Transformer repairs

[Christian Corti]

On Sat, 31 May 2008, der Mouse wrote:
>> I think that the power savings is worth the annoyances of a ban.
>
> What power savings?  During the heating season, there is no savings for
> me.  None.  This is because I, like much of Quebec, heat with
> electricity, so any power saved by light bulbs will just get drawn by

And one thing to keep in mind:
Incadescent bulbs consist of glass and metal, whereas gas discharge lamps 
like the CFLs contain lots of mercury and other very dangerous things and 
must be disposed of as hazardous waste (not even just electronic waste!).

Another thing:
CFLs need a so much higher energy effort during manufacturing than 
ordinary light bulbs. The latter can be built at one place, the former 
needs electronic components (mostly from China, consider the energy 
required for their production), a PCB (energy? toxic waste?), mercury 
(!!), a fluorescent glass coating (toxicity?), a plastic housing (petrol 
based, recycling?), and so on... And consider the energy and effort needed 
to recycle all these things.
And: LEDs aren't so much better in this context!

What has never been published (surely for the fact that the CFLs would be 
considered much worse than light bulbs...) is the total toxicity and 
energy balance from manufacturing of either lamp until its final 
disposal...

So much for this off-topic thread...
I wouldn't consider replacing the optical transducer lamp with an LED...

Christian