Common as muck

[WannabeOwner]

I should be thanking VW rather than hating them as they opened my eyes to being part of the future

me too ... apart from spending my time spitting tacks about it!

When DieselGate happened I looked around for a replacement for my Eco Blue Motion Golf and found Tesla. Had no idea, 4 years ago, that 200+ mile range was possible in EV. As per usual my rich barstward mates thought I was off my trolley, as per all the other Eco things I have done, and then turned green with envy. I wish they'd stop doing that and just extract digit and stop using the Range Rover for the School run and spend a tiny portion of their not inconsiderable spondulicks actually doing something. Wife tells me we get very few dinner invitations - given that I spend the time haranguing my host to be more green!

We do a lot of entertaining in the Summer and at my Autumn Conference (with myself!) I decided that I wasn't prepared to provide hospitality to "friends" who aren't doing enough. Going to be a bit tough taking a unilateral decision on that next year ... "Yeah, but Halogens are much cheaper than LED bulbs" ... well you can F-right-off then.

Appears I have treated myself to an even bigger soapbox ...

 

[Fullerene]

Good effort, it's sad to see people who can afford to make a difference not doing it. I was hoping on doing a proper green-over on my house but can't quite afford it yet. Upgrading a kitchen seems to have a lot more bragging rights than insulation and LEDs.

Wife tells me we get very few dinner invitations - given that I spend the time haranguing my host to be more green!

@WannabeOwner Slips off to the loo mid-meal and pulls out handkerchief to unscrew incandescent bulb and replace with LED - Viva la résistance!

"Yeah, but Halogens are much cheaper than LED bulbs"

Moved into my house over winter a few years ago, within the first 2 weeks I replaced the massive quantity of halogens with LEDs.

Lounge had 500 Watts of Halogen, Kitchen had 550 Watts (under cupboard filament bulbs added up to about 100W)

I've not done a lot of miles this week however electricity consumption in 4 days with an EV has proved to be considerably less than 7 days with no EV and halogen lights when I first moved in.

--

Last month I replaced my first bulb in 6 years - well done Toshiba!

 

[p_iv]

Basic LED bulbs are now cheap as chips - I replaced a 100W incandescent in my bathroom with a £2 LED from Wilko - this paid for itself in about 15 hours of run-time, which I'd estimate to be significantly less than a month's usage. An easy win, surely?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Viva la résistance!

Gorilla LCD-ing, love it. Slight twist : I'm going to then send them the blinking bill!

 

[drewpost]

Basic LED bulbs are now cheap as chips - I replaced a 100W incandescent in my bathroom with a £2 LED from Wilko - this paid for itself in about 15 hours of run-time, which I'd estimate to be significantly less than a month's usage. An easy win, surely?

This is what I don't get. I did this exercise about 5 years ago at our last house and it was certainly not cheap however when we moved into our new house 3 years ago, the price was already a fraction of what it had been 2 years prior and it's only gone down since.

The old adage is that people with money usually have that money because they are smart with it (not always, but usually). LED bulbs are such a smart buy in terms of energy saved (ie lower bills) and quality of light. Who in their right mind DOESN"T want LED bulbs?

 

[WannabeOwner]

I did this exercise about 5 years ago at our last house and it was certainly not cheap

We changed all ours back then ... my mates said "Too expensive" then they said "Just realised how cheap they are now, you must have saved a fortune already" ...

Yeah. Haven't had to change a bulb, either.

Of course not everyone is in financial position to move-early, but plenty of my mates could ... but don't. More brownie points when they swarmed over the M3 during the summer. Drip, drip, drip ... hopefully.

 

[drewpost]

We changed all ours back then ... my mates said "Too expensive" then they said "Just realised how cheap they are now, you must have saved a fortune already" ...

Yeah. Haven't had to change a bulb, either.

Of course not everyone is in financial position to move-early, but plenty of my mates could ... but don't. More brownie points when they swarmed over the M3 during the summer. Drip, drip, drip ... hopefully.

Preaching to the choir here but the M3 is like the lightbulbs. The cost savings over the life of the car is bonkers vs ICE. This is the message I find appeals to everyone: "you don't need to sacrifice anything, you get a better experience, you save a ton of money AND you save the environment"!

 

[culverwood]

LED lighting is even more convincing in a commercial environment as in addition to savings in the the cost of electricity and cost of replacement lamps there are savings in the cost of changing lamps. In any situation where the light fitting is not easily accessible this can be a considerable sum.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Reminds me of this:

Heathrow seeks high-wire walkers to change light bulbs

"The major bulb replacement task is expected to take nearly four months and cost several million pounds"

 

[Smiddy]

Thats one of the first things I've done in the last two houses we have moved to is replace all the lights for LED bulbs. Our latest house has down lights in the kitchen and dining area which were all 50 watts each and there were 15 of them in total, now all of the new ones together use just slightly more power than 1 of the old bulbs.

I was looking at another VAG group car before I ordered the Tesla, I was waiting for the new Audi S4 to be announced and I am so glad i didnt bother waiting because Audi has clearly lost their marbles all their new S cars are Diesel! with the fakest of fake exhausts and sounds its just ridiculous.

I cant ever see me going back to ICE car now.

 

[m-i-l]

I replaced all our bulbs with LEDs a few years back. Was quite expensive at the time, especially given we needed new transformers. Very roughly cost £1000, for an £80 annual saving, so will probably be over 12 years before it pays for itself, but cost saving wasn't really the point - the main point was reducing energy consumption. Oh, and not having to replace one of those annoying halogen bulbs every few weeks.

But back to Model 3s - I've seen at least one parked on every street in my area now. I know it's not the same ones moving around because they're often there at the same time and have different colours and wheel combinations. But being common is good isn't it? Most of us knew when we reserved them that there were supposed to be the "mass market" model, and us starting to see them more and more often means that this plan is working.

 

[Fullerene]

LED lighting is even more convincing in a commercial environment as in addition to savings in the the cost of electricity and cost of replacement lamps there are savings in the cost of changing lamps. In any situation where the light fitting is not easily accessible this can be a considerable sum.

Did a tiny bit of research a few years ago, maybe things have improved, numerous people complaining about had to put up scaffolding on building to install cheap DIY store LED flood on my church, shop etc and it failed within a few weeks. Once again decided to invest in the commercial option from Toshiba, not cheap but cheaper than the paying somebody to arrange access should it fail. As it was the commercial range I was able to choose a really wide beam angle, so I didn't need two regular floods.