBC."
That's not correct. It's close, but you still can't see the forest for the trees.
MSNBC is an integral part of the GE business plan.
GE uses MSNBC to attack politicians that are hostile to GE's business interests. That's why you have guys like Chris Matthews sullying the NBC brand. It's because he's integral to the larger strategy that will make GE wildly profitable in the years ahead.
We're not talking light bulbs here, people. That's penny-ante. We're talking wind turbines that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
GE stands to make TRILLIONS of dollars on energy projects in both wind and solar fields. But only if the politicians go along (Google: Cape Wind.)
MSNBC and its legions of rabidly leftist journalists will be used to crush any politician who stands in their way. Chris Matthews isn't a journalist. He's a junior partner.
Our country is no longer a Republic.
It's a corporation.
Ann:
Welcome to the Dark Side.
Some of us trogladytes can't find it anywhere in our Constitution that Congress can tell us what light bulbs to buy.
A lot of folks are waking up to this sort of intrusiveness, but it's been going on a long time.
And by the way, I'm not pinning the blame on one party; the Dems love this sort of thing, and the GOP loves to go along with it any time they think it gives them an advantage.
wv: dessest: the best dessert there is.
You want natural light? Sit by a window. Incandesent bulbs are just as artifical as swirly bulbs, when it comes to the light they emit.
I used to labor mightly to light my studio to get the proper balance of light. I would use fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, because they were both either too hot or too cool.
What you're upset about is just conditioning. You grew up with incandesent, and can't bear anything else. I hate incandesent simply for how much energy they waste. Swirly's are better, but not that great. LEDs are no better.
Get over your bad self, Ann. Try nothing but swirly's for 6 months and you'll never notice the difference.
IIRC, the real story is all about lumens and degrees Kelvin. CFL's are lucky to get 85 lumens while an incandescent bulb (and daylight) both reach 100. Like it or not, that means yellow is in.
Now that CFL use is even more widespread, the "experts" are admitting that the watt equivalence ratio advertised (1:4) is really more like 1:3, so the energy savings are even less. As well, CFL's more evidently dim over time, so their prolonged life is not entirely useful, unless groping in the semi-dark while attempting to dine entertains you.
If everybody in the world lit just one little candle, somebody would probably light two.
Roger Price.
An energy-saving agenda.
Oh, the humanity.
The Eco-Douchebags...is there anything they can't fuck up?
Randy,
I'd like to email you on an off-topic matter. Is there a location your email exists?
That your choice of light quality is being taken is the better argument.
Good point. But the quality issue is so glaring, so to speak...
Randy,
sorry, that question sounded dumb. What I mean is, I went to your blog and it wasn't available, as far as I could tell. You mentioned twitter once... is there any way to reach you one-on-one?
I'm in a double bind here in San Diego.
The reason is that an *earlier* bunch of eco-fuckwits rammed through an "energy-saving" regulation forcing the light switch closest to the door to be either (a) a built-in fluorescent or (b) a dimmer switch. I had to have my house rewired a while back, so had to bring it up to that code.
So my two choices for lighting were either (a) hideous fluorescent tubes everywhere or (b) incandescents. I can't actually USE compact fluorescents -- the bulbs I previously preferred to use -- because they don't work with dimmer switches.
So, now that the "greens" have forced me to actually increase my carbon footprint with one dipshit regulation, they're moving to ban the very lightbulbs they're forcing me to use. Morons. The only real option is to illegally rewire the house myself.
Revenant:
Take heart! They now make dimmable CFL's. They aren't as bright as regular CFL's. They also cost more. And they aren't as responsive as an ordinary bulb to the dimmer function, but at least you won't have to re-wire your house again!
Randy, thanks.
Knox: LOL!!! Hope you got it before I deleted it ;-) Anyway, if you return to the blog, its there for now.
Got it. Just sent you the email.
Knox: LOL! It's like waiting for Godot. Hasn't arrived yet - probably went wrong way around the world ;-)
How the hell am I supposed to use my cheesy little chandelier over my dinner table with CF bulbs?
Oh dear, I hope I got the address right.
Arrived! Will reply shortly.
I've inadvertently stockpiled 7 compact fluorescents. That's two boxes minus one bulb.
I thought I would swap them in the basement fixtures as the old incandescents burned out. It took a year or so, but as soon as I screwed in the first one I realized my mistake.
At first I was sure I had purchased the wrong wattage. The turd-shaped bulb worked up a feeble bruise-colored flicker and paused, as if exhausted.
In a few minutes, though, as I went about my work, it came to life, casting violet shadows across the room from its forsaken corner. I walked over and stood under it. It didn't so much make light as well-defined edges. It was like walking into the afterimage of a instamatic flashbulb. Except that it's permanent.
