Hugo Chavez Sends Army to Change All Lights in Venezuela to CFLs

Inhabitat ^ | 03/11/10 | Yuka Yoneda,

[Ann Archy]

Coming to America soon.

[sionnsar]

BS. I have been a photographer for many years and have a very expensive light meter. It measures light output in case you have no knowledge of a light meter. As some of my bulbs age they require a varied time to reach to full potential. This pis@es me off. Nice try.

Ooh! OOh! "I have been a photographer for many years and have a very expensive light meter" doesn't impress me one bit. I've seen lots of people blow lots of money on stuff they don't know how to use properly, but I will assume you know how to use your EXPEN$IVE LIGHT METER for best value.

And I am sure it probably performs a whole lot better than this optical (no electricity required) one in my collection. (I don't use it these days.) It wasn't expensive for me: I inherited it from my father and as far as I know it might have come from as far back as my great-grandfather, a published photographer (ca 1900). A really clever design, actually, though I haven't shown here the "working end" where a varied series of numbers are illuminated, depending upon light intensity.

 

I would also suggest that one might not want to use CFLs for professional photographic purposes, for all that white balance corrects many evils. If your CFLs have slow startups (the few professional sessions I have observed have had REALLY LONG setup times) that's reason enough (are you using floods?) but I'd also distrust the spectral (not talking about ghosts here) radiance of such lamps -- an issue I have not had to delve into. Yet.

These are issues that don't reflect upon residential usage of CFLs. So I return your "Basically Superior" backatcha.

I'm using my CFLs for residential purposes; they work really well for me and we save a lot of money by using them. If CFLs don't work for you, or if fielding Yugos doesn't work for your trucking business, I suggest you need to revise your business operation. And if you merely do not like CFLs -- I will join you in persuading Congress that mandating them is a Bad Idea.

And I hope you get good usage and value from your very expensive light meter. Really.

[Paul Pierett]

He’s nobody’s fool, he is self employed.

[Vince Ferrer]

Chavez is panicing that the Guri dam will run out of water, and hence power generation capacity. The power problems are not caused by a lack of modern light bulbs, but a lack of maintenance of the power generators at the dam, and a lack of rain. At current rates of usage, they have about a month before the water level goes below where the dam can be used to generate electricity.

[MCH]

As these bulbs age they start up very dim and takes many seconds before up to full wattage. Pain in the as@. And they do not last long.

For the most part, not my experience either. First, I'm assuming you mean full brightness, vs. full wattage, in which case I'd agree. They take an extra couple hundred milliseconds to come on, and depending upon how cold they are they can take a little while to reach full brightness. At room temperature - a few seconds. Outside in the cold - many seconds. Just the nature of fluorescent lights. It's something you get used to if you want the same number of lumens for less money/power.

As far as the claim that they don't last long, that's not even close to my experience. I've had issues using them outdoors, especially in closed areas like small glass porch light globes (CFLs warn against installing them in small, poorly ventilated areas). However, for normal use around the house I've found CFLs to last FAR FAR longer than incandescents. I primarily switched over to them many years ago (except for a small number of incandescents on dimmers and outdoors) before they were unfairly tarred and feathered as being "liberal light bulbs" (they're just an alternative technology for cripes sake!), and I can guarantee that since the switch I've been changing FAR FAR fewer light bulbs around my house.

For the reduction in power, which translates into lower electricity bills, and reduction in hassle in terms of not having to replace light bulbs all the time, CFLs are absolutely worth the money, and I for one am sick and tired of bandwagon jumping fellow conservatives pissing on them for purely political knee-jerk reasons vs. practical ones. Conservatives are supposed to be the logical, non-emotional folks who live in the real vs. imaginary/ideological world. We need to stop attacking legitimate technologies just because liberals adopt them and push them to extremes. And this goes for Rush Limbaugh as well. Despite agreeing with his views probably 98% of the time, I'm sick and tired of his irrational rantings against CFL light bulbs, which have legitimate and cost effective applications. Again, they're just an alternative packaging for fluorescent light bulbs that we've had around for years and years - and yes they DO save money.

This all being said, Chavez is a fascist jerk. No one should be forced to use any product they don't want to use. People who want to use incandescents and pay a lot more on their electric bills should be allowed to do so.