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Author Topic: Ban Incandescent Bulbs - Dateline Maine  (Read 55980 times)
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Ed W1XAW
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« Reply #75 on: February 12, 2008, 04:23:42 PM »

I've been using CFL's throughout the house for about a year or so with no bulb failures, no noticeable RFI and a substantial savings on the monthly power bill.   The only place that doesn't have them is the dimmer in the dining room.   The hall light is something like a 7 watt bulb and it is very dim when first turned on.  I discovered that this doesn't make any difference for walking through and we simply leave it on for the high traffic times of day (just like we did with the incandescent).   I bought mine with a substantial, immediate, state sponsored rebate so I'm happy to report that Paul, Bruce, Tim, Larry, Thos. and others are subsidizing my lighting!   By the way, I'd say the proposed ban has a snowball's chance in hell of actually passing here right now so I wouldn't get your panties in a knot if it bothers you.   Very best,   Ed
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W1RKW
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« Reply #76 on: February 12, 2008, 04:29:14 PM »

I have 2 CFL's that are the light equivalent of 250watts each in the garage (they consume 55w per).  The garage is cold about 40degrees right now and they come up to full brightness within 15 seconds with no flickering at all.

One question to all who have CFL's, do you find a reliability vs. cost relationship?
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Bob
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Home of GORT. A buddy of mine named the 813 rig GORT.
His fear was when I turned it on for the first time life on earth would come to a stand still.
Bill, KD0HG
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« Reply #77 on: February 12, 2008, 04:54:46 PM »

I have 2 CFL's that are the light equivalent of 250watts each in the garage (they consume 55w per).  The garage is cold about 40degrees right now and they come up to full brightness within 15 seconds with no flickering at all.

One question to all who have CFL's, do you find a reliability vs. cost relationship?

I haven't seen that. Skewing the results is the fact the manufacturers are constantly improving them. Today's cheapo CFL is better in many respects than the pricier ones from five years ago.

What I have seen is a shortening of their life if they're cycled on and off two dozen times per day or more. We had one in an office restroom and regardless of brand, it never lasted much more than a year. We also once used one in a radio station "On Air" light that was cycled many times a day, and it never lasted longer than a year, either. For normal use, this doesn't appear to be an issue, but I'm mentioning it as a point of interest. Like any fluorescent light, they don't like to be frequently power cycled. That'll also shorten the life of incandescent bulbs, for that matter. So yes, you can kill them prematurely if you try hard enough.
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W8EJO
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« Reply #78 on: February 12, 2008, 08:23:11 PM »


Terry, you sound like an employer that is anxious to dump his employee health care costs on somebody else? Like maybe all American taxpayers? Health care costs spiraled out of control because of litigation, 

No, I am self employed, no employees & just pay my own insurance. I agree that lawsuits have added greatly to the cost of health care as well as most other things in our society (ladders, airplanes, autos, tires, etc.).  The English Rule would fix most of that but attorneys have one of the strongest lobby groups in the US (National Bar Association) so don't count on that any time soon.

Health Care's great disconnect between provider/biller & user has contributed greatly to it's ultra high inflation rate.

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Terry, W8EJO

Freedom and liberty - extremist ideas since 1776.
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« Reply #79 on: February 12, 2008, 11:14:31 PM »

I doubt that litigation is a main driver of health care cost increases.   The conservative Cato institute says

"The major culprit in the seemingly endless rise in health care costs is found to be the removal of the patient as a major participant in the financial and medical choices that are currently being made by others in the name of the patient."

I found a few more studies that said the same thing mostly refuting other studies that blamed new, expensive technology. Some talked about the big increase in chronic disease like diabetes.  None of the studies singled out litigation or the cost of malpractice insurance.   CA, at least, has a statutory limit on pain and suffering -- $250K.  It's my understanding this limit has helped limit malpractice costs in this state.

I can't help but note that the same drugs can cost twice as much here as in Canada, that health insurance companies are making money hand over fist, and that overhead costs with our complicated system are very high.

