Re: Plasma TVs to be Banned

On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:24:32 +0000, Kennedy McEwen
<rkm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That claim itself is questionable.

Because it doesn't take into entire lifecycle, not because ...

Tungsten lamps may be inefficient light producers, but consumed energy
not emitted as light is emitted as heat. When are tungsten lights used?
When it is dark and thus also, for the main part in this and other
northern countries, when alternative heating is required.

There isn't a 1-1 relationship, or anything like, between a
requirement for light and a requirement for heat.

For one thing, there are many situations where lights have to be left
on for, say, security.

In northern countries - which you rather parochially seem to
concentrate on, forgetting that many countries in the EU are actually
mediterranean countries and much warmer than the UK - we still use
electric light in the evenings in summer, when there is no requirement
for heat. The paired requirement for both heat and light is not even
true for the majority of the year in the UK, let alone further south.

(While, in passing, elsewhere in the world it's a completely different
story. In Africa, many children of poor families take turn in shifts
to do their homework under the household's single electric light bulb,
and the last thing they need is surplus heat!)

It would be more to the point that when we switch on a light, only
light is produced, just as we don't switch on our heating when we want
light.

Is your local boiler and unlagged
hot pipes more efficient than the electricity generating station?

Probably. One third the energy used to generate electricity goes up
the cooling tower, another third is radiated away in transmission
overland, and only a third reaches your home as electricity.

Add in the higher production pollution and energy cost of so
called green alternatives over the simple tungsten filament lamp and the
question of which is actually the greenest is very marginal indeed.

They certainly need to be factored in, but, until they are, I fail to
see how you can claim that the differences are marginal.

It just isn't that black and white.

It is certainly a common mistake when looking at green issues that
people forget to look at the bigger picture.

Here's another example. People who are anti LE light bulbs often cite
mercury pollution as a reason. The bulbs need to be disposed of
safely. What is less commonly realised, I certainly didn't know it
until I read the document linked by brightside S9, that the mercury
used is more than offset by the mercury saved in electricity
production.
.

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