Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 3
Aug 20th, 2008 | By Philly | Category: How-ToTable of contents for Practical Energy Saving
I wanted to start out today with an advertiser shout out for a couple of important sponsors here at www.philfaqs.com. I promote various products for two different reasons … occasionally they make me a little money (Donald Trump is in no immediate danger from me). More importantly, they offer services and products that I think will be of direct use to my readers. Obviously I don’t/can’t know everyone who visits but since I have made the move to the Philippines and have been active in the ‘Live in the Philippines "space" for more than 8 years now, I feel I do know a few of the things people are interested in. I welcome comments, pro and con about the sponsorship here.
One sponsor I have promoted for some time now is Click Here for Calls to the Philippines 9¢ Using Your Mobile Phone.">Click Here for Calls to the Philippines 9¢ Using Your Mobile Phone.’>Gorilla Mobile. It’s easy to find relatively cheap deals to call the Philippines from your land line phone in the US … although few of them can match Gorilla’s rates … but mobile phones can be problematical. I remember when I was an AT&T subscriber and I was getting 14 cents per minute from my land line, the very same company charged me $4.40 a minute for an essential call on my cell phone. When I screamed to high heaven they offered me a ’special rate plan’ for about $2.00 a minute. Thanks, but no thanks. Gorilla offers calls from US mobiles for 9 cents a minute … and,in addition, they will give you almost an hour’s worth of calls to test the service and make sure it is to your liking … so there’s literally no risk and $5 in free calls if you just click here for Click Here for Calls to the Philippines 9¢ Using Your Mobile Phone.
">Click Here for Calls to the Philippines 9¢ Using Your Mobile Phone.’>9 cent per minute US cell to Philippine calls.
Another faithful sponsor whom I feel represents an extremely valuable service is Click here to sign up for Value Line Investment Survey’s 13-week Trial">Click here to sign up for Value Line Investment Survey’s 13-week Trial">Value Line. These folks are an investment manger/small cap company stock broker who have the kind of plans that ‘little folks’ like you and I can use. They also have Warren Buffet’s recommendation … which counts for something to me. Once people get those pesky credit card bills out of the way, the question is, where is a profitable place to invest … and you do not want to buy those certificate of deposit instruments that us older and more conservative folks seem to like so much. After you get through with taxes, CD’s (at today’s US rates) are as bad as just putting the money under the mattress. Banks just bald-face ask for your money and in real world terms steal some of the value over time and then hand it back. If you want to invest, Click here to sign up for Value Line Investment Survey’s 13-week Trial
">Click here to sign up for Value Line Investment Survey’s 13-week Trial">invest in something which grows as fast (or faster) than inflation … and Value Line is one worthy avenue to consider.
Ok, speaking of paying bills, this is supposed to be about energy. If you recall back in the last installment we talked about refrigeration … the single largest non-discretionary cost you are going to find in most electric bills (there’s a convenient table of contents up there at the start of this article in case you missed previous installments). The second most costly part of your electric bill that is hardly optional is lighting. yes you can use candles or oil lamps but they are dirty and inefficient, let’s face it, here in the Philippines the night is almost always 12 hours long and very few of us want to go to bed at 6 pm and stay there until 6 am .. so need lights.
Conventional (incandescent) bulbs are out. When we moved into our rental house here in Marilao almost every bulb was incandescent … now, not a single one is. We have changed everything over to cold fluorescents (CFL) and it’s no coincidence that month for month every electric bill is less than the corresponding month for the previous tear. But long term, I don’t think CFL’s are the way to go. Even though they go by the name ‘cold’ they aren’t and I don’t want to introduce even more heat. Also, commercial grade CFL’s use mercury in their process and properly disposing of them after they finally do burn out is going to be a hassle, if done properly. So where am I going to make my next investment?
LEDs. Light emitting diode lamps. LEDS are mainly composed of silicon and some trace ‘doping’ elements. They don’t contain a reservoir of poisonous mercury. They produce less heat. They have no fragile tube to worry about getting broken. And their life is already very long and getting longer everyday.
LED technology itself is quiet old in electronic terms. LEDs were one of the first common commercial products in the semiconductor world. However until quite recently, no one had developed a reliable and efficient white LED. Reds, greens, other colors , easy an cheap, but no white.
Today there are all sizes and shapes of white LEDs coming on the market. I’m actively looking at the market here in the Philippines and I’ll report, in detail, on sources as they come online. In the meantime, here’s a couple sites where you can get an idea of the scope of the market already available and learn a little more about LED lamps and LED light bulbs replacements, the true wave of the future … or so I opine.
http://www.ledlightbulb.net/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_6&sort=20a&page=2
Related posts:
- Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 2
- Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 4
- Saving Energy for Practical People — 6
- Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 5
- Saving Energy for Practical People
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ahhh LEDs. It consumes so little power and generates very little heat. Normally can find them in auto accessories stores.
The whites are not really pure whites, but have a bluish tint to them, therefore they are sometimes referred to as cold lights. In Australia, we were able to find navigation lights, where they added a yellow dot on the glass, making the whites whiter and therefore more long range and approved for navigation. I find them one directional so it is best to have a “bulb” with several leds all around, not just on one section. And several is the key if you want a brighter area. But advancement in technology is happening very fast and high power LEDs for homes are probably available already. Here are some FAQs on them: http://www.ledshoponline.com/led_faq.htm#wled
Very exciting stuff; particularly with Pinoy power costs. I’ve been investigating the idea of using solar-power to run separate electrical currents for LED’s to use for reading lights and ambient lighting. Using, at least, some solar in the Philippines is a no brainer. I, myself, will start small and grow as my experience dictates.
I hope more ideas will be exchanged here.
Good stuff Dave,
Arto
@Ellen: Hi Ellen, I knew I could count on you to be back as soon as I got back on the Energy track. Thanks for the link you psted also, even if folks don’t buy anything right awaya they can learn a lot by reading the ads .. at least I know I can.
Indeed the tint or color temperature of first and second generation LED buls leaves a bit to be desired. I am pretty sure that will change. You may or may not have experince with the first generation of cold flourescents, back about 10 years ago … the had the same sort of problem. I remember my very first visit to the Philippines in 1999, my in-laws to be had one ‘new-fangled’ CFL lamp in a back room and I swear it was not only hard to see under, but the color actually turned my stomach.
Today my whole house has ‘daylight’ colored CFL’s and I see (and digest) just fine
@Arto: Yep, I think the practical answer for us common fokk is, start small Arto. That’s why I have been approaching this in the ‘eat an elephant’ manner, one bite at a time. If you try to run a whole house, air conditioners and all straight off solar you will run into a big problem … called money.
But there is absolutely no reason a person can’t chip away at the problem … today an solar-assisted refrigerator, tomorrow some LED lamps and so on. Listen, saving even half the current charge is not only good for the pocketbook, it’s good for the environment too. I’m no rabid tree hugger, but I am also not a drill at all cost, spend, spend, spend sort of ugly American … I believe it’s our duty to do what is practical, each to his own.