I pay my own health insurance.   It costs a fortune and pays for almost nothing.   If there is anything Blue Shield of California is good at it's finding reasons to not reimburse.   I better stop.  I feel a real rant coming on.
--------
PS:  Have been using CFL's for most applications for years.   Only one RFI emitter.   They have lived up to life expectancy claims.   You can now purchase by color temperature to get whatever look you like.   My favorites are the old Philips bulbs because they come on oh so slowly just like I do in the morning.   I can't find those any more but the originals are hanging tough.
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k4kyv
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Don
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« Reply #80 on: February 13, 2008, 10:58:52 AM »

I'm not sure if the PPO (Preferred Provider Option) applies to the whole country or not but it seems to work well around here for Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Basically all the doctors & hospitals have to sign a contract with them to accept their schedule of rates to be charged for all services, they don't have to sign the contract at all, they're just going to lose the bulk of their patients if they don't. So the insurance company says service ABC should cost $100 but the hospital or doctor bill $450 for ABC, the insurance company pays $100 for ABC and I get a bill showing that $100 paid and $350 as "write off", I pay zero.

And people who don't have medical insurance are billed the full $450 and are expected to pay every penny of it out of pocket, with no discount.  What a ripoff! 

Of course,  there are people can't or won't pay any of it at all, so they end up having the entire bill written off.


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A few things fall between the cracks, like that silly set of plastic pieces that every patient gets in their hospital room, I gotta pay about $25 for that $2 plastic junk. A few lab tests will cost me a few bucks each time they're run but the insurance picks up the biggest part on them also.

Medical items and educational items are two things that are nearly always way overpriced.  I recall years ago when I used to do field service work, when I would service stuff at hospitals and be astounded at how much they said some of the medical equipment cost.  Knowing what was inside the enclosure, I could see no way it could have been worth what they paid, and often the very same equipment, in non-medical applications, would cost a fraction of what it cost to hospitals.  Prices are highly inflated because they know the cost of medical equipment will trickle down to the insurance companies and ultimately to the policyholders, and the cost of educational equipment will be passed on to the taxpayers.

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Prescription drugs are another story here, my usual drug bill was running me about $15-20 per month, now I'm paying about $150 per month for the same prescriptions, still investigating what the !@#$ is going on there. 

You can thank Medicare Part D for that.  A friend of mine, a former bus driver, has been on blood pressure, cholesterol and glaucoma medications for years.  He retired several years ago because other vision problems he developed disqualified him from driving the bus, so he went on Medicare, before Part D went into effect.  He tells me that with Part D, he pays a monthly premium and still has a  high deductible before Part D kicks in, in addition to a substantial co-pay for each prescription.  But just as soon as Part D was enacted, the prices of his medications immediately took a big jump.  So his annual out-of-pocket expenses for medications (co-pay, deductible plus Part D premiums) is now about the same or a little more than what he paid out of his own pocket before the Part D plan was created.
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Don, K4KYV                                       AMI#5
Licensed since 1959 and not happy to be back on AM...    Never got off AM in the first place.

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« Reply #81 on: February 13, 2008, 11:59:41 AM »

The price of healthcare jumped when doctors and health care professionals were replace by bean counters and lawyers. Next time you visit your doctor, ask him what he pays for his malpractice insurance. This is the price you pay. Do you want capitalism or socialism? If we could reign in the lawyers or put a curb on the malpractice, I think your health care will go down.
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Mike(y)/W3SLK
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« Reply #82 on: February 13, 2008, 02:34:15 PM »

Global warming is happening right now but we are having about as much affect on it as you would if you pissed on a volcano. This is a cycle that the sun goes through every so many years.Mars is warming up faster than the earth. All the outer planets even Pluto which is headed away from the sun now  is getting warmer when it should be getting colder.They have found crocodiles under the ice in Greenland so this has happened in the recent past when we were not recording history.The government plans to fix this wont fix it . The plans are designed to take your money and mine.We cant stop the sun from heating up but it looks like they will find a way to tax us for it. What are they going to ban next?
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Mike
W1UJR
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« Reply #83 on: February 13, 2008, 02:48:53 PM »

Global warming is happening right now but we are having about as much affect on it as you would if you pissed on a volcano. This is a cycle that the sun goes through every so many years.Mars is warming up faster than the earth. All the outer planets even Pluto which is headed away from the sun now  is getting warmer when it should be getting colder.They have found crocodiles under the ice in Greenland so this has happened in the recent past when we were not recording history.The government plans to fix this wont fix it . The plans are designed to take your money and mine.We cant stop the sun from heating up but it looks like they will find a way to tax us for it. What are they going to ban next?


There's been global warming since the last Ice Age. - 1UJR   Wink
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