Hypothesis: UK domestic Energy Saving bulbs are bad
Discussion
I was having a pub discussion today with some friends, and the following interesting scenario was suggested:
In the UK Domestic environment, using "Energy Saving" bulbs is worse for the environment because most UK houses are gas or oil heated, most lighting is used at similar times to when most heating is required, and therefore the swap to bulbs that emit less heat, means, for any given fixed room temperature (thermostat setting) more load must be required from the heating, which is has a bigger carbon footprint than our electricity mix these days.
And, well, i couldn't actually find a valid reason why that wasn't the case!
Discuss! :-)
90% of houses heated by Gas & Oil: ukHeating
In the UK Domestic environment, using "Energy Saving" bulbs is worse for the environment because most UK houses are gas or oil heated, most lighting is used at similar times to when most heating is required, and therefore the swap to bulbs that emit less heat, means, for any given fixed room temperature (thermostat setting) more load must be required from the heating, which is has a bigger carbon footprint than our electricity mix these days.
And, well, i couldn't actually find a valid reason why that wasn't the case!
Discuss! :-)
90% of houses heated by Gas & Oil: ukHeating
what?
it's got nothing to do with the magnitude of the effect, just the overall impact. ie better or worse!
And lightbulbs are designed to give off light, the heat they produce is a side effect, but you cannot produce heat from electricity with anything other than 100% efficiency (P = I^2 R ). So irrespective of how much heat is produced the process is 100% efficient (in terms of the heat production)
it's got nothing to do with the magnitude of the effect, just the overall impact. ie better or worse!
And lightbulbs are designed to give off light, the heat they produce is a side effect, but you cannot produce heat from electricity with anything other than 100% efficiency (P = I^2 R ). So irrespective of how much heat is produced the process is 100% efficient (in terms of the heat production)
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