pnichols wrote:
Some of you can bad-mouth California till the cows come home ... but I'm still picking tomatoes in our garden and walking the dog without having to wear boots or ice cleats. We also pick the last of our apples in February.
It has nothing to do with the weather in California, but more with the folks who are writing and enacting laws and rules which ultimately WILL reduce ALL to nothing more than 15th century "peasants" (with the exception of the ones that wrote the laws).
And your lighting will be nothing more than this
some day because you will not be able to afford the costs of electricity or even the special light bulbs..
A lot of it has nothing to do with "saving the Earth" but more to do with keeping RULING power within certain small groups.
IE control.
Over regulating for the sake of regulating instead of allowing the MARKET to determine what happens..
CFLs when they where brought to market were insanely expensive and had very little brightness (IE late 1980s a 18W CFL was the largest and cost $29), BUT they DID LAST, I had a few of those that with daily use lasted 10 yrs.
Fast forward 20 yrs (IE early 2000) and you can find brighter 13W CFLs for $1 EACH! The downside was they were cheapened up considerably and getting more than 3-4 yrs out of them was not happening.
Yes, it does take time but not all that long ago (5 yrs), white LEDs were introduced to the market, and were terrible.. A 3.5W LED buld was marketed as equiv to 40W incadescent and was purported to last 11 yrs..
In reality that 3.5W LED was no brighter than a 3.5W incadescent NIGHT LIGHT BULB and they blew out within weeks of use.. All for a tidy sum of $12..
Today, you can find 16W LEDs for $4 each that give off the light equiv to a 100W incadescent.. However, the jury is out on the longevity.. They do look promising since some of the ones I have bought have been in use for about 1 yr and only have killed one and that was because it got dropped in a trouble light fixture (IE not vibration or drop resistant due to power supply parts breaking off).
