[Barbara]

This topic reminds me of that wonderful Isaac Asimov's novel "Nocturnus".
Very sad perspective...

[Wildwell]

Depends if your paying the bill I guess or out in the middle of the night playing vampire.

Come on positive suggestions please...

[Xelat]

I'm sure that there is power to be saved by making streetlights more efficient and optimizing the output however street lighting in the US contributes to a signifcant reduction in crime.

[cube]

I may end up ruffling a couple feathers here by saying this but the primary benefit of switching over to LED's for traffic lights is not the lower electricity bill but instead minimizing the maintenance bill.

Because LED's operate at a lower temperature they last longer, about 5 times longer then regular light bulbs. Therefore you do not have to replace them as often....therefore the cost of paying some unionized government worker to shut down the street every time a bulb needs to be replaced is significantly reduced.

The amount of money the government saves by cutting their maintence bill by 5 fold is far more significant then the amount of electricity saved. But if the mainstream media asks we just say it's better for the environment because it the sounds a lot nicer. That and the media likes "simple" answers I used to work for the DOT in Cali.

[Kingcoal]

Unfortunately, electricity can't be stored in large quantities. Unless you fancy a nightly powerdown, where your electric is shut off, the plants have to keep going. We might as well use the electricity for something.

[Windsun]

I'm sure that there is power to be saved by making streetlights more efficient and optimizing the output however street lighting in the US contributes to a signifcant reduction in crime.

I think that aspect is over rated. Yes, in some places it does. But I see many many places - like empty parking lots in government buildings - where the threat of crime is near zero, yet the lights are on all night.

Any place you drive at night you see lights on that are basically wasted.

[RdSnt]

Unfortunately, electricity can't be stored in large quantities. Unless you fancy a nightly powerdown, where your electric is shut off, the plants have to keep going. We might as well use the electricity for something.

Actually, this is precisely what I plan to do with my house. Arrange my power consumption so that I can turn off the power to the house at night.
The only thing I need continuous power for is refrigerators, those I'm switching to solar power and run off batteries at night.

[gg3]

Any net gain of efficiency is good.

Understood about not spinning-down the generators at night. We may also be charging our electric cars at night.

And if switching to LEDs saves maintenance costs, all the better.

People who are at work away from home during the day could turn off their power during the daytime (except for the fridge) and turn it back on when they get home. This would free up more capacity during the day for commercial uses.

A 24/7 society with workplaces on staggered hours, offers the potential of reducing peak demand loads, allowing generators to run at lower average output levels.

[smiley]

Hmmm....... street lighting was one of the first practical uses of electricity. It also was one of the first practical applications of oil and gas.

I guess that it does serve some purpose and I'm not sure that it should be the first thing we should abolish.

[EnviroEngr]

The last thing I remember about Li Batteries...

[eric_b]

Hi World,

I just found this web site

http://www.optiled.biz/faqs/faqs.html

Seems LED lighting can't quite replace conventional home lighting but it's starting to be a reasonable alternative for outdoor lighting (think security) and at 2 watts, instant-on, long life, ability to turn on and off without degrading the bulb life it's clearly the lighting of the future.

I like LED's, but they're not the end all for efficiency. For outdoor lighting,
both HPS (high pressure sodium - orange) and metal halide (blue-white) are
still considerably for efficient at converting watts to lumens than LEDs.

LED's make nice long lasting flashlights (last at least 10x as long as regular
flashlights) and LED lights are more efficient than incandescent lighting.
That's not saying much though as incandescent lights are very inefficient
ways of producing light - less than 5% of the output of a 100 watt incandescent
bulb is in the visible part of the spectrum -- the rest is infared (heat).

The link below offers tons of LEDs and LED lights meant to replace normal
bulbs:
http://www.moreleds.com/

Eric

[PlannerBee]

What kind of lighting is best inside a home that does not run on electricity. I am particularly interested in the kerosene types but am wondering if certain types use less kerosene that others, are some better shielded from the wind if you needed to go outside with it, etc. Pros and cons. Ideas and links for buying them?

How about wind up lighting other than a flashlight?

[NeoPeasant]

What kind of lighting is best inside a home that does not run on electricity. I am particularly interested in the kerosene types but am wondering if certain types use less kerosene that others, are some better shielded from the wind if you needed to go outside with it, etc. Pros and cons. Ideas and links for buying them?

How about wind up lighting other than a flashlight?

You're kidding, right? Any REAL peak oiler knows we will simply all have to go to bed when the sun goes down and arise with the dawn.

[PlannerBee]

What kind of lighting is best inside a home that does not run on electricity. I am particularly interested in the kerosene types but am wondering if certain types use less kerosene that others, are some better shielded from the wind if you needed to go outside with it, etc. Pros and cons. Ideas and links for buying them?

How about wind up lighting other than a flashlight?

You're kidding, right? Any REAL peak oiler knows we will simply all have to go to bed when the sun goes down and arise with the dawn.

You are part of the problem you know that? I know we have a true oil crisis but not one of us really knows how bad it will be starting when. It could just dwindle off and in that case I might like to have a little lighting or NEED it. If you don't have any good ideas then shut up!

[EnviroEngr]

Neo,

Do I guess correctly that you were being surreptitiously facetious?

If so, I don't think PlannerBee picked up on it.

[PlannerBee]

Neo,

Do I guess correctly that you were being surreptitiously facetious?

If so, I don't think PlannerBee picked up on it.

Oh. Never mind. RoseAnn Rosanna-danna

[OldSprocket]

What kind of lighting is best inside a home that does not run on electricity. I am particularly interested in the kerosene types but am wondering if certain types use less kerosene that others, are some better shielded from the wind if you needed to go outside with it, etc. Pros and cons. Ideas and links for buying them?

How about wind up lighting other than a flashlight?

Aladdin.

They may use less or more than other "wick" lamps, but they are brighter by far. They use a mantle to burn very hot. But not pressurized (and loud) like a pressurized camp stove. Lehmans is the largest retailer of them if I recall correctly.

[EnviroEngr]

Neo,

Do I guess correctly that you were being surreptitiously facetious?

If so, I don't think PlannerBee picked up on it.

Oh. Never mind. RoseAnn Rosanna-danna

Not a problem. Just extinguishing the fuse, or if nothing else, making sure everyone's on the same page. What you saw above with Neo is frequently how fractious misunderstandings get started.

We need fewer of those -- particularly in this forum.

No harm done.

[RonMN]

ULTRA-PURE is the lamp oil you want to use INDOORS! But lamps i'm not certain...the best are aladin (about $100-$300) or the standard oil lamp (about $7)...i decided on several standard rather than 1 or 2 aladin's

[aldente]

For those of you who read German here an article that opposes fluorecent lights : http://www.mp3-musicstation.de/orgon/dor.htm