Wednesday - December 03, 2008

Light bulbs as dim as the politicians who force them on us.

My favorite hobby horse. Energy efficient light bulbs. 
Some months ago I posted a photo of a cupboard here at the house, devoted solely to the storing of 100w light bulbs and a few 60w.

Like many others over here in the socialist paradise, where soon the horse might be re-introduced as the better means of transportation, I have been hoarding 100w bulbs.  The light bulb of old, the bulb that gives what it was intended to give, will be no more as they are being phased out.  On the last three trips to the market for weekly groceries, the bin that used to hold 100w bulbs has been empty.  I think we will have to start making trips further afield to buy them, using more gas of course and enlarging our carbon footprint.  All in a good cause of course. 

The old really efficient light bulb isn’t exactly being outlawed. Yet.  But more and more stores just won’t be refilling their stock.  Someone told me something very similar is happening in the USA.  Please ... say it ain’t so!  Are we going the same way as the Fraken weenies over here?  Geez, I can’t believe .....
oh hell. Wait a minute.  Yeah, I can believe the same will happen in the US.  Mostly because not enough folks will fight the madness of the green weenies.

I don’t seriously believe anyone has fallen down stairs due to the dim lights of the green bulb. Heck, night lights aren’t bright either.  But I really hate the idea of this stuff being forced on us.  I have yet to meet an energy efficient light bulb that I liked.

It is good to know that I’m not the Lone Ranger on the topic, as letters to the editor of the Telegraph over the last few days seem to echo my sentiments.
And I’m not the only one hoarding 100w bulbs either. 

A BIT OF LIGHT BULB IN YOUR TUNA SANDWICH
By,Christopher Howse

Christopher Howse writes leaders and features and reviews for The Daily Telegraph, which he joined in 1996 as obituaries editor. His Saturday column, Sacred Mysteries, is on religion. He lives in Westminster.

Telegraph readers from all over the country complain that they are tumbling down the stairs because energy-saving light bulbs on the landing do not come on in time when they pop to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

It is quite true that the new bulbs are as dim as the politicians who force them upon us. I found myself in the Midland Hotel earlier this year and, because the bulbs were of the new kind, no light in my room was bright enough to read by. I ended up taking the shade off the bedside lamp and, to catch its glow, balancing it on a rather vulgar metallic box of paper handkerchiefs provided by the thoughtful management. I still had to hold the book up towards the light as if I was trying to read by a full moon.

As one of our readers mentioned in a letter to the Editor, you have to use more of the new bulbs in order to produce enough light, which rather defeats the object.

Proper incandescent bulbs are shortly to be banned in a Europe-wide bureaucratic drive, purportedly on ecological grounds. Yet the dull new bulbs contain mercury, a deadly poison that builds up in the food chain once it reaches waters that flow into the sea. Soon our tuna sandwiches will be thick with mercury, blackening our teeth and turning us as mad as hatters.

The mercury hazard means, to the health and safety police, that if one breaks a new dim bulb, it is necessary to open doors and windows and don protective clothing.

You must not throw the new bulbs away in the dustbin when they fail, as they soon do, but take them to a hazardous waste tip.

So the ideal Christmas present this year is a cache of good old lightbulbs. Mind where you store them or the rust will get at the metal end. One day they’ll be as valuable as 1945 Margaux.

BULBS

Posted by peiper     on 12/03/2008 at 09:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Environment • EUro-peons • UK •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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