Incandescent Bulbs Free to Good Home

[Joseph Bento]

Hi Karl,

I think my misunderstanding may be with crude exports.  According to Bloomberg, we were a net oil 'product' exporter.  I was mistaking this for crude exports.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/u-s-was-net-oil-product-exporter-in-2011.html

As for CFLs, they don't warm up very quickly in our cold Utah winters when used for porch lights and security lights.  While they have certainly improved, the color spectrum is an issue with cheap bulbs.  Despite all this, most of the bulbs in the house are now CFL.  

The new T8 fluorescent tubes are great for the shop.  In fact my workplace has converted to all T8's in the overhead fixtures, replacing all the T12's.

I still wonder if the energy savings will outweigh the mercury contamination.  Where I live, residences (not businesses) can dispose of CFL's with household trash.  Mercury contamination is already an issue in Utah, since a good majority of our power comes from coal fired plants.  Use less electricity, less mercury contamination from the coal.  What of the mercury in the countless thousands of bulbs that end up in landfills, however?

You know, living in the wilderness isn't all too bad.  I really enjoy camping and hiking.  No CFLs, cell phones, or anything terribly modern for that matter in the woods.  :-)

73,
Joe, N6DGY


On May 24, 2012, at 9:47 PM, Karl W4KRL wrote:

> Joe,
>  
> According to the Congressional Research Service total oil imports in 2011 were 11.4 million barrels per day of which 8.9 Mb/d were crude oil. Exports were 2.9 Mb/d, none of which were crude oil because nearly all exportation of crude oil is prohibited by law. We are far from exporting more than we import.
>  
> http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42465.pdf
>  

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