Friday, April 4, 2008

Conservation Tips and The Volt

Having be pretty hard on Obama the last couple of weeks, I have to admit I did learn something Wednesday during his talk at Strath Haven.

My cell phone charger "bleeds energy" when left plugged in. Obama said so and I checked and he's right. There are all sorts of things that people can do to save money and energy if they want.

Also I just read about the new battery powered car GM is working on - the Volt. It sounds promising. But will it have the range and durability people want at a cost that makes sense?

Here's hoping.

14 Comments:

Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 5, 2008 at 10:59 AM 
Blogger steve mcdonald said...

i learned that Barry's still nothing more than a snake oil salesman who will crap his pants in times if international situations.

April 6, 2008 at 12:25 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Any device in your home that uses a power transformer bleeds electricity just by sitting there being plugged in. Feel one of them little black boxes down on your power strip. Warm, isn’t it?
Cue Libs to legislate changing this, at great expense to the consumer, in the name of going "green".

And, yes, Steve, B. Hussein Obama is a lying scumbag. So much for all his talk of "change". The only change is the color of the guy lying.

April 6, 2008 at 11:44 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

“Liberalism of the Light Switch Disconnect”

There are other things that people do to conserve by which they think they’re doing good but really they’re not. It can even be something as simple as turning off the lights.

For years we have been told to turn off the lights when we leave a room so as to not waste electricity by keeping lighted an unused room. But really we shouldn’t be so quick with the switch.

Ya see, what most people don’t know is that a light bulb uses as much electricity in its initial surge at fire-up as it does in 15 minutes of continuous burning. That’s right. That is to say, you can actually waste more electricity turning the lights off and back on again than if you just left them on in the first place for short periods. It’s like this…

Suppose you leave a room and turn off the lights. But then for some reason you immediately go back into the same room and turn the light back on. And then you do it again. Do this four times in a short period and you have just used an hour’s worth of electricity turning the light off and back on while only lighting the room for a few moments. So you’ve just wasted electricity when you were trying to conserve by turning the lights off!

Since this paradox is born of good intentions but can be self-defeating in its unintended consequences, I call this theory the “Liberalism of the Light Switch Disconnect”.


[If you boys use this elsewhere I expect to receive credit for it. The citation should read: “Typical White Guy and Cool Smart Guy, Randal Davis”. And don’t be going and changing the title of it, Dave.]

April 7, 2008 at 1:57 PM 
Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 7, 2008 at 10:14 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

(sigh) In your desperate efforts to rush to oppose me at all cost on every topic you are spinning in circles. Doesn’t that make you dizzy, Dave?
I also find it interesting that the link you posted doesn’t work. Imagine that. Let me shine some light for you…

Your, umm, “argument” is self defeating. You say not turning off is only to save bulb life but then conclude that they should be turned off…
a general rule-of-thumb for when to turn off a fluorescent light is if you leave a room for more than 15 minutes, it is probably more cost effective to turn the light off."
Right. And this, contrary to you dishonest spin, is due to the electricity necessary to turn the light back on, but you failed to include that part. And notice the “for more than 15 minutes”, also a clear reference to electricity wasted to refire as apposed to just leaving the lights burning for that time. Thanks for inadvertently proving my point for me. (I know how that must hurt.)
Now, as I cruised around the net finding proof to back my claim, I also found some interesting things. Indeed there was talk of preserving bulb life and such but along with that there was plenty of eye-glazing talk of kilowatt usage and duty cycles and joules surge when energized vs. joules when burning that supported my claim. However, unlike incandescents, since florescent lights do not use significantly more power at start up my theory does not apply to them.

Anyway, I also found this good advice that more closely reflects Gil's original point: Use a power strip to shut off electrical devices with "instant on" features, such as TVs, VCRs and DVD players that consume electricity even when not actively being used.

April 8, 2008 at 7:02 PM 
Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 9, 2008 at 12:43 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man, Dave, I must say, you are the most desperate Lib ever to grasp at opposing me. Even over meaningless stuff like this. You did all that searching and pasting just to end up supporting what I already acknowledged. Chill, homie. Maybe you missed this part of my post:

However, unlike incandescents, since florescent lights do not use significantly more power at start up my theory does not apply to them.

Next, let’s talk about the misguided Liberal rush to legislate those new compact fluorescent bulbs to replace regular light bulbs. And then it turns out that the new bulbs contain mercury and are actually WORSE for the environment than the old ones! Lol…

That knee-jerk Libism… always shortsighted and always backward and always self defeating…

And what the heck is a VCR anyway? Aren’t they like Stone Age? My DVD player updates its time automatically. And my TVs seem to save their settings even after power outages. Maybe you need to buy some newer gadgets?

April 9, 2008 at 10:38 AM 
Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 9, 2008 at 11:45 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And once again you’re still comparing apples to plywood. You keep posting about turning off to preserve bulb life. This does not in any way negate my correct original point that… Oh, forget it. I’m right; you are wrong. Match. Lol…

And must you be so nit-picky petty? Jeez, you really do sound like a little girl sometimes. Get off my leg.

A few lead paint chips are better for a mind than the mental illness Libism.

April 9, 2008 at 1:02 PM 
Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 9, 2008 at 1:48 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Umm, no, it's not. And simply saying it is so changes nothing. It takes more than words on a blog to change reality, Dave. Lol...

April 10, 2008 at 11:45 AM 
Blogger David Diano said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

April 10, 2008 at 1:23 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ho-hum.

Libs can't admit when they're wrong. They get so emotionally invested in even the silliest of things and then they just can't bear to let it go.

April 10, 2008 at 2:10 PM 

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