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As I get older the shiny tech edge gets not only less attractive but off putting.

Same here. Hell I hate the fact that macOS has facebook and other bullshit built-in because I'm never going to use it. It's wasted space on my SSD and maybe even wasted RAM and potentially insecure hooks in the OS itself.

I don't want/need light bulbs with WiFi.

I bought Philips SceneSwitch Colour (2200K, 2700K, 5000K) bulbs. They don't connect to anything but they do offer something more than regular dumb bulbs.

When were you last in a Home Depot? In Canadian Home Depots they're about $10 a pop. I assume they're even cheaper in the US. I'm fairly sure they're cheaper still at Walmart, Superstore, etc., Home Depot is only selling high-quality ones in stores (Phillips and Cree).

When were you last in a Home Depot? In Canadian Home Depots they're about $10 a pop. I assume they're even cheaper in the US. I'm fairly sure they're cheaper still at Walmart, Superstore, etc., Home Depot is only selling high-quality ones in stores (Phillips and Cree).

When were you last in a Home Depot? In Canadian Home Depots they're about $10 a pop. I assume they're even cheaper in the US. I'm fairly sure they're cheaper still at Walmart, Superstore, etc., Home Depot is only selling high-quality ones in stores (Phillips and Cree).

When were you last in a Home Depot? In Canadian Home Depots they're about $10 a pop. I assume they're even cheaper in the US. I'm fairly sure they're cheaper still at Walmart, Superstore, etc., Home Depot is only selling high-quality ones in stores (Phillips and Cree).

Take a look at this real world data from Germany. Take a look at page 10. In July they produced 5.1TWh. In January they produced .35TWh. So in January they produced 7% of what they produced in July. Also notice they overall they produced 29.7TWh with and installed capacity of 35.65Gw. Here is the math 35.65*365*24=312TWh of capacity. 29.7/312= 9.5%. So the actual production was 9.5% of capacity. So using real world data your figures are at least off by an order of magnitude.

A the answer is some combination of storage and/or a high-efficiency long range distribution grid. Both of which are technologies under active development.

You are absolutely correct. The problem is that the storage problem has not been cracked yet. Pumped hydro needs a lot of water to be pumped and can only be done in certain mountainous wet areas. If the area is too dry the surface water just evaporates. It also had major environmental impact as it floods areas and uses lots of water. Compressed air reservoirs have been found to leak and be inefficient. Batteries are too expensive (even metal salt) to store Terra Watt Hours of energy. While there is some research into electricity storage there is not enough and that is a problem. Long range transmission can be done with high voltage DC but even that has losses. It is also very expensive as it has to be converted to AC for general use. At every conversion there is a loss. DC does not step up or down very well.

Arizona's insolation doesn't vary all that much over the year, and you'd only need to cover 60% of it with solar panels to provide the entire nation's energy needs.

Sorry but you forget conversion/transmission losses. Also, 14% is not a small number. Much of Arizona is unsuitable for the installation of solar panels. Hills pointing the wrong direction, mountains, cities, farms, etc. Arizona is not a blank slate.
Have you run any number on how much it would cost to install a nation wide HVDC network and install all those PV installations? The US population is about 314million. Even using your figures of 142 sqM/person that comes out to 44,600sqkm. Lets look at the cost of just the panels. Here is a basic panel with an area of 1.6 SqM at $417. Lets play with the cost a bit. lets quarter the cost for bulk by and double for high efficiency. Therefore half the cost. Here is the math 44.600sqkm/1.6sqM*417/2= $5.8Trillion. And that is just for the panels and not a lot of other costs involved with installation. Here is a simpler calculation. Take a real world installation. It produced 626.22 GWh in a year and cost of $1.8 billion. You propose to generate 28,308,670GWh. To produce that would require about 626 such plants costing about $1.1 Trillion. Then there is the cost of transmitting that power. Where will that money come from?

Another point you might want to look at is the efficiency of that plant in Arizona. It has an installed capacity of 290 MW and produced 626.22Gwh. 290*24*365= 2540.4GWh. That works out to a 25% efficiency even in Arizona on an optimal site.

haha, yeah, the cooking is done by the lamp.

Basically, we have this, but it's a 60W bulb hooked up to the mains rather than a solar powered dealie with LEDs.

When I think floodlight, I think of 500W halogens bathing the entire yard in daylight.

Nice to see that we get ripped off in Canada on these bulbs too compared to the USA...
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/95-watt-60w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827146
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/6-watt-40w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827152
I bought 2 of the 60w equivalents and they look pretty good. I'm not a fan of the bluish ones, but the yellowish ones looks great. I like that they rate it to a comparable incandescent. Most LEDs seem to give you a lumens output value but for most people, that requires some research into what that is in equivalent incandescent bulb.

Nice to see that we get ripped off in Canada on these bulbs too compared to the USA...
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/95-watt-60w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827146
http://www.homedepot.ca/product/6-watt-40w-warm-white-led-light-bulb-1-pack/827152
I bought 2 of the 60w equivalents and they look pretty good. I'm not a fan of the bluish ones, but the yellowish ones looks great. I like that they rate it to a comparable incandescent. Most LEDs seem to give you a lumens output value but for most people, that requires some research into what that is in equivalent incandescent bulb.

c0ck is a brand name of sledgehammer.

So the spam was technically true.

Facilities would certainly have a problem if you brought one to work and started smashing the walls.

Not sure where you're located, but they're a fairly common item here in Canada. Not all that expensive either

http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ CatalogSearchResultView?D=945033&Ntt=945033&catalo gId=10051&langId=-15&storeId=10051&Dx=mode+matchal lpartial&Ntx=mode+matchall&recN=0&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNu mber

Cheers,

Roman