Goals for 2012

[Quest]

I have decent luck with well made Ikea CFLs, typically lasts about 2000hrs+ (Still can't make it towards their typical 6khrs or 8khrs rated life ratings). When opening their guts, their 1st round of lytic capacitors (those chinese made ones, typically 6.8uF 200V to 10uF 200V 105C varieties) would either become bulged (gassed) or popped and vented their electrolytes, leavning no capacitance readings within, or with ESR rose to 100+times higher than their original specifications.

So far I have seriously good luck with FEIT, which I currently have a pair of PAR-30 frosted running at my parent's place for over 5yrs now (est. hours accumulated so far should have passed 5khrs), still going strong. When taken apart: these FEITs are indeed using Panasonic 10,000hrs @105C varieties (EE/EU series) and their ESR hold their values extremely well.

These well made ones no doubt will keep running so long as (a) the filaments not broken (broken CFL tube filaments will not start the light, period); or (b) the capacitor holds it's value and ESR as they are properly rated (that's when you go with higher cost name brand capacitors, such as Rubycon/Nichicon/NCC/Panasonics.

I have encountered some inferior made CFLs that would fail even before any signs of capacitor deterioration.

I have 23Watts spiral GE failed on me (both bulbs, came as a pack of 2 retail) within first 4 hours.

To me, it's a luck of the draw.

My goal here (aside from saving energy) is also to minimise the environmental impact by extending the usefulness of all these electronic ballast based CFLs and with that in mind: I can minimise mercury going back into landfill/environment.

I have some old Philips Marathon that seems to last quite long (still working after 4500hrs ); I also bought some sylvania projector lamps that failed within the first couple hundred of hours.

Q.

BTW: in case you wonder: I do drill holes on CFL casings to help with heat ventilation. on a living room/staircase in my parent's house, a 9watt Luminix bulb with vent holes drilled from hour 0: the lightbulb would last approx 1.6years of nightly usage (typically sees 8~10hrs continuously daily, 24/7/365), which works out to approx. 5840hrs (take it as 6khrs roundup), still falls short of their reported 10khrs as per packaging rated.

and when I gut those lightbulbs, again, the capacitors bulged or vented and lost all their electrolytes. ESR went through the roof as a result (so I wouldn't doubt that so long as the capacitor holds it's capacitance value and ESR, the electronic ballast portion shouldn't experience any "runaways")

[Quest]

@ Augusta90:

our company is declared "green" several years ago: convert all the monitors to LCD (used to be filled with CRT up and until about 4 yrs ago), turn off monitors at the end of the day, put computer to sleep/hibernate mode at the end of the day, use "intelligent" (green) network switches that sense the distance/power and scale the power consumptions accordingly, use integrated PoE switches, increase port-densities (instead of using 24port Cisco, now all 48ports 1U rackmount, etc.); using blade servers and VM most of the servers/services, etc.

On lighting part: pretty much fluorescent lighting throughout...

and the list goes on and on..

Q.

[S-F]

Well, Well, well! 2012!

I had an eventful 2011, what with the acquisition of the house and all and then finishing the basement.
I'll try to list what I'm going to be doing in order:


1. Replace bath fan with a nice Panasonic job and reroute the duct form the soffit over to the gable. Install a booster fan in line. The duct will go straight up for a small bit and then slowly taper down to the gable creating a trap for warm convecting air. I'll also put in a light fixture in there.

2. Put three light fixtures in the attic to make working up there easier. I'm always crawling around in people's attics with a drop light and it blows.

3. Air seal the attic. Air seal it to the hilt! I'm going to get a 200' froth pack, move everything out of there and overload anything that looks like a seam with foam. Put in some really nice insulation baffles. Probably site made MDF things or the cardboard ones.

4. R 60 - 80 up there.

5. I'm going to cut the top of the wall out which separates the kitchen from the basement stairs.

6. Replace the upstairs doors and 4 windows.

7. Cut a hole in the floor from the kids room to the basement play area then run a slide from their room to a ball pit.


8. I'm going to tear off this aluminum siding (it's worth more as scrap than siding). Pull some of the sheathing boards off and pull out the balsam wool and dense pack the walls. Then wrap the house in bitchathane. Then screw 4" of polyiso on for a total of about R 40. Then side with shiplap on top of a 3/4" rain screen. Then seal off the attic hatch in my hall and put in a barn door on the rear gable for access.

9. I've gotta install some kind of central AC and an HRV. My windows are pretty small, which is good in the winter, every Sq. Ft. of glass you can replace with R 40 wall is gold, but in the summer it's a nightmare. Last summer I had to let the basement get up over 90° and it took weeks to just come down to a regular temperature.

10. Not much left is there? I'd like to build a screened in porch off the side of the house over the patio.

My goal is to reduce the heat load of the house to the point that heating hot water takes more energy. Next year I'll think about solar hot water. And I'm aiming for passivehaus air tightness. That's never going to happen considering the amount of time I have to work on my own place and that I'm keeping my double hung windows. If I were replacing the windows I could do it! I know I could! As it stands I'm using the Ice & Water to air seal the sheathing. The biggest concern then will be how to properly seal the top plates when I outsulate. That's hard to do with spray foam even.