Lamp Longevity

This Philips SL*18D, an early, energy-saving fluorescent, (18W) has just given up the ghost. It was bought in 1985. I estimate that over the ensuing 25 years its use has saved, very roughly but of the right order, 700 kilowatt-hours. Taking the average energy price over the 25 years to have been 5p per kWh that means the cost saving has been about £35.

The lamp itself would have been fairly expensive in those days, probably about £10 but I suspect this has been more than offset by the number of incandescent lamps I would have had to buy over the same period..

It is very heavy weighing in at 550 grams and been in a suspended lamp-holder all its life: but the flex and anchoring seemed to stand the strain.

Wind Power - the killer argument

Wind turbines pay back the carbon cost of their manufacture in about 6 months and last for 20 years or more. After that first 6 months every kilowatt they generate is carbon-free and nuclear waste-free and a gain for our grand-children.

That is not to say that it is not preferable to site them out at sea rather than in areas of outstanding natural beauty; but one also should not be misled by nimbys with their arguments about lack of efficiency, and the fickleness of the wind. These are not relevant to the matter in hand, the saving of the planet.

Connections

I know someone who once met someone who had once shaken hands with Hitler.

Just thought I'd mention it. . . .

Last Lines 7

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

From 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer."

From the first paragraph of the poem by Dylan Thomas. Surely a poetic expression of a basic unalienable truth, the common ancestry of all life. When I feel the need to indulge the spiritual side of my nature I turn to works such as this. Of course much of the King James's version of the Bible is superbly poetic and can be enjoyed as such but where is truth to be found in its preposterous subject matter?

Last Lines 6

"As she went on her way, gossamer threads, spun from bush to bush, barricaded her pathway, and as she broke through one after another of these fairy barricades she thought, 'They're trying to bind me and keep me'. But the threads which were to bind her to her native country were more enduring than gossamer. They were spun of love and kinship and cherished memories."

From 'Candleford Green' by Flora Thompson

Domestic Waste Recycling

I have always have had worries about the viability of domestic waste recycling. Take, for a simple example, plastic bottles. These occupy large amounts of space, even when partially crushed but are low in  weight of recoverable plastic. To collect them necessitates a heavy vehicle frequently stopping & starting along miles of residential roads;  then, when full, transport to a depot and from there to a recycling plant for recovery of usable plastic. Is the carbon saved at the point that reclaimed plastic granules issue forth into a delivery lorry more than that expended by all the handling and transport involved?

Will the cost of this recovered plastic to the bottle-makers be less than that of new material; or are taxpayers subsidising recycling as a matter of Government policy in order to keep the raw materials in the ground and waste out of land-fill?

Presumably someone has done the sums.