Since the damn things last forever, I figure ten years from now I will use that corner of the basement to interview my daughter's boyfriends.
Quick Randy. Delete it before google caches it.
;-)
prityp = gettin' dressed up
Quick Randy. Delete it before google caches it.
;-)
prityp = gettin' dressed up
Ooops you did.
:-)
I have some 40 Watt LED bulbs in my house.
The good news is that they are pretty much identical to incandescents in their light quality (plus they come on instantly). They use less electricity and have a longer lifetime than CFLs.
At present, they are more expensive, but that should change in the long run.
JAL: LOL! Yeah, I don't need any more spam! At one time, it was on my profile. Needless to say, bad idea.
The incandescent light bulbs had been replaced by fluorescents. The whole look of the interior was destroyed. I felt like crying. All of our rooms and lobbies and hallways are about to have the life sucked out of them, by a Congress that has no feeling for beauty and the effect of light on human emotions.
HAHAHA!!! That's a good one. Tell that to their leftist greenie environut kooks who pummeled another leftist organization called GE to force them into a production cycle couple with years and years and years of nagging, nannering, gnashing of teeth, shrieking and shrilling on how incandecents are destroying the earth while we need to switch to CFL's to save our world from the greedy and selfish energy consumers of America to a light source that hardly works, costs 3 to 5 times as much, becomes and environmental disaster if it ever breaks, and subsidizes the mercury industry even further in unleashing even worse chemistry into its' production. These people are fools and they've fooled other congressional fools into believing their hopeless lies. Are people finally waking up to the utter lie that leftism/liberalism are and how it promulgates that lie into our lives via legislation? are they?
Congress doesn't care about your ability to enjoy beauty. They only care about your ability to line their pockets while they fleece you at every turn.
wv = efide = electronic bonafide background check.
Maybe we could go back to gas lights and fuel them with the methane from decomposing human waste.
Every time you turned the lights on it would be like setting a fart on fire.
@Henry
Since the damn things last forever, I figure ten years from now I will use that corner of the basement to interview my daughter's boyfriends.
Very seldom, on any blog, do I get a honest-to-goodness laugh out loud moment. Thanks for that one. I'm the father of two very young girls.
Every time Obama goes on vacation, he uses enough energy to light my house with incandescents for years. If I wanted my employees to waste energy, I would tell them so. From now on, I expect Obama to vacation in the back yard so I can continue to ignore CFLs.
I stopped at the rest area at the NC border this evening (VA has closed most of theirs to save money), and they've gone green, literally. The light in the can was dim and greenish. Such ambience!
(the original Kev)
All of our rooms and lobbies and hallways are about to have the life sucked out of them, by a Congress that has no feeling for beauty and the effect of light on human emotions.
I'm with the 57% who evidently want to replace the entire Congress. Anyone else on this thread with me?
(And when they get sent home, they can, as our hostess suggested, walk there barefoot on the shards of broken CFLs--mercury and all, naturally.)
wv: reallax--what Congress has been about reading bills before voting on them.
In addition to the light bulbs the
greenies also want to dictate how much water you should have in your commode tank and the flow rate through your shower-head.
M00se: I read your comment and turned on some extra incandescents, just for you.
Ann, Your description reminds me of the office scene in Joe Verses the Volcano. He's in this "Metropolis-esque" scene with greenish lighting hunched over peeking up at the lights saying, "Suck, suck, suck, suck."
Father Martin Fox, Thank you for your insight. In all the "Why socialism bad," conversations these days, your point is often forgotten. At least according to our Western stereotypes, everything was drab and colorless in the Eastern bloc countries and the USSR.
Yeah, I'm really dreading this. I should start stockpiling too.
Joe Versus the Volcano Rant is on YouTube. Start at about 3:45 to see the comments about light bulbs, although the whole thing is worth watching. In fact, the whole movie is worth watching.
Improper disposal of compact fluorescent light bulbs is very dangerous to your family and to the environment. In some states, it is illegal to put these light bulbs in your trash.
It's easy to dispose of compact fluorescent light bulbs properly. Just send them to your Senator or Congressman in Washington. Or send them to the EPA.
You can find your Senator's mailing address here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
You can find your Congressman's mailing address here: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
Or send your used light bulbs to EPA headquarters in Washington:
Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
Isn't your family's health worth the small postage cost? Don't you want to help save the planet from this environmental nightmare? You'll sleep better at night knowing your deadly mercury-containing light bulbs are with the experts in our nation's capital. Send your light bulbs to Washington!
For more information, check out our web site at http://www.SendYourLightBulbsToWashington.com
The light emitted is entirely different; the flourescents are grotesquely unflattering.
I have been hoarding incandescents, too, imagining I'll be saying, just before dinner parties ten years from now, "But darling, it's a special occasion. Bring out the contraband incandescents."
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