Almost 20 percent of all the energy produced in the world is used to power lights. Energy-saving bulbs could help -- though so far the ones on the market aren't quite up to par. The potential is enormous. If all the traditional light bulbs in the world were replaced with energy-saving ones, lighting energy use could be cut by 40 percent. By 2030, 16 billion tons of CO2 would have been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere. That's according to a new study released by the renowned Worldwatch Institute. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Traditional bulbs only turn five percent of the electricity they use into light The use of energy saving bulbs is on the rise worldwide. Since the beginning of the century, use has tripled to over four billion, and some countries are calling for more. Australia has even gone so far as to say that after October 2009 the sale of traditional light bulbs will be outlawed. Manufacturers say energy-saving bulbs have an efficiency factor of 25 percent -- five times that of a traditional light bulb. Energy saving bulbs also last longer, and experts predict that those who use them save up to 100 euros ($125) per lamp over a 10-year period.
The potential is enormous. If all the traditional light bulbs in the world were replaced with energy-saving ones, lighting energy use could be cut by 40 percent. By 2030, 16 billion tons of CO2 would have been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere. That's according to a new study released by the renowned Worldwatch Institute.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Traditional bulbs only turn five percent of the electricity they use into light
The use of energy saving bulbs is on the rise worldwide. Since the beginning of the century, use has tripled to over four billion, and some countries are calling for more. Australia has even gone so far as to say that after October 2009 the sale of traditional light bulbs will be outlawed.
Manufacturers say energy-saving bulbs have an efficiency factor of 25 percent -- five times that of a traditional light bulb. Energy saving bulbs also last longer, and experts predict that those who use them save up to 100 euros ($125) per lamp over a 10-year period.
But not everyone is singing the praises of the little bulbs that could. The German ecological product review "Oekotest" put 16 models through a rigorous set of tests and came to a sobering conclusion: Most energy saving light bulbs aren't as bright as they should be. According to the magazine, the light quality was poor, sometimes flickered and didn't last as long as manufacturers claimed. The lamps were also found to contain poisonous mercury. In the end, "Oekotest" said energy-saving lamps were hardly recommendable.
But not everyone is singing the praises of the little bulbs that could. The German ecological product review "Oekotest" put 16 models through a rigorous set of tests and came to a sobering conclusion: Most energy saving light bulbs aren't as bright as they should be.
According to the magazine, the light quality was poor, sometimes flickered and didn't last as long as manufacturers claimed. The lamps were also found to contain poisonous mercury. In the end, "Oekotest" said energy-saving lamps were hardly recommendable.
The bulbs do have mercury in them, which is a significant concern if you break them. Don't break them. Do recycle them.
The entrance and bathroom (as in bath room, American readers) ones seem instantaneous.
In the living room there are two. One looks pretty much instantaneous. Strangely, the other one seems to vary, it sometimes take a while, but the immediate light is quite enough to be useful.
Now, none of those was sold as having no significant heating up time. You can get some of those, but they don't have quite the same energy saving so I didn't. On the other hand, I'm not sure about the power conversions. The manufacturer will claim it's as bright as a so many watts incandescent bulb, and sometimes I'm not too sure it's quite true.
I've never had to change one.
LEDs are brightest of all, by some distance, and last forever. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
RAUMA, Finland: The café where Paivi Alanko-Rehelma serves coffee and smoked fish stands almost in the shadow of a sprawling building site on the island of Olkiluoto where Finland is erecting a nuclear power plant, the third on the island and the fifth in Finland in the past 30 years. Like many of her neighbors who have grown accustomed to nuclear energy, Alanko-Rehelma makes no objections to the new reactor. "It's now safe, it saves nature, it's cheaper," she said. No one is certain when the plant, which has been plagued by construction delays, will be finished. But whenever it does begin operating, the reactor will be a new cog in the works of Finland's national energy policy, which seeks to diversify the country's sources of energy and reduce its historical reliance on Russia for cheap electricity. The plant is also part of a global trend, as the prospects of nuclear power rise amid concerns about the warming effect of carbon dioxide emissions to generate electricity. The Finns are going first-class, building what is called a European Pressurized Reactor, the latest model, which is billed as the safest and most powerful nuclear reactor ever designed. It is the product of a consortium of French and German engineering companies.
