Well what do you know, just checked 3 packs of bulbs and they're all not suitable for dimmers. No wonder I've been having problems.
Why is this in the small print, bastards !
Thanks again Smurf, I called my electrician about this last week and he didnt tell me that so... so much for his expertise.
On the subject of energy saving light bulbs, the ones i have tried only work sometimes, they are in the hallway in our house at the moment and half the time you turn them on and nothing happens but then the next day they work fine. Anyone else had this problem??
The Age also ran the story regarding the effects of climate change on sea levels around Victoria. It was a bit more expansive on some of the other effects around Australia - increases in dengue fever and so on.
There was one interesting addition. They had a 2 minute video clip highlighting the effects of unabated global warming over the next 40 years. The British government has released a climatic map of the world of 2050 with 4 degrees of warming. Unfortunately that appears to be the result without radical reductions in greenhouse gases in the near term.
Best place to be ? Believe it or not south island of New Zealand.
http://media.theage.com.au/opinion/national-times/catastrophic-climate-change-814281.html
On the subject of energy saving light bulbs, the ones i have tried only work sometimes, they are in the hallway in our house at the moment and half the time you turn them on and nothing happens but then the next day they work fine. Anyone else had this problem??
The Age also ran the story regarding the effects of climate change on sea levels around Victoria. It was a bit more expansive on some of the other effects around Australia - increases in dengue fever and so on.
There was one interesting addition. They had a 2 minute video clip highlighting the effects of unabated global warming over the next 40 years. The British government has released a climatic map of the world of 2050 with 4 degrees of warming. Unfortunately that appears to be the result without radical reductions in greenhouse gases in the near term.
Best place to be ? Believe it or not south island of New Zealand.
http://media.theage.com.au/opinion/national-times/catastrophic-climate-change-814281.html
The whole climate change issue rests of 2 premises.
1. The world is getting hotter
2. It's getting hotter because of human activities
I've always thought the first premise was not questioned, and that there are reasonably definitive proof on that front.
It is hard to argue against evidences like melting ice caps, retreating glaciers and rising sea water levels... and the most powerful nation on Earth decides to make policies around what a poll says its citizens believe?
I am happy to accept debates / discussions on the second premise, although I would err on the side of caution in the absence of absolute scientific certainty.
It's a risk:reward thing. The risks are the certain inconveniences that come with changing our behaviour (e.g. having to search for dimmable energy saving bulbs), while the reward is that humanity survives. Simple really.
I'd frankly like to burn off in the back yard too like i did in the 80's, put the sprinklers on, take a shower without the egg timer on use REAL light globes and throw all my plastic stuff in the general rubbish.
1) Our fossil fuel based economy is producing the CO2 that is largely contributing to warming the planet
2) The warming is measurable and real
3) We can see these effects literally everywhere we look
4) If we don't take radical action to change our direction the earth's temperature will increase at a very rapid rate with catastrophic results.
Are there any parallels here ? Only if want to see them.
As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.
Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest.Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7 ° F.
Assuming you have proper 230V supply and there's nothing wrong in that regard, the problem relates to the electronics in the bulb itself, the only realistic solution being replacement.On the subject of energy saving light bulbs, the ones i have tried only work sometimes, they are in the hallway in our house at the moment and half the time you turn them on and nothing happens but then the next day they work fine. Anyone else had this problem??
Assuming you have proper 230V supply and there's nothing wrong in that regard, the problem relates to the electronics in the bulb itself, the only realistic solution being replacement.
It works sometimes because of where the sine wave (of the electricity supply) happens to be when you flick the switch. If it's at peak (340V) then the bulb starts, if not then it doesn't. Pure luck with that one and with 50 complete cycles (100 voltage peaks) per second it comes down to luck. If it doesn't work then try switching on and off until you get it going.
Temperature also plays a part in this situation.
One thing about these bulbs though, I really don't like some of the cheap ones sold in discount stores for $2 or thereabouts. Plenty of reports from overseas of them starting fires and I've seen the same ones for sale in Australia. Stick to known brands.
As for others, I don't like the Mirabella dimmable ones because they buzz. Another product I don't like is the Philips "Halotone" 60 and 100W halogens - they fail quickly under non-ideal conditions based on my experience. Other Philips bulbs are fine (though the Ambience type are slow to warm up) but I don't like the Halotone's.
For other energy-efficient products, a few points:
Solar HWS using glycol heat exchange fluid. A nice idea that solves the frost problem until you find out that the glycol needs replacing every 4 years and this is quite expensive.
Any solar or heat pump running on continuous (24 hour) electricity for boost or to run the heat pump. That will give you some pretty high electricity bills and defeat the benefits of going solar economically and to a significant extent environmentally (peak power demands come with a disproportionately high impact). Use off-peak electricity or gas for boosting.
And there's those heat pump water heaters with a boost element that turns on automatically at 5 or even 10 degrees. Totally unnecessary when you realise there are other brands (eg Siddons or Quantum) that have no booster installed and these work fine even in a cool climate (eg Tasmania) in the middle of Winter. So you sure don't need a booster element in most Australian locations. Don't buy one of the big name products that rely on a booster because they have inefficient heat pump systems - they also need 24 hour power supply which makes them expensive to run.
Quantum and especially Siddons work fine on off-peak as long as you buy the right size unit for the application. Given that they only use 30% as much power as a conventional water heater, they cost incredibly little to run if on the cheap off-peak rate.
With water heaters generally, don't forget that if it's an enamel ("glass") lined tank then you need to replace the anode every 5 years otherwise it will rust. Most electric, gas and solar tanks are of this type and the reason they rust out is because hardly anyone replaces the anode. And the anode only costs about $40 from a plumbing supply store (in some states they might not be willing to sell to anyone other than a plumber???). But even if you have to pay for labour, it's still cheaper than a new water heater. This doesn't apply to stainless steel and copper tanks which don't need anodes.
Solar panels for generating electricity (not hot water) on your roof? There are some good deals around (mine cost me absolutely nothing!) but make sure it's installed in the right location (as close to true north as you can get it) as there are some dopey installers out there.
But here's the difficult part - getting your electricity supplier to do their part. Easy in some states (eg Tas) but it's a real minefield in Victoria especially where they seem to have come up with every possible hurdle and cost so as to make the whole exercise a bit pointless. SA they do some funny things too so as to undermine the economics of these systems.
Check locally before you buy one of these systems and make sure they put the panels facing the right way when it's installed. I'd also strongly recommend putting the inverter somewhere not in the sun, preferably under the house (for security). It's an expensive component, $2500+, and they don't like being cooked in the sun.
Like anything there are good products and bad. It's just that with the high up front cost of energy saving devices, you want to get something that works properly and lasts long enough to be worthwhile.
Water is a classic example of using the climate change issue to pursue other agendas. Watering the garden isn't adding much CO2 at all, it's just that in some regions there isn't much water available hence it's a problem. But there's no reason not to have a well watered lawn if you live somewhere that has plenty of water - you're not adding significantly to CO2 emissions by doing so.keeping the sprinkler on all summer
Assuming you have proper 230V supply and there's nothing wrong in that regard, the problem relates to the electronics in the bulb itself, the only realistic solution being replacement.
It works sometimes because of where the sine wave (of the electricity supply) happens to be when you flick the switch. If it's at peak (340V) then the bulb starts, if not then it doesn't. Pure luck with that one and with 50 complete cycles (100 voltage peaks) per second it comes down to luck. If it doesn't work then try switching on and off until you get it going.
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