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 Return to top of page · Post #: 16 · Written at 8:10:20 PM on 19 August 2020.
Vintage Pete's avatar
 Location: Albury, NSW
 Member since 1 May 2016
 Member #: 1919
 Postcount: 2048

I only use incandescent globes in my home.
My bill is never high.
It's all a load of BS save the planet.
If they were serious about the environment the incandescent is not the place to start ..
Just look at the waste in society.
I will never go LED again, I tried it once and converted the old house to LED...hated it ,So I went back to incandescent......no regrets

Pete


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 17 · Written at 9:09:48 PM on 19 August 2020.
Marcc's avatar
 Location: Wangaratta, VIC
 Member since 21 February 2009
 Member #: 438
 Postcount: 5254

It would actually be very interesting as to how much of the 92% of the electricity saved went into the resources needed to make all of the electronic components probably not needed in some cases that go into some of those LED etc lights?


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 18 · Written at 9:10:15 PM on 19 August 2020.
Marcc's avatar
 Location: Wangaratta, VIC
 Member since 21 February 2009
 Member #: 438
 Postcount: 5254

Duplicate it left it behind when it posted as if it had not: Delete


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 19 · Written at 10:42:18 PM on 19 August 2020.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7301

We'd be neither here nor there with electronics. CFL lamps have had electronic ballasts for 20 years prior to LED globes coming onto the market. I do remember the originals in their coke bottle outer globes with miniature iron core ballasts and starters inside the cowling near the bayonet caps and they weighed almost enough to rip the lamp holder off the ceiling.

To clarify, my comments on saving energy were more to do with saving money and spending less on grid expansion rather than environmental issues. I have never subscribed to a ling between burning coal and destroying the planet. We've been burning coal since antiquity and these days it is burned much cleaner than it was back then.


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 20 · Written at 12:42:06 AM on 20 August 2020.
Marcc's avatar
 Location: Wangaratta, VIC
 Member since 21 February 2009
 Member #: 438
 Postcount: 5254

The problem is that the uneducated & those where brainwashing takes merely a light rinse, cannot comprehend that the thermal yield from coal in new power stations is much greater than the steam locomotives seen throwing huge amounts of burning material out of their stacks

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=chinese+loco%27s+brething+fire&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dchinese%2bloco%2527s%2bbrething%2bfire%26form...

After the massive earthquake in Japan one could understand a resistance to building nuclear: Here not going nuclear is just stupidity.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 21 · Written at 5:15:10 AM on 20 August 2020.
Brad's avatar
 Administrator
 Location: Naremburn, NSW
 Member since 15 November 2005
 Member #: 1
 Postcount: 7301

The good news for NSW is that the ban on mining is about to be repealed due to a gentleman's agreement between the Government and One Nation Party. This will hopefully lead to a repeal of the other half of the legislation that prohibits nuclear power stations and then hopefully this will lead the Commonwealth to repealing its ban as well.

A ban on something that is so worthwhile across two levels of government isn't only legislative overkill, it is, as you said, just plain stupid. I've no idea where a suitably sized (think Eraring or Bayswater) nuclear power station might be built because there are NIMBYs living everywhere but I am sure that once people start losing their electricity because of the cold hard fact that an electricity grid must contain a certain amount of baseload generation then a few of them may change their mind.

The Americans are now building aircraft carriers that will never need refuelling in their 30-40 year lifespans. If the same technology is applied to the larger reactors needed for a power station then there's no reason why safety cannot be guaranteed. The biomedical reactors at Lucas Heights have an enviable safety record and there's been three at that facility since it opened.


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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 22 · Written at 9:18:18 AM on 20 August 2020.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6687

because there are NIMBYs living everywhere

Yep, picturing the Green/Left reaction to even the hint of any new reactors.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 23 · Written at 10:15:20 AM on 20 August 2020.
Fred Lever's Gravatar
 Location: Toongabbie, NSW
 Member since 19 November 2015
 Member #: 1828
 Postcount: 1250

I have two 100watt lamps on my main bench and yes, they double up as winter heaters!
They can light the work area AND warm my hands up.
So there.
In Summer I use the fluros only!
Fred.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 24 · Written at 10:44:53 AM on 20 August 2020.
Marcc's avatar
 Location: Wangaratta, VIC
 Member since 21 February 2009
 Member #: 438
 Postcount: 5254

Bench desklight is 12V halogen with a transformer as its base weight. Lots of warmth only interference is mechanical when it tangles something.. Cant see why a lot of LED's can't be run this way. May be less efficient but a conventional PSU does not generate RFI. I took two LED flood lights back to the purveyors of parts for sounding like a Collins Class Sub. LED lights to fail & the warranty is not worth the paper its printed on.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 25 · Written at 1:13:09 PM on 20 August 2020.
Ian Robertson's Gravatar
 Location: Belrose, NSW
 Member since 31 December 2015
 Member #: 1844
 Postcount: 2370

We're getting OT...

An incandescent bulb is an almost perfect, quick acting PTC thermistor. Just the thing when you are bringing up an unknown piece of gear and don't wish to let the smoke out. If something breaks down it removes the power far more quickly than your reaction time on a switch or a variac and well before a fuse can blow..

But the think I like is you can let it run unattended, knowing the absolute limit of the power that can be drawn if something goes wrong while your attention is elsewhere. And of course there is a readily-observed failure indicator.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 26 · Written at 2:30:08 PM on 20 August 2020.
Vintage Pete's avatar
 Location: Albury, NSW
 Member since 1 May 2016
 Member #: 1919
 Postcount: 2048

I also use it to slow a Dremel type tool right down to a slow speed for when I'm repairing veneers. It's like a Dremel ,but more industrial..
Should use it to fix my teeth! Bit of glue and lots of putty lol


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 27 · Written at 3:31:20 PM on 20 August 2020.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6687

I also use it to slow a Dremel type tool right down to a slow speed for when I'm repairing veneers.

Probably not such a problem with Dremel tools, but slowing down some motors can result in insufficient air flow through them leading to a burnout.


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 28 · Written at 2:44:12 PM on 24 August 2020.
BurntOutElectronics's Gravatar
 Location: Melbourne, VIC
 Member since 2 October 2019
 Member #: 2392
 Postcount: 269

Re Nuclear:

I recently did a essay for school on solar vs nuclear and it was alarmingly obvious which was superior. solar uses 7x the raw materials than a uranium power plant and also creates 300x the waste! (most of which is steel) I read some info put together by the organisation "Environmental progress" which stated that "If solar and nuclear produce the same amount of electricity over the next 25 years that nuclear produced in 2016, and the wastes are stacked on football fields, the nuclear waste would reach the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa (52 meters), while the solar waste would reach the height of two Mt. Everest's (16 km)." not to mention the land clearing and the grid instabilities involved with solar.

also worth of note is that their data was with a uranium reactor which isn't what I'd get Australia to use. rather thorium which needs no purification thus is about 200x more power dense and is a fertile material so would need to be "kick started" with plutonium. this means if the shit hit the fan then it would melt the drain plugs below the thorium material draining it away from the plutonium killing the reaction. this is simple physics and is very safe if done correctly. (BTW got a 97% on that essay)

Australia is absolutely stupid if it doesn't go nuclear! lets stop building up those ash piles! Think Thorium!


 
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