I have a ceiling fan hanging in the middle of my family room. It has a light kit underneath, nothing special about that. The photo is a representation of it, not the actual unit.
Over the course of a last week two of the three lights stopped working. In a matter of good conscious I decided to replace all three with CFL energy efficient bulbs. Again.
The first time I did this a year ago, yes before Al Gore's movie, the color emitted from them was a ghastly yellow green. Our family attempted to get used to the lighting but after a few days it was apparent we would rather sit in the dark than turn on the lights. Maybe thats how we are supposed to save money?
So they went away.
Sunday I replaced all the lights in the ceiling fan with CFL's. The lights this time are a perfect white light. I simply matched up the converted wattage of the CFL's to the normal bulbs but ended up with a much brighter room and a serious contrast to the lightening in the rest of the downstairs. Not to be deterred we decided next week we will buy more environmentally friendly bulbs at $3.88 a piece at a lower wattage to tone down the family room and move the brighter lights to the outside lights.
New problem.
Since Sunday I couldn't figure out why my tv remote was taking so many 'clicks' to react to a command. When I replaced the lights I also upgraded some wires on my entertainment systems' components. I figured I moved the cable box out of alignment with our seating. So I moved my arm up and down and stretched it left and right and sat in different spots always aiming the remote at the cable box. I changed the battery's. In all cases after several clicks the command would be accepted to change the volume or channel or whatever.
The next day, after a long day of work, sitting in front of my gigantic flat screen DLP HD tv, in my ultra bright family room, I started to get frustrated flipping between programs. And when I get frustrated I get inspired. So I asked my wife who was walking by to flick off the lights.
Immediately the tv began accepting my commands. Could it be?
Yes! After a few minutes of flicking the lights on and off and quite a few "Oh My Goshes", it was confirmed that three 100 watt CFL bulbs 8 feet up can disrupt the commands sent from a tv remote to a cable box, a distance of about ten feet apart.
There's some moral decision here. First, I could stop watching television in a well lit room out of frustration of pushing a button five times for one command. Two, I could go out to the garage and tap the stockpile evil incandescent bulbs and zone out stress free in beautiful soft white light.
Yeah. I know. The garage.
This week was the 515th anniversary of Columbus reaching the New World. I have a feeling that well before we even get to the 200th anniversary of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb he will be subjected to the same outrage. Thomas Edison the destructor of the environment for creating the light bulb! Well I say how dare people tell me I have to use energy efficient light bulbs when that means I waste energy switching channels. Where is the savings in that?
So a warning to all of you other do-gooders out there. Energy saving light bulbs may lower your energy bill by pennies a month but absolutely will increase your frustration level changing channels.
13 comments:
Those darn tree-huggers are just trying to make life hard for all of us :)
Comm, be careful with the CFL's, they do contain small amounts of mercury. With someone as sensitive as Mo in the house I'd be real careful if one of those broke. You don't want him around if you sweep it up and stir mercury into the air. I won't have them because of my birds. Just FYI.
I knew there was a reason I put halogen lights in the family room.
I do drive a Prius, though so hopefully I get a hall pass on the CFLs
classic!
i've had a similar challenge, i installed CFCs for my front porch.
i put them in. then flipped the switch. nothing. flipped it again. nothing. switched them out. nothing.
how could 4 of them brand new not work?
put in the old incandescents -- worked!
switched them out again. they worked!
turns out, when you flip the switch, you gotta wait a few seconds before they light up!
Oddly, I've never had any difficulties with my cfl's ...
Couldn't you just send a letter supporting nuclear power to a member of Congress and count that as an offset?
;-)
There will be no CFLs for the Pol household. In addition to the admittedly minor contamination issues, my concern is in the future as garbage dumps start to become designated brownstone sites. Let's face it, how many people dispose of CFLs at a hazmat waste site compared to throwing them into the trash.
A couple dozen CFLs in a garbage site can quickly increase the mercury levels well above legal limits.
I've never been a fan of those bulbs, for I still think there's something 'off' about the light they emit.
I'd rather turn the air conditioner off for a single day in the summer to balance out the energy savings. Or better yet, just set my thermostat one degree higher.
One option I've used in all the rooms in my house - dimmers. By installing dimmers, you can not only control the amount of light in any given room (such like some nice ambient lighting when watching your behemoth of a television), and they work wonders in the bathroom when you have to get up at 2 in the morning because of drinking over 100oz of water per day...
Great post!
I have the same issues as some other commenters... I wonder how much difference we are really making.
I was watching Flip this House (or similar) where a couple wanted to make their house environmentally friendly, so they threw out a WHOLE DUMPSTER FULL of perfectly good hardwood flooring, tile, furniture, lighting, etc. and put in bamboo, solar panels, etc. in their home instead.
So was it a "good" thing to add a whole dumpster to the landfill? Really? Just so they could "feel better about the environment!?"
It was still mammoth-sized dumping!
Granted, it makes sense for new construction, but for remodelingm it just seems silly.
I love you for this post. Al Gore and his fancy private jet, and huge energy hog mansion...and he forgets to mention something as monumental as this!
I pose a question. Would you, or anyone reading this give up your remotes and for the rest of your lives get up to turn the channel if it meant by doing so you would add an extra 10 years onto your life (quality time not nursing home time)?
I'll take the remote, every time.
Another good reason NOT to watch TV. Problem solved my friend.
Hmmmm......my first thought is that if these lights are emitting something that is disrupting your remote, what are they doing to you?
Interesting post & responses. I'm a tree hugger who very gradually and cautiously started switching over to CFLs, one light at a time, to see how it went.
I've have had absolutely no trouble at all and continue to add them to each room as the existing bulbs burn out.
see, what you really have to do is light a bonfire in your living room every night. That's what a caveman would have done, that's where we should all hearken back to.
NNTTM, IHTH
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