You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'I need to vent' category.
OK, OK, I keep seeing all of these articles about the wonderful advent of the LED Christmas lights. Yes, they do reduce electricity use as you can see from the comparison below:
A string of C-7 (large) bulbs: 4 watts per bulb x 25 bulbs per string = 100 watts per hour
A string of mini-lights: 0.4 watts per bulb x 100 bulbs per string = 40 watts per hour
A string of LED lights: 0.04 watts per bulb x 100 bulbs per string = 4 watts per hour
But at the risk of being called a Grinch, I have a few questions. First, how many people are actually ditching their old, traditional lights for the new LED lights? My guess is not many (which I guess is good in a way, since then they’d end up in a landfill somewhere). Second, what good are the LED lights if they are left on all day and all night as their new owners take advantage of their energy-efficient properties? Not good at all. As I drive through my suburban neighborhood, I am stunned by the amount of holiday lights I see (not to mention the blow up decorations with their power-hungry fans). What happened here? I thought people were becoming more aware of their personal contributions to global warming!
Energy use can increase as much as 27% from November to December, largely due to holiday lighting. According to Ask Pablo, “If you traditionally decorate your house with twenty 100-bulb strings you require 850 W. If you turn your lights on for 6 hours per day this adds up to 5.1 kWh per day. If you put your lights up a month before Christmas you will have used 153 kWh to spread joy into the world, not to mention heat and light pollution. At $0.15/kWh the cost for this would be over $22.”
Now I don’t feel so bad about my single string of colored lights around my front door.
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
Beth Ziesenis from Life on Avenue Z has tagged or “memed” me (I admit, I had to look it up too). Which means you, dear reader, have to suffer through another completely un-serious blog today. (And, unfortunately, this one isn’t even about going green.) It also means that I have to write seven things about myself and “tag” seven others, based on the rules below.
And even though I have vigilantly deleted every single chain email I have ever received, I’m going to do this. I am rationalizing to myself that doing this will help increase traffic to my blog and website; thus, I am actually marketing! But you know what, sometimes you just have to break it down. It is my blog after all. And besides, it’s Friday.
Here are rules:
1) Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know they have been tagged and comment on their blog.
Here are my 7 facts:
1) Everyone I know believes that I am so incredibly organized. But my dark secret is that I practically “rent” my library books. Even with online renewal and reminder notices, I seem to always have to pay fines. And at 25 cents per book, per day, that can really add up. I’ve been this way since I was in grade school.
2) I like having curly hair, but I never tell people that. Whenever someone compliments me about my hair, they always follow it with, “But I bet you hate it.” And some compulsion inside me makes me nod in agreement, or at least find something to complain about. Oddly enough, I usually pride myself in honesty. Which brings me to….
3) I am an absolutely terrible liar. I have no idea why, but people always seem to know when I am not being completely truthful, which means I seldom go this route. Except in the case of no. 2 above (or maybe I ring false even then). I was once in a job interview where the interviewer actually said to me, “You’re not interested in this job.” And I wasn’t, but didn’t think she knew that!
4) I don’t drive a green car and feel guilty about it. It’s just not in the cards right now to buy anything new, what with me starting my own business and all. I’m still driving my ‘99 Honda CRV, which gets terrible mileage for a 4-cylinder. But, I try to make it better by taking public transportation as much as I can. And in my most recent job, I worked from home two days a week for the last 8 years.
5) I started dating my husband when we were both in high school – I was 17 and he was 15. And I was too embarrassed at the time to tell more than just my closest friends that I was “robbing the cradle.” But we’re still together, so I guess he wasn’t too offended (although he does still bring it up now and then).
6) Sometimes I can be incredibly naive, to the point that I shock myself! Yet most of the time I consider myself someone with an plenty of common sense, an assertion with which those who know me best would likely agree. ‘Nuff said there.
7) Some days I feel like I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Like maybe I just want to run away to the foothills of Virginia and become an organic farmer. Or write a novel. Or paint pictures. Or live in Africa. Although I am thoroughly committed to what I am doing, of course.
Here are my links so far (more to come):
More Than We Know
Green Girl Guide
Work It, Mom!
Life:Version 2.0
Elizabeth Striano
Consultant and writer on sustainability and the environment
www.agreenfootprint.com
Helping you leave a green footprint on the world…
