View Full Version : And it changes again
Technology is moving faster than the market can keep up with - I expect many people may move to these never having bought an led lightbulb:
http://www.sciencealert.com/super-efficient-graphene-lightbulbs-will-hit-markets-this-year
A lightbulb made from wonder-material graphene will reportedly go on sale later this year, and it's promising to be brighter, cheaper, longer-lasting and use 10 percent less energy than even the best LEDs.
Wow, that's interesting ... thanks for posting! As a neo-Luddite, I'm "suspicious" of technology, but still ...
OMG I just changed all my most used lights to LED......I am hoping they will last longer then the last wonder bulbs...
Wow how cool! You know, with every cut to our energy usage, rooftop solar for everyone gets closer and closer.
Wow how cool! You know, with every cut to our energy usage, rooftop solar for everyone gets closer and closer.
As wonderful as widely distributed generation would be I hope we make advances in solar at an even faster rate than we do with light bulbs. The current models stink, environmentally speaking.
They are getting better though. We didn't go straight from the horseback to a rocket. The more people invest in it the faster and better it will be. That's the way it always has been with technology.:)
I think one of the really neat things about solar is, it's still a tinkerers technology. Average folks with modest budgets can fiddle in their garages and come up with really cool things.
I think one of the really neat things about solar is, it's still a tinkerers technology.
Except for the need for a wafer fab facility or some other similar high-capital production facility, and the HAZMAT issues.
Except for the need for a wafer fab facility or some other similar high-capital production facility, and the HAZMAT issues.
Pesky details.
Oh I forgot. You all do EVERYTHING yourself. so, I guess I'm out of business in my garage since I don't have the funds to build road and highways, or a power plant to make electricity for my garage where I'm trying to create, you know, a little electricity. I don't have an oil refinery either, or oil well for that matter, to produce the plastic parts I will need. Well, I'd have to build that garage first I guess, so a lumber mill and a steel mill are certainly out of reach. Thank god bae invented the internet so I don't have to reinvent THAT! But still, it's not looking good.
Whew! Thank goodness you all pointed out the futility of creativity before I wasted my time...
In what sense is solar a "tinkerer's technology"? You buy the various component parts made elsewhere by hugely expensive and polluting infrastructure, plug it together in your garage, and pat yourself on the back for being a cool hipster energy innovator?
I said nothing about creativity being bad...
It think it would be nice if on our way from horseback to rocket, we weren't told at every step that this technology that's 700% more expensive than what we have is the answer to our prayers. I spent a fortune switching to CF bulbs out of great joy for a better world. Wrong. I spent another fortune switching to LEDs. Apparently wrong again. This has happened in basically every tech-driven area of my life, and I'm starting to suspect that it's all nonsense designed to part me from my money, which is the same as parting me from control over my life, even as it promises me more security. Lies and more lies. Give me a candle and get off my lawn. >:(
You still have a lawn? How last century. Today, it's fancy faux turf like Ed Begley has. ;-D
Yes, I really must go out and buy me some of that!
What would be nice is that on our way from horse to rocket there weren't naysayers at every turn saying no you can't, shouldn't, can't be done, don't even bother, why waste your time...nothing to see here move along...
solar, which ins't perfect of course, is quite a bit cheaper than it was even 5 years ago, or 3 years ago. And it is being incorporated in to roof shingles, windows, even the paint on the siding. It's not 700 times as expensive, and hasn't been for a very long time. There are actual people who use it exclusively to run their homes, and they don't live in caves. And there are electric cars. That run on electricity. Efficiently, quietly, and no pollution. And no dependency on oil, foreign or domestic. What's more, with some solar panels on your roof, you can power your own car. Yourself. Kind of like your own little oil well on your roof.
I wonder if people telling you to 'move along, nothing to see here' really think there's nothing to it, or is it they just haven't figured out yet how to charge you for the sun.
In what sense is solar a "tinkerer's technology"? You buy the various component parts made elsewhere by hugely expensive and polluting infrastructure, plug it together in your garage, and pat yourself on the back for being a cool hipster energy innovator?
I said nothing about creativity being bad...
Kind of the same way you bought a few computer components, slapped them together applying electricity (supplied by someone else) and patted yourself on the back for inventing the internet.;)
You don't need to reinvent the wheel. You just need to apply it in a new and innovative way. Wagons, cars, railroad, clocks, bikes....
Kind of the same way you bought a few computer components, slapped them together applying electricity (supplied by someone else) and patted yourself on the back for inventing the internet.;)
We actually used a chip fab facility, built custom semiconductors from scratch, and designed the protocols using Math and Science, to accomplish brand new things never done before.
When you take solar power components from Fry's, plug them together as instructed, and have power magically come out, you are tinkering at the same level as someone who puts a lightbulb into a lamp, and "tinkers" light from electricity.
I *did* manage to talk to Antarctica from here using < 0.5 watts of power from a radio I built by hand a few weeks ago, using a novel digital noise-resistant protocol I helped develop and wrote the code for. Using an antenna I built myself, powered by a battery, plugged into a solar controller and a thin-film rollup solar panel. So part of that was tinkering.....
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