100w light bulbs

[Peoplesoft bloke]

A breakthrough in the cost of making solar panels.

I don't know about NZ, but the UK isn't particularly well endowed with sunshine and it won't get us far.

You don't need actual sunshine - just light
Which means we're flipped in winter when we need it most - bah!

[AtW]

Which means we're flipped in winter when we need it most

Some of generated power during sunshine can be used to split water into hydrogen and burn it in winter when there is no sun, also can be used to fuel cars.

[zara_backdog]

all traditional light bulbs will be banned in the next 4 years and 150W bulbs are banned from next jan

God I'm dull

No the light bulbs will be dull

[Cliphead]

I'll supplement the lighting with candles and turn the heating down, sorted.

[SantaClaus]

OK, now I'm normally as eco-friendly as the next guy, but this lightbulb thing is pissing me off. No-ones gonna tell me what I can and cannot light my house with - if I want to have 100w or 150w bulbs blazing away all night in my house then I'm bloody well going to do so. And I might even take some class A drugs while I'm at it as well, because its my body and bolloxed if I'm going to listen to some fat condescensing twat in parliament telling me what I can and cannot do with my own body But I digress...

This energy "crisis' is a bigger gyp than Global Warming. Theres more than enough energy landing on the planet to power everything forever, all it takes its the will to harness it. We've just had the same nanny-state lightbulb saga over here in NZ, needless to say I'll be importing the biggest power-hungry light bulbs I can find, and in the future I'll be reinstating the wind and solar power at my house so I can tell the power company and their in-pocket govt bitches to go stick their energy-saving bulbs where the sun don't shine

p.s. LED spotties in the house work great - they use 6-12 watts

I agree with you Stan. Its all a load of bollox aimed at getting the consumer to spend more money. And dont get me started on the plastic carrier bag police They have already invaded every supermarket in Crouch End.

Why dont our MPs switch off all the lights in the House of Commons and sit in the cold if they want to save the bl**dy environment.

[AtW]

Why dont our MPs switch off all the lights in the House of Commons and sit in the cold if they want to save the bl**dy environment.

Because 500+ MPs switching off totally won't save the environment - hundreds of millions of people need to change their habits for that to happen.

[SantaClaus]

Because 500+ MPs switching off totally won't save the environment - hundreds of millions of people need to change their habits for that to happen.

That's it! I'm not feeding any more squirrels either.

[TimberWolf]

You don't need actual sunshine - just light
Which means we're flipped in winter when we need it most - bah!

We are flipped in Summer too. There's sunshine under cloud cover, but the intensity is less. The UK receives around 100W/m^2 solar energy on average and solar collectors are around 20% efficient (the cheaper ones 10%). Compare that to the energy content of just a litre of petrol, around 4 * 10^7 Joules, which a solar panel would provide in 3 weeks. Solar panels need a revolution in cost reduction (there's a theoretical limit on their efficiency so don't expect much progress there) and even then sunlight is not going to solve the UKs problems.

[Moscow Mule]

We are flipped in Summer too. There's sunshine under cloud cover, but the intensity is less. The UK receives around 100W/m^2 solar energy on average and solar collectors are around 20% efficient (the cheaper ones 10%). Compare that to the energy content of just a litre of petrol, around 4 * 10^7 Joules, which a solar panel would provide in 3 weeks. Solar panels need a revolution in cost reduction (there's a theoretical limit on their efficiency so don't expect much progress there) and even then sunlight is not going to solve the UKs problems.

We should import sunlight from the Sahara.

It might be easier to import electricity generated from sunlight in the Sahara but we didn't put the Great in Great Britain by doing things the easy way...

[TimberWolf]

We should import sunlight from the Sahara.

It might be easier to import electricity generated from sunlight in the Sahara but we didn't put the Great in Great Britain by doing things the easy way...

Yes, and people have looked at that, but to buy it we would need to produce stuff that the rest of the world wants. I think we should try to be more self-sufficient on energy. We are a bit stuffed on that front, though fairly well endowed with wind.