Whats with the lighting issue?

Thanks, that is some helpful info. I was not sure how to start looking at the bulbs without major research and you helped me with that. I hope I can find an LED that has this functionality.

On a side note, I am also looking at putting a solar based heating system on my pool next year (panels on my roof). I am doing this both for my financial and the environments benefit. I still have not seen a real review for my area to finalize the investment though. I have all winter to research this though prior to my tax return in spring.

I find it ironic that that everyone is bickering back and forth in this thread about different light bulb styles and efficiency, yet all go to place that uses more energy to launch one train (Maverick and WT) than it probably takes to power all our houses combined for a month.

bholcomb said:
Only 2 computers Loopy? I've got 2 running just at this desk. :)

The laptop is in my briefcase. See I do conserve energy, I could have it running for my home theatre system but I choose not to. ;)

bholcomb said:
I don't get why hate someone driving a hummer? If they want to drive one, let them. What business is it of yours to care what someone else drives?

Because it's selfish. People have turned into selfish a-holes in this country who think because they can afford it their actions have no impact on anyone else. They have a sense of entitlement that reasons because they can, they should. Because they want, they should have, because they're not hurting anybody.

And it's not always about money either. You see people flick cigarette butts out their car windows all of the time. They don't think it matters, that they don't share the world with anyone else.

These kinds of things are all symbolic of a culture that champions excess and ignores consequence and responsibility. Freedom and liberty aren't a license or free pass to pretend that what you do happens in a vacuum.

The problem with thinking someone is selfish for driving a large vehicle is that some people do actually have uses for them, and you never know if they are one of them. That said, 90% of people who drive a vehicle like that are doing it for selfish reasons, particularly if it's all decked out with chrome and a fancy paint job, because you know they aren't using that to haul trash to the dump. (I know I wouldn't).

About the cigarette butts, that bothers the hell out of me. Nothing worse than being behind someone and seeing that orange glow flying back at you. I see it all the time here at the hospital. We are a tobacco-free campus, but in the interest of not offending anyone and possibly getting into an altercation, obviously we aren't allowed to tell someone to put it out if we see them smoking. In any case, there's a guy who lives across the street, the only house in that particular stretch that isn't hospital owned, and every nurse, surgeon, tech, whatever sits on the sidewalk outside his house to smoke since they're not oh hospital grounds.

That guy brings bags and bags and bags full of cigarette butts over to security on a daily basis, that were just thrown in his yard, on his porch, under his bushes etc.. all by hospital employees. Eventually, they got so sick of it, they put a couple of ashtrays up for the staff to go to, in an ally between his house and the parking lot. Now, they all use it to ash in, but they still cross the street with the last of their cigs, and they are all over the ground by the curb. What does that say about your state of mind when you don't even respect your place of employment? ugh.

Bill2, your pool might be a good candidate for a fluorescent light. That would give you significantly more light than an LED, and has certain other advantages. I doubt that the pool temperature is a major issue with your lamp life. Remember that when you use higher wattage lamps, the first thing to go is the lamp life. Partly it's because of the higher operating temperatures (your light is probably dumping a lot more heat into the pool than the pool is dumping into the light!) and partly it comes from pushing so much current through the filament. Most of the stress on the light comes at startup, and if you start the light when it is hot, you shock that filament and can break it. Fluorescent lights, of course, have no filaments, have a little bit of heat savings (although the ballast generates almost as much heat as an incandescent lamp) and would probably give you awesome lamp life in this particular application.

You could probably improve your lamp life with incandescent lights by using a dimmer switch that automatically ramps up the voltage over a couple of seconds, eliminating that start-up rush that kills the filament. You could probably increase lamp life even more by switching to 82v lamps and installing a diode, so as to effectively run the lamp on DC. I have a bunch of projectors here that do that.

Of course, the coolest pool lighting system I've seen uses an HMI arc lamp located remotely from the pool to provide light via large diameter fiber optics. Very cool system for edge lighting, spot lighting, and I've even seen it used on buildings. To bring this back on topic, I suggested years ago that they should have used the system to backlight the signs on Power Tower: http://www.lumenyte.com

The filament thing is also why fluorescent lights are great for ceiling fans!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Thanks for the input and help, you seem to be a very knowledgeable person from your posts. I will PM you, so that this thread does not turn to my pool status.

:)

I was wondering about the lights being out myself when my family was there earlier in the month. On an unrelated note, I was in Vegas last week and one morning there was a maintenance crew going around replacing the burned out bulbs under the "hold" buttons on the video poker machines! Apples to oranges I know but it was neat to see them replacing those lights.

Speaking of a lighting issue, I still find it funny that CP sells a poster with lights burnt out on Gemini's lift hill. Take a look, I have this hanging in my room. http://www.cfmarketplaces.com/stores/stores/1/Top-Thrill-Dragster-N...98C45.aspx

^I have that poster in my room too. Two lights out isn't too big of a deal.

lol, but still... it would have taken 2 seconds to photo shop that picture

Or 5 minutes to send someone up the lift hill with 2 light bulbs to fix them. Not rocket science........Again....lack of attention to detail. Not a big deal to some, but to those of us who deal in customer service (or member service, in my case) everyday...its about exceeding expectations and Cedar Point falls short on this.

^^It looks like it was photoshoped. I just realized this. Look at the photo on CP's website:

http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/park/rides/coasters/top_thrill_dra...to_gallery

And Look at the poster:

http://www.cfmarketplaces.com/stores/stores/1/Top-Thrill-Dragster-N...98C45.aspx

There are even more lights out on the original picture.

Unless the pictures are different... Are they?

Good catch. I think those are the same pics. Looking at the pic makes me wish PT still looked like that at night.

^^ - They are two different pictures. Look at the coloring of PT.

The PT lights look the same in both. On one side of Gemini in both pics they have two lights out in the exact same spot. I say they're the same.

In one, PT is deep purple, in other its green with a hint of purple.

That's hardly the same.

Plus if you look at the firework trails, on the picture there are 3, on the poster there is 1, maybe two.

I just wanted to throw my two cents on the energy thing..

Me and my wife live in city that depends on a little company in North Carolina called Electricities. Unfortunately, our city, like many others in this state, are locked into an iron-clad contract with Electricities that won't expire until 2032. The problem is that anytime Electricities chooses to raise electric rates, city council has us bend over, and take it up the tailpipe. Instead of bitching and moaning about corruption (nothing new to any city council anywhere), I chose to take steps to make my home energy efficent. This included replacing every light bulb with a 13W CFL. The result? When the latest rate increase of 14% came through this month, our bill was ten dollars lower than what it used to be. I may not be able to do anything about city council, but I can sure take steps to make the state work harder to get my money.

And as far as "going green", read between the lines. It's quickly becoming a fashion trend, very similar to the American flag, and how it, too, became a fashion trend right after 9/11. You gotta do your research and figure out whos really got the best interests at heart, and who's simply trying to make a quick buck.

Are those the light bulbs that you need to wear a hazmat uniform when one of them breaks? And all plastic packaging that them come wrapped in?

^In response to that, try reading up on the whole mercury issue..you'd be surprised to know that CLF's produce less mercury than their regular bubl counterparts..

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/green-basics-compact-fluore...tbulbs.php

And they're no different than the freon in refridgerators..and the funny thing is, the CFL's I bought, were in paper packaging, completely recyclable.

Anything else?