Domain: olino.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to olino.org.
Comments · 9
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Re:Harsh LED bulbs?
Consumers are just starting to grasp color temperature, perhaps they can't handle CRI yet.
It's on the box but it's in the fine print. I haven't seen anyone make a big deal about CRI as such. I read about it when doing my homework before investing in LED bulbs.
I did a web search and found a page that goes into some detail. It has some great examples of how the CRI isn't perfect... it shows one light with a CRI of 80 whose spectrum has three strong peaks, so it passes the test but won't look very good in normal life (any color that is in-between the peaks won't look right).
http://www.olino.org/blog/us/articles/2009/11/30/a-close-look-at-the-color-rendering-index-cri-or-ra
Since LED bulbs will theoretically last for 20 years, I'm willing to pay a bit more for a good CRI.
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Renewable Energy enough, why not use it?
Our sun, a nuclear fusion source which is already working reliably for more than 5 billion years, produces an extreme amount of energy. Within 6 hours, deserts on Earth receive more solar energy than we use in a whole year globally. Why do we keep ignore this most power full energy source? For the world energy demand (18.000 TWh) we need only a surface area of 188 x 188 square miles with Concentrated Solar Plants. This is a small thumbnail on the map of Africa. Germany has seen the light and is investing 500 billion euro's in Desertec. A CSP plant runs 24 x 7 hours on full power (even when the sun is away because it can store sun heat in molten salt). These CSP plants can easily replace nuclear and coal power plants.
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Measure electricity, natural gas and water usage
There is also an system called Enymate on the market which measures all electricity, natural gas and water usage. Here is user review how to use this device to save on your natural gas bill.
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Re:Hm...
Painting my brand new bike with ugly fluorescent colors in combination with a very good lock did the trick for me. The lock can only be cut by a diamond saw used by professional thieves, and they cannot sell the bike anymore for a reasonable price. The amateurs who don't care about the color cannot steal the bike because of the hardened lock. The combination is perfect. See this blog article for the details how I transformed my new bike into a ugly but more thieve resistant bike.
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Re:Hm...
Painting my brand new bike with ugly fluorescent colors in combination with a very good lock did the trick for me. The lock can only be cut by a diamond saw used by professional thieves, and they cannot sell the bike anymore for a reasonable price. The amateurs who don't care about the color cannot steal the bike because of the hardened lock. The combination is perfect. See this blog article for the details how I transformed my new bike into a ugly but more thieve resistant bike.
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Re:that's great but...
A study showed that in the Netherlands, one third of the electricity could be reliably generated from wind. There is a link to the Ph.D. thesis at the bottom of the article.
The Netherlands has a long coast line, which makes it a very good location for wind energy. I don't know if the US has enough good locations to place wind farms to produce one third of electricity, but if it does not, then the problem with fluctuations in how much power is supplied to the grid will only be easier to manage.
In other words, you indeed cannot get 100% of your electricity from wind, but this is no reason not to build lots of wind farms today since you're nowhere near the limit yet.
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PV is more cost effective than small wind turbines
On the Renewable Energy website OliNo there is an article Test results small wind turbines website with some more background on this test. The first test results show that a PV system (Solar Energy) is more cost effective than these small windturbines. The Dutch article, which is more up-to-date, show also the last measurement results of the windturbines (11 months of data). The conclusion is the same. However, it was found out, that an official wind measurement station of the KNMI only 14 kilometers (8.8 miles) away form the test site has an average windspeed which is twice of of the test field. This could explain the low yield of the windturbines.
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PV is more cost effective than small wind turbines
On the Renewable Energy website OliNo there is an article Test results small wind turbines website with some more background on this test. The first test results show that a PV system (Solar Energy) is more cost effective than these small windturbines. The Dutch article, which is more up-to-date, show also the last measurement results of the windturbines (11 months of data). The conclusion is the same. However, it was found out, that an official wind measurement station of the KNMI only 14 kilometers (8.8 miles) away form the test site has an average windspeed which is twice of of the test field. This could explain the low yield of the windturbines.
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Is 0.5 really a typical PF for CFLs?
These guys have measured a lot of lamps, mostly CFL and LED, and from randomly clicking a number of CFL measurement reports I get the impression the typical power factor is about 0.6, not the 0.45-0.50 mentioned in the article.