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| quote: | Originally posted by RobotHouse
The new light bulbs and appliances actually consume less energy and your bill per month is significantly lower because of it. |
Don't even try to talk to me about conservation, buddy. I work in the sub-metering (AKA smart metering) business. Landlords and property managers ("corporations") - the ones who are supposedly always trying to screw you - LOVE this and want it in all of their buildings. Tenants, especially in low-income or subsidized housing, hate it, and seem to think it's some sort of trick, even though over 10 years of data analysis have clearly shown that it reduces the average person's bill by at least 30%, and by extension reduces the consumption of the entire building by that much.
The actual payback time for Compact Fluorescents, if you don't count government rebates, is on the order of about 7 years. Sure, they'll reduce your consumption by a little bit, but lighting isn't where people use the most. It's HVAC systems and major appliances (washer/dryer, dishwasher, hot water heater, etc.) that draw all the power. CFs are a joke; a trivial investment for a trivial payback, unless they give you migraines, which is the case for a lot of people, and I can tell you those people aren't too happy that they'll be getting forced to buy them in the near future.
So we force people to buy fluorescent lights, which inconveniences tons of people and will save maybe 3% of total energy usage, if that, but the Ontario government has now backpedaled 4 times on the smart metering legislation (condos now don't have to do it, and rental buildings still have to get permission from the tenants).
This is something that can and does make a real, measurable impact on the power grid, for an extremely obvious reason: people have to pay for their power. Environmentalists would rather play around with useless diversions like CF lights and hybrid vehicles than actually change their habits or deal directly with rising energy costs. It's much easier to preach than it is to act.
You want to know who's at fault for energy waste? It's not the corporations, it's the politicians and it's Joe Sixpack living in his crappy downtown apartment. It's you and me, and not because of our cars, but because we like coming home to our toasty living rooms in the winter and leave the heat on all day because it's more convenient that way.
If you really want to be eco-friendly, then just turn shit off when you're not using it. Set your desktop to suspend or hibernate. Don't use the hottest setting for your laundry or in the shower. Set your HVAC system on a timer to kick in an hour before you get up or get home. Use the dryer for half a cycle and hang your clothes for the rest. Wait for your dishwasher to get full instead of doing it every night, and if you need one utensil the next day, wash it by hand. Close your windows when you've got the A/C blasting, and blast it to a sane temperature, not 12° C. This is really easy shit to do and anybody can do it.
Don't buy a hybrid car and drive 50,000 extra km because you think you're being "green", or buy a bunch of CFs and leave your lights on all day because you think you're conserving. You aren't. You're exacerbating the problem, not helping it, because you're convincing yourself and others that you don't have to change your lifestyle as long as you buy the right shit. The only people that helps is - you guessed it - the corporations selling it.
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My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here
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