This is one of my new favorite strips! It is funny what efficiency in energy costs us in many other areas. Anyone else reminded of that episode of Seinfeld with the “low flow” shower heads?
We spend years building and inventing things to make our lives easier. Then, Al Gore comes along and wants to make our lives harder for no reason other than his pocket book.
Good news = postcards don’t run out of battery and beep in the middle of the night; the bad news, they’re the first to burn in a fire… which still may be okay – “Dear, the fire alarm post card is a bunch of ashes… do you smell smoke?”
The interesting thing about my house is that the contractor went with really dumb energy efficient technology. Everything I might complain about the green effort in building the place goes not on environmentalism, but the contractor. It’s astounding how much they got wrong. But, yes, the chief problem is light bulbs, which have that quarter-turn two-prong mount, and it turns out this one requires a specific prong that is a different size from every other unit on the market, so finding bulbs is a pain in the bedazzle. Oh, and it turns out the hot water system was illegally installed; nobody can yet explain how any of these places passed inspection. But if I’m going to blame Al Gore, I’m skipping a whole lot of other people in order to find him way down on the list. Besides, I’m still holding the whole heavy metal thing against him.
I hated those horrible CFL lightbulbs, but now I’ve replaced them all with good LED ones. Utili-tech LEDs are reasonably priced and work great. No buzz, instant full light. LEDs are not just energy efficient, they really are better bulbs. I just wish they’d stop making them so warm (read: yellow) just because that’s what people are used to.
If halogen still is available in your part of the world (in EU they will get banned next year) I strongly recommend those. Great colour (they are blackbody), pretty decent startup (will get to the right colour within a couple of seconds), no idea if they are dimmable, and they also technically are less energywasters than normal incadescent.
However what _really_ drives me nuts is that there really are no option available still for many application where one used to have incadescent, for instance I enjoy apricot and/or peach-coloured bulbs (basically only the nordic countries likes those) in my moodlights (15watt) but nothing has appeared to meet this yet.
And with LED we still have the issue that it is still virtually impossible to find such with even a passable colour-rendering (anything with a CRI below 93 is – frankly – useless). Also, LEDs suffer from being too fast which means that crappy electronics in it can make them flicker noticable (or sync with other tech – webcams actually has to compensate (as they do with flourescent))
And in case anyone wonders – yes, I have actual oil-paintings hanging on my walls, colour matters quite a bit as soon as one goes analogue.
This is one of my new favorite strips! It is funny what efficiency in energy costs us in many other areas. Anyone else reminded of that episode of Seinfeld with the “low flow” shower heads?
Or the King of the Hill episode with low-flow toilets.
Thanks for reminding me of my dream last night.
Man, that was a lot of fire.
This is how I feel.
We spend years building and inventing things to make our lives easier. Then, Al Gore comes along and wants to make our lives harder for no reason other than his pocket book.
Hey cut Gore some slack, he did invent the internet
I saw Bill Gates speak – he claimed he, and Microsoft, invented the Internet.
Trashing Al Gore anytime the environment or energy is mentioned is what some people do rather than think.
Well, Gore does inject himself into situations when he’s not needed.
He’s the weather version of Al Sharpton.
…Y’do realize that if global warming keeps up, the midwest is gonna get like ten feet of snow every winter.
I’d rather have low-flow showerheads than have to shovel a story of snow off the walk.
Good news = postcards don’t run out of battery and beep in the middle of the night; the bad news, they’re the first to burn in a fire… which still may be okay – “Dear, the fire alarm post card is a bunch of ashes… do you smell smoke?”
I love the last panel!
That last panel reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/1EBfxjSFAxQ?t=1m56s
Panel 2 slayed me!
Where’s the shower-heads that can’t outpace the slow collection of dust from the air in a clean-dirty war? :/
I know how you feel. I use an LED bulb for my garage, and it takes like fifteen minutes before you can see anything.
The interesting thing about my house is that the contractor went with really dumb energy efficient technology. Everything I might complain about the green effort in building the place goes not on environmentalism, but the contractor. It’s astounding how much they got wrong. But, yes, the chief problem is light bulbs, which have that quarter-turn two-prong mount, and it turns out this one requires a specific prong that is a different size from every other unit on the market, so finding bulbs is a pain in the bedazzle. Oh, and it turns out the hot water system was illegally installed; nobody can yet explain how any of these places passed inspection. But if I’m going to blame Al Gore, I’m skipping a whole lot of other people in order to find him way down on the list. Besides, I’m still holding the whole heavy metal thing against him.
I hated those horrible CFL lightbulbs, but now I’ve replaced them all with good LED ones. Utili-tech LEDs are reasonably priced and work great. No buzz, instant full light. LEDs are not just energy efficient, they really are better bulbs. I just wish they’d stop making them so warm (read: yellow) just because that’s what people are used to.
I had a really harsh white one once. Had to get rid of it and replace it with a yellower one. Drove me nuts.
If halogen still is available in your part of the world (in EU they will get banned next year) I strongly recommend those. Great colour (they are blackbody), pretty decent startup (will get to the right colour within a couple of seconds), no idea if they are dimmable, and they also technically are less energywasters than normal incadescent.
However what _really_ drives me nuts is that there really are no option available still for many application where one used to have incadescent, for instance I enjoy apricot and/or peach-coloured bulbs (basically only the nordic countries likes those) in my moodlights (15watt) but nothing has appeared to meet this yet.
And with LED we still have the issue that it is still virtually impossible to find such with even a passable colour-rendering (anything with a CRI below 93 is – frankly – useless). Also, LEDs suffer from being too fast which means that crappy electronics in it can make them flicker noticable (or sync with other tech – webcams actually has to compensate (as they do with flourescent))
And in case anyone wonders – yes, I have actual oil-paintings hanging on my walls, colour matters quite a bit as soon as one goes analogue.
Sorry for ranting..
You forgot the Penitence Shower! You know, the one that dribbles freezing liquid on your head for two minutes before running out of water.