RAUMA, Finland: The café where Paivi Alanko-Rehelma serves coffee and smoked fish stands almost in the shadow of a sprawling building site on the island of Olkiluoto where Finland is erecting a nuclear power plant, the third on the island and the fifth in Finland in the past 30 years.
Like many of her neighbors who have grown accustomed to nuclear energy, Alanko-Rehelma makes no objections to the new reactor. "It's now safe, it saves nature, it's cheaper," she said.
No one is certain when the plant, which has been plagued by construction delays, will be finished. But whenever it does begin operating, the reactor will be a new cog in the works of Finland's national energy policy, which seeks to diversify the country's sources of energy and reduce its historical reliance on Russia for cheap electricity.
The plant is also part of a global trend, as the prospects of nuclear power rise amid concerns about the warming effect of carbon dioxide emissions to generate electricity.
The Finns are going first-class, building what is called a European Pressurized Reactor, the latest model, which is billed as the safest and most powerful nuclear reactor ever designed. It is the product of a consortium of French and German engineering companies.
In the face of climate change, food experts call for more home-grown fruit and less grain for cattleIt is an image worthy of a Keats poem or a Constable landscape: great orchards bursting with fruit, fields crammed with ripening vegetables and hillsides covered with sheep and cattle.But this is no dream of long-gone rural glories. It is a vision of the kind of countryside that Britain may need if it is to survive the impact of climate change and higher oil prices, according to leading agricultural experts.They have warned that only a total revolution in the nation's food industry can save Britain from serious shortages of staples as world oil production peaks, the climate continues to heat up, the population grows and our dietary needs continue to evolve.In turn that means a complete shake-up in the way we farm the countryside. At present Britain imports more than 90 per cent of the fruit it consumes.
It is an image worthy of a Keats poem or a Constable landscape: great orchards bursting with fruit, fields crammed with ripening vegetables and hillsides covered with sheep and cattle.
But this is no dream of long-gone rural glories. It is a vision of the kind of countryside that Britain may need if it is to survive the impact of climate change and higher oil prices, according to leading agricultural experts.
They have warned that only a total revolution in the nation's food industry can save Britain from serious shortages of staples as world oil production peaks, the climate continues to heat up, the population grows and our dietary needs continue to evolve.
In turn that means a complete shake-up in the way we farm the countryside. At present Britain imports more than 90 per cent of the fruit it consumes.
[Jason] Eskenazi found few restrictions in those early days. He traveled thousands of miles, through seven time zones and entered factories and prisons in Siberia. Though he didn't speak Russian initially, he quickly learned the words for, "Where is the wedding?" or "Where is the funeral?" so he could enter into ritual and community life. In one photo, a milkmaid with mud-stained shoes in Kazakhstan looks out dreamily as she milks a cow. The next photo features a young woman of similar features and age, but well dressed and dancing with a young man at a waltz competition. It's almost as if the first picture is dreaming the second. At another point in the book, a woman jumps up in a park. She almost seems in flight, like the dreams of space flight that many people associate with the Soviet Union. But the next picture is totally ironic: A woman is dusting off a stuffed dog in a museum. It is, in fact, one of the dogs that went into space.
[Jason] Eskenazi found few restrictions in those early days. He traveled thousands of miles, through seven time zones and entered factories and prisons in Siberia. Though he didn't speak Russian initially, he quickly learned the words for, "Where is the wedding?" or "Where is the funeral?" so he could enter into ritual and community life.
In one photo, a milkmaid with mud-stained shoes in Kazakhstan looks out dreamily as she milks a cow. The next photo features a young woman of similar features and age, but well dressed and dancing with a young man at a waltz competition. It's almost as if the first picture is dreaming the second.
At another point in the book, a woman jumps up in a park. She almost seems in flight, like the dreams of space flight that many people associate with the Soviet Union. But the next picture is totally ironic: A woman is dusting off a stuffed dog in a museum. It is, in fact, one of the dogs that went into space.
