"Trevor Wilson" wrote in message
...
Wild_Bill wrote:
Maybe you know of a heat pump that will illuminate a house, and only
cost the owner about $20 per year to purchase.

**I don't. And YOU don't know of a lamp that can heat a house (or cool
one) either. Using lights to warm a home is insane. Pretty much like
everything else you've posted.


Production of plastics pollutes, so does gallium arsenide, and
mercury in CFLs.

**No one disputes that. Production of almost any manufactured item causes
some kind of pollution. That is why regulators ensure that the pollution
created is dealt with appropriately. Fortunately, LEDs last a VERY long
time and consume small amounts of material, so total pollution remains
low.

Were you born yesterday?

**Did the manufacturing process of computer you are presently using cause
zero pollution? Are you insane?


Just because the pollution takes place somewhere else doesn't mean it
doesn't effect all.

**I am well aware of that. I am also a supporter of organisations that
attempt to minimise pollution caused by large manufacturers of many
products. Are you?

Ubuntu.

Some say that only about 1% of the water on this planet is drinkable,
although there's plenty that's contaminated with toxic chemicals and
disease.
Many people drink and bathe in poisonous, disease polluted water, but
that shouldn't concern you.

**Like I said: I contribute financially to several organisations that are
active in trying to ensure that people less fortunate than I am are not
subject to pollution from large companies. Do you?


Who is dying from silicon?

**The manufacture of glass, steel and tungsten is a very energy intensive
process. Combined with the extremely short life-span of incandescent lamps
and their monsterous inefficiency (Less than 5%) contributes to huge
amounts of CO2. CFLs and LEDs cause far less CO2 to be emitted, both in
manufacture and in operation over the life of the product. CO2 affects
every human on the planet.


I don't have actual figures, Trevor, but it makes sense that making a thin
glass spherical envelope for an incandescent, is unlikely to use more energy
than making a thick-walled tube wound into a convoluted double spiral. Many
of the other items contained in a CFL, also use very energy intensive
processes, and have to be carried out in many different factories, which
then brings the costs of moving workers around, keeping them warm and fed,
moving raw materials around, moving finished components around, and so on.
Just because all of these things are 'hidden', it doesn't make them any less
relevant. Looked at rationally, given the amount of components and
manufacturing processes involved, I would have thought that the simple
incandescent bulb, with its very few parts, consumed nothing like as much
energy overall to get from nothing to working in my house. Bear in mind
also, that very long-lived incandescents are available, and always were. Its
just that they cost more, and are not in the financial interests of the bulb
manufacturers, to promote.

Arfa