Light Bulb Ripoff

[MikeBjerum]

In other words, the oil industry is playing the green game to sell, or get help with, oil harvest.  According to the Sierra Club protesters, this is all about putting carbon that would go into the sky into deep dark abandoned wells.

[billt]

Here is what I'm finding out about these things. At least the 3-Way models. I took this one back to Home Depot the other day because it crapped out. (I mentioned how hot the heat sink got).

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-30-60-100W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A21-3-Way-LED-Light-Bulb-BA21-16027OMF-12WE26-1U100/205226208

They replaced it for no charge with this model Phillips 3-Way. They told me it was "better".

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-40-60-100W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-3-Way-A21-LED-Light-Bulb-453340/205427985?MERCH=REC-_-PIPHorizontal1_rr-_-205427987-_-205427985-_-N

I took it home, installed it, and turned it on the lowest setting, and let it run for several hours after I had it on the highest setting, and it got really hot. On the lowest setting the ballast, heat sink, whatever, barely got warm to the touch. I then turned it to the second notch and let it run for a few more hours. It got much warmer to the touch. Finally I turned it to the highest and brightest setting. And after an hour you would burn your fingers if you grabbed it without knowing.

I think what is happening with these things, is they're cooking the internals on the brightest settings. (Where I ran the one that failed most all the time). So this one I'll keep at the first 2 settings, and only use the brightest for short periods of time. This doesn't happen on the battery models because the batteries don't put out anywhere near that much power. Until they find a way to make these things run cooler, or else come up with better high temperature components, they are not going to last. At least not on the higher settings. I just can't see how, seeing as how hot they get.

[Bill Stryker]

Ha, Ha,
I bought cases of  incandescent bulbs before the switch became mandatory.
I use about 8 200w bulbs to "heat" my garage on cold winter nights -- keeps my 3 stall garage above freezing on the coldest of nights.
I just hate the jerks telling us how to live in the name of some junk theory.
My electric company keeps sending me messages that I use more energy than my neighbors. Screw em, my house is a lot older and bigger than most of my neighbors.

[billt]

I use about 8 200w bulbs to "heat" my garage on cold winter nights -- keeps my 3 stall garage above freezing on the coldest of nights.

Wouldn't you be better off just running a 1,600 watt electric heater instead? I have one of those oil filled, electric radiator type heaters, and it puts out a lot of heat. I know it uses less than 1,600 watts. 1,500 watts I think on the highest setting. It's got to be better than using light bulbs.

[Pathfinder]

Back to the OP for a second, Fellow DRTV Drifters!

I replaced about half of the incandescents in my house with LEDs - will not go near CFLs and replaced many my wife had with LEDs - and so far (<frantically knocking wood here>) have had no problems, even with regular use. OTOH, I put a brand new 3-way incandescent into a fixture, and about 2 weeks later, after light use, I accidentally bumped the lamp and all 3 ways blew at once.

For the record, I get a mix of LEDs from Home Depot and Wal-Mart (the single wattage ones from Wally World have been relegated to the basement as they have a very noticeable lag time in turning on), and are a mix of Philips and Cree.

Oddly, one of the Philips 3-way LEDs works as low-max-middle wattage instead of the more familiar low-middle-max sequence we're all used to.

Back to the oil sequestration drift already in progress . . .      

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

I didn't even know they still made 3-way bulbs of any type. I only have one 3-way and it's an incandescent I never use because I have 5 bulbs overhead. I use one of the other 3 bulbs on the lamp as a night light. It looks like it says 50-100-150. I checked and it works. I had one in the past where you could see the filaments. One filament is low and the other is medium. Full power is both of them together. In the past I've had a problem with them not lasting as long as standard one-way bulbs. If I ever use the lamp somewhere else it's nice to know there are replacement bulbs.

[alfsauve]

My work related problem is getting them that respond to dimmers.   Sure a lot of them "dim", but I need a smooth steady dimming with no gliches from 0 to 100%.  It doesn't have to be linear, as I can adjust the dimming curve, but it does need to be smooth.

Some only jump from one level to another.  Some flicker at certain levels.   Some work fine by themselves but not when there are multiple lights in the circuit.  Some don't work by themselves, but will work when a incandescent ghost load of 50W or more is added to the circuit.   And in most cases I need 1,500 lumens or better. 

[billt]

I have CFL's that dim on my pool lights, but not LED's. Even the CFL's work like crap. So much so I don't even try to dim them. I just run them full blast.

[Rastus]

In other words, the oil industry is playing the green game to sell, or get help with, oil harvest.  According to the Sierra Club protesters, this is all about putting carbon that would go into the sky into deep dark abandoned wells.

No, that's not it.  Only a small percentage of fields, less than say 5%, are candidates.  You have to have high viscosity oil, tight rock, dip angle and a large area of homogenous reservoir to justify a CO2 recovery job.  It's big upfront costs and you need a big target so not a lot of opportunities for that.

And, it's expensive.  You have to transfer the CO2, compress/liquify it to 3,500 to 5,000 psig to inject it, drill wells in a pattern to sweep the area around existing wells...not cheap at all.  The CO2 destroys downhole tubulars and surface facilities through corrosion...partial pressures of CO2 have to be considered at every point in the process.  I can't see anyone starting up a CO2 flood on pricing less than $65/bbl for oil.

The help we want is to get the government off of our backs.  For instance, instead of being able to tie into a neighboring company's electrical system and metering I'm required to build my own line to the utility provider....$650k vs $300k...some states prevent public utilities from requiring this...Texas doesn't.  Basing reserve prices on the end of the year price....so a reserve bbl of oil is one that makes at least a one cent profit per bbl.  Using end of year pricing...what, around $33/bbl this year?...that takes a lot of bbls off the company reserves which reduces the company's value and now the bank owns them...next year price is up to $40 and gee no problem with value...but oh too late the value went from 0 to 50 million for the bank.  Some kind of dual reporting average is needed but then the banks wouldn't get the hard work of others at a loss.  And then there is all of the regulatory reporting, etc....

[billt]

I can't see anyone starting up a CO2 flood on pricing less than $65/bbl for oil.

This is the reason they're letting the price of oil fall through the floor. The Arabs are trying to collapse the alternative energy programs in this country by flooding the market with cheap oil. Once they do, just watch how fast the price of oil goes back up to it's past level. It's not that easy to start up these programs once they're shut down and people are laid off, and equipment is sold, and or mothballed.