Sheila Vemmer is a photographer embedded in with the US troops in Iraq. In her blog, Tales from the Sandbox, she writes, “Iraqis may not get more than two hours of electricity a day, but when they get it, they conserve it.”
In an earlier post, Vemmer mentioned that Iraqis only get thirty minutes to two hours of power per day, in random bursts.
This puts a different perspective on this article, which Jorge has been sending around the office. The Washington Post reports that an Oregon woman is bugged by the compact florescent light bulb, or CFL’s “slightly weird color”, and goes around the house removing the bulbs after her energy-saving husband replaces the old ones.
She yelled at her husband for “violating the last vestige of my personal space” when he put a CFL in the lamp on her nightstand. The article recommends that husband and wives talk about CFLs “before the light bulb is screwed in.”
I suspect that few people confronted the slightly weird color and potential disagreement in Iraq before these bulbs were wired on the streets.
Wow. I hate to say this, but I’m like one of the wives in that Washington Post article that got mad when her husband began sneaking compact florescent light bulbs into the house. My partner and I have had this same issue (although he hasn’t gone so far as to start sneaking them in yet … I don’t think!). Before this, I was just really in love with full spectrum lighting, which mimics sunlight. Now I’m just torn.
Maybe I’ll start going to bed at sundown.
Deborah
Maybe the husband is a nagging jerk. Maybe if we saw the full spectrum of his personality his “green” wouldn’t seem so great.
I didn’t expect so much sympathy with the wife! She sounds like a whiner. Then again, I’m not married… but I will be installing CFLs at my house, independent of male influence.
I think BOTH of them have issues. They just need to relax.
I think the issue is, they need to go to Iraq. Then they can relax about the whole light bulb thing.
Well, you know, Jay has a point. Light bulbs. It’s that “small steps” thing in trying to be environmentally sensitive. How important are the small steps? I’m not trying to be ironic here … I really wonder about that.
We did just record a radio show today about residential and commercial buildings being over 40% of the U.S. carbon footprint. And a big part of that is lighting.
Jay and Lisa both have great points. I’ve got cfl in every fixture they’ll fit in, my wife thinks it’s just fine, and I don’t have to suffer like the Iraqis. I’m suddenly counting my lucky stars.
I’m wondering though - about Deborah’s mentioning of full spectrum lights - Full spectrum flourescents are some of the brightest, most color-balanced bulbs available. They use them medically in sunlight replacement therapies for people with SAD. I wonder if there aren’t full spectrum cfls out there somewhere? Has anybody seen them?
Count your lucky CFLs, Ben. After we conquer the wives, we’ll move on to replace energy-wasting stars all over the universe.