The AM Forum

Another descent into the compact fluorescent bulb topic.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/China-Consolidates-Grip-on-nytimes-2650144197.html?x=0&.v=1


klc

I have heard rumours that Afghanistan is rich in rare-earth minerals. That opens up a whole other bag of worms.

And we need to accost it for the New Oil Line coming through... :)

73
Jack
KA3ZLR

Let's go back to the old light bulbs, while they are still around.

I can't afford changing over to LED's either.

Someone somewhere will still be making good ole incandescents, just Like the Real Sugar Coke made in Mexico... which tastes pretty darned good by the way.  So even though I still believe that all politicians are idiots and criminals, this doesn't bother me as much as it used to.  Though I just had ANOTHER crappy CFL failure. This one had actually loosened up in it's little plastic base and would blink annoyingly. So much for reliability It was in the hallway where I need to pull the ladder out to get at the fixture.  Ah well chuck that POS into the trash and put in a 60 watt ICB (InCandescent Bulb) now it's steady light and high efficiency with this cold weather coming on.  :p

An prolly real vanilla also.

It's kind of common around here, I buy it when I can, and yes it's pretty darn good!

I hear that Coke doesnt care for it being sold in this country.

Ted / KC9LKE

Overall, I've had good service from the brand-name CFLs I've used, but with 'em going for $15 they'll be getting mighty scarce around my house. Any light bulb I pay fifteen bucks for will have at least a control grid and anode in addition to its filament.

I wonder when it'll become an act of civil disobedience to use an incandescant light bulb? I'm all in favor of being nice to Mother Earth, but some of the greenies are just going too damn far.

How can those CFLs be Green??  It takes lots of energy to mine the rare earth and ship it all over the planet for processing...not to mention disposal of the sh1t when the bulb has expired...and the environmental ramifications of the mining process itself...This is just another politically induced for profit scheme  Total BS...All in the name of green .....END RANT

Since green is the color of money, it doesn't take much to figure out what a major portion of the so-called "green" movement is really motivated by.

</ political commentary>

"Since green is the color of money, it doesn't take much to figure out what a major portion of the so-called "green" movement is really motivated by."

heheheh... good one!


Reminds me of some so called  "non-profit" organizations.  The founders and management invent a cause, set themselves up with big salaries and benefits,  encourage donations and have volunteers do the grunt work.   They really operate like for-profit corporations - just that no one owns the stock. It's EZ to get fooled.


T

You've just described virtually every hospital in the country, excepting only the for-profit ones which are violently excoriated by socialists.

doing a quick internet search on 100w incandescent bulbs, the cheapest I found was $0.53 per bulb.  

Stock up on them now because this January (2012) you will not be able to purchase them in the US. By 2014 40w bulbs will meet the same demise.

This is a good opportunity to start a black market.

Someone should just sell them as "Heating elements" like that fella in Germany was doing.

More impetus to restart mining and production in the US and elsewhere. China is not the only place the earth is rare but they are the only ones doing processing having priced all the other factories out of the market.

Here is an article about a big one in Southern Ca starting back up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_rare_earth_mine

China's grip on the minerals is also changing designs. I read the other day about a wind turbine company, Boulder Wind Power, whose major claim to fame is their design uses a less rare earth, neodymium instead of chinamonopolyum.  Here's an article about rare earths and wind turbines

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-can-wind-generate-electricity-at-four-cents-per-kilowatt-hour/

Here's a chart that shows what's happened to rare earth production.  We didn't run out.  We just stopped processing:

Wallymart is selling 4 packs of 100 watt incandescent bulbs made in MEXICO for 79 cents. I purchased two packs of four. The bases had corrosion on them and a wire brush cleaned them up. I have two in service now and plan to buy more.

I'll worry about this Sunday ifn the satallite don't kill me!

I have said this before.  After waking up from a nap in my bedroom only to see flames licking the ceiling from a CFL that caught fire, I will NEVER use the pieces of sh1t again.  Thank God I awoke when I did. 

and I thought the topic was "get ready" for the impending crash of the out of control  bus-sized satellite.

I have had no fires from CFLs but have smelled one or two outgassing as they failed.

They do not save electricity because I work off of a power budget and therefore use three of them instead of one 100W filament type lamp and enjoy the brighter light.

In my book room is an old tall 'torchier'?  lamp with a mogul base and a 300W filament lamp. I love it. It would take at minimum three to six CFLs to do that but I really like the appearance of the lamp..

In the living room, another with a standard base. In that is screwed a "Y" adapter, and in each branch, another "Y" adapter. I enjoy the 400W worth of light when I need it. Before, I only could put a 150W lamp in there.

I don't mind CFLs, I think they have their place. Especially in some indoor hard to reach fixtures.  But their reliability has dropped, still rather expensive, and their failure modes make me nervous (my incandescents just burn out, not burn UP), and if they were such a great idea in the first place, Phillips wouldn't have had to provide so much Payola to the lawmakers to get the "efficiency standards" passed, people would have bought them willingly and as fast as they could be made.