Xref: utzoo talk.environment:2048 misc.consumers.house:15936 sci.electronics:16948
Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!usenet
From: phil@brahms.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: talk.environment,misc.consumers.house,sci.electronics
Subject: conservation horror stories
Message-ID: <1991Jan14.185100.24703@amd.com>
Date: 14 Jan 91 18:51:00 GMT
Sender: usenet@amd.com (NNTP Posting)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices; Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 31

Some of you may have heard of the time I saw a family buy three
electric heaters from the hardware store. I calculated that if they ran
all three of them at once (why else would they buy three, presumably
one for each bedroom) it would use about one megawatt hour per month.
I was there buying a compact fluorescent light bulb so I could
save 55 watts, and feeling foolish.

My neighbor just remodeled their house. Nice job, big bucks, very
fancy. She had the fluorescent lights in her kitchen taken out! She
says she likes a lot of light so she put in 11 incandescent recessed
lights, 75 watts each, 825 watts total. They're not even PAR, which is
ideal for recessed lights, they're just regular incandescents, which
waste a lot of light in that kind of fixture.

Much as I hate to admit it, and it has never happened before, I think
that Russ Nelson isn't too far off when he talks about the potential of
conservation. My neighbors are not poor or uneducated yet they just
made a big fixed investment in using MORE energy and they did it with
the help of professional interior decorators, architects, and
contractors, and the city "community development" issued a permit for
this.

There is something seriously wrong in our system when things like this
happen. And I think it's because energy, oil, and electricity are too
darn cheap! Unfortunately, when electric rates do rise, my neighbors
will be somewhat locked in to their power burning lighting system.
Recessed lighting is pretty difficult to change.

--
militia: 1.a. A citizen army, as distinct from a body of professional soldiers.
           b. The armed citzenry, as distinct from the regular army.