Comment by 🐙 norayr
Re: "Paraphrased from a personal note I rediscovered. "Today we…"
i bought lots of fluorescents back in 2009 to 'go green'. then i realized that they contain mercury and i can't throw them to trash and many cities including mine don't have recycling of those so all the people that buy fluorescent in my country are just throwing it to trash.
i still keep my fluorescents, had to change apartments several times and carry them with me.
2025-08-15 · 9 months ago
13 Later Comments ↓
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-15 at 20:39:
Hydrocarbons have good energy density but very low energy efficiency. The photosynthesis that produces the glucose molecules is only 3 to 6% of the energy stored from the incoming solar energy. The conversion of cellulose to component hydrocarbons is not perfect (varies a lot.) Extraction and processing of hydrocarbon fuels is extremely energy intense. All to burn a product in a machine that is, at best, 61% efficient as a combined cycle gas turbine. The cheap solar cell on a calculator is orders of magnitude more efficient.
I recall seeing a Japanese flashlight that had a solar cell and no battery back in the 90s. Before energy saving bulbs. You got dimmer light than the light shining on the panel.
🐙 norayr · 2025-08-15 at 21:08:
in 90ies here was war, economic collapse and no electricity for years. but in the engineering university they had a technology and researches on solar batteries. so those scientists and engineers were building small portable batteries and were selling them. i had one and i was powering my casette player and in the evening when sun was getting down i was powering radio.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-15 at 22:48:
The solar calculator that ison when there is light is an ideal application. LCDs need micrwatts of power, unless you need a backlight. Once a battery and anything motorized is involved things go downhill fast.
🦂 zzo38 · 2025-08-16 at 04:03:
I think that incandescent light is a better quality, and is mostly better for general-purpose lighting than fluorescent and LEDs. However, what is even more better is to not use the light when you do not need it; if you have enough windows, or you are outside, then in in the day time if it is sunny then you will have the light outside and you do not need the electric light. If you have LCD with external backlight, then possibly can be done in a similar way too.
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-16 at 10:20:
Considering 99% of the energy is lost as heat in incandescent lights, I must disagree. LED lighting made lighting practically free in terms of energy cost vs my grand parents still calling the electric bill the "light bill." In the north, the sun sets very early in the winter, as early as mid afternoon, necessitating 5 - 6 hours of lighting per day. Regions of Norway, Canada, Russia, and Alaska might need as much as 13 hours of lighting.
And of course, device life is short. I moved into my place 12 years ago. I have had to replace 2 LEDs, one I brought with me with years already used, and one premature failure (lasted 5 years.) Incandescent that is used frequently won't last that long.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-16 at 13:47:
In wintertime, I screw in a few incandescents, as heat loss is a plus! Incandescent light spectrum is out of reach for LEDs.
It's getting hard to buy incandescent bulbs in the US due to opressive government overreach. Thanks, Obama!
LEDs are generally made with cheap capacitors tha last around a year in my experience, before going nuts and gouging my eyes with vibrating light. I noticed that you can buy expensive bulbs ($10+) with Japanese capacitors!
While on the subject, there had been an actual lightbulb cartel with a strict limit on lifetime of bulbs, a goto for the conspiracist's 'I told you so'
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-16 at 16:07:
I will say the same thing I always say when this comes up: don't heat your house with light bulbs! Electricity is expensive as a heat source and offsetting a few watts of heat with electricity isn't saving a penny off of fossil heat sources. But if you must, get the heavy duty ones, you know, the ones for oven lights. Kids, don't put LEDs in the oven!
🚀 stack · 2025-08-16 at 16:30:
Heating your house with lightbulbs, bitcoin miner gear, class A audio amplifiers, or anything really is all the same. Wasting energy by converting it to heat -- there is no bad way to do it
I am always amused by expensive 'high efficiency' electric heaters. They are all 15 Amps, converted to heat resistively, convection or radiant . There is no such thing as an inefficient heater. Where would rhe waste go, heat?
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-16 at 19:44:
Ha yes. Technically correct, they are all 100% efficient at converting electricity into heat. Putting square footage on them always annoyed me too. There are no product differentiators and it drives marketing crazy.
🛸 bluesman · 2025-08-17 at 05:17:
Some LED bulbs have better light quality than others but you might have to pay more. I have bulbs from my previous house (so they must be at least 13 years old) that are still going strong. Other "start up" brands from that time didn't last long despite being expensive by today's standards. Cree was one of those brands.
Sadly, I still have compact flourescent bulbs that I refuse to throw away until they burn out. Luckily my city has a recycling center for those things.
I knew a very conservative guy who's very conservative dad bought a bunch of incandescent bulbs back in the day out of fear they would be banned by the evil powers that be. This guy was shocked to find out how much you can actually save over time by going LED. And no, I don't think he was a connoisseur of quality lighting.
The blue LED is one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, IMO.
👻 darkghost · 2025-08-17 at 11:13:
Yeah my early device failure was a Cree. Blue LED was a major leap ahead technologically. And the guy who worked for years to invent it (Shuji Nakamura) got a pittance. He got a 404 patent worth less than $200 and his employer said he got just compensation, earning approximately $56k per year for 11 years of employment. He sued and got $8 million, just enough to cover the legal expenses. The lesson here is to never try and never ever apply yourself.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-17 at 14:42:
A decade+ ago I bought a few specialty full-spectrum 100W didymium bulbs which have an amazing light. It's like a happy sunny day when you were a kid.
Those are the ones I screw in in the winter, although the light quality is well worth the $20 a month or whatever it costs, really. And it helos my partner's SAD
ironic, indeed.
we placed some mirrors on the field to reflect sunlight into the living room, which works fantastic and feels natural. except that after every cup of tee i have to go out and move the mirrors a bit :)
Original Post
Paraphrased from a personal note I rediscovered. "Today we have LEDs and fluorescent lights, which are extremely energy-efficient. They can even be powered directly from solar panels. We use the natural power of light rays from the Sun to create artificial light. Ironic, isn't it?"