Go Solar Without Installing Solar

[MediumTex]

If you live in a house and the ductwork is in the attic, get a couple of roles of aluminum tape and start with the filter boxes and go through the whole attic looking for actual or potential air leaks and tape them up.  The blower in the attic will almost certainly have leaks in any number of places.  Tape them up.

Over on another thread I think you asked what is the difference between being 46 and 66. Well there you have one.

Are you saying that your attic duct taping days are behind you?

[screwtape]

If you live in a house and the ductwork is in the attic, get a couple of roles of aluminum tape and start with the filter boxes and go through the whole attic looking for actual or potential air leaks and tape them up.  The blower in the attic will almost certainly have leaks in any number of places.  Tape them up.

Over on another thread I think you asked what is the difference between being 46 and 66. Well there you have one.

Are you saying that your attic duct taping days are behind you?

Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying. And if you looked in my attic and saw what it would take I'm sure you'd understand even better.

(But I probably shouldn't say that. When I retire soon all bets are off. I may very well find myself up there duct taping)

[MachineGhost]

- All LED light bulbs, and only ever used in the evening (negligible daily load)

You are disrupting your circadian rhythm with all that toxic blue light.

[MachineGhost]

5. Replace any incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs.

No!!!!  Replace them with full spectrum CFL bulbs until a full spectrum LED exists (which is probably an oxymoron).  There's no point saving a few bucks at expense of your long-term health.

[Pointedstick]

- All LED light bulbs, and only ever used in the evening (negligible daily load)

You are disrupting your circadian rhythm with all that toxic blue light.

Calling it "toxic" seems a bit much. and Are they any worse than incandescents or CFLs?

[Pointedstick]

What about this?

A thing

[MachineGhost]

Calling it "toxic" seems a bit much. and Are they any worse than incandescents or CFLs?

You said the same thing about iron and now look where we are now.

But yes, they are.  They emit way too much blue spectrum light.  It's unfortunate, but that's the situation at present.  I use free f.lux software available for Mac and PC to block the blue light on my PC at night as well as using a red/orange blue-blocking CFLs.

[MachineGhost]

What about this?

http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Sunshine-Sp ... 3594190011

That looks VERY interesting, but you can't trust marketing hype (especially from China).  You need to see the actual spectral emission graph for a bulb.  450-lumnes is also way too dim.  We would want something like the lower right graph, or preferably no blue light at all which should be possible with LEDs:

[align=center][/align]

[MachineGhost]

Think about the filters you are using in your AC system.  You don't want the cheapest because they don't really filter much and you usually don't want the most expensive because they are so restrictive your unit ends up running more because it is moving a smaller volume of air due to the filter restriction.  I buy the cheapest 3M Filtrete filters I can find on Amazon.

I've found the sweet spot to be the 2200 in terms of features vs cost; 2400 is almost twice as expensive and I did not notice a difference in dust or allegens over the 2200.  2200 is 93% rated, 2400 is 94%.

http://www.filtrete.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... iving-2200

I don't think these filters do a good job if the robot vacuum is any indication.  It is unbelievable how much dirt and dust it picks up after just a week of nothing non-ordinary.  The A/C and/or A/C fan blowing dust is the only logical explanation.

[MachineGhost]

Our house is 15 years old now with 12 SEER AC units and about 3,000 square feet.  Our combined electric and gas bill is equalized and costs $313.00 per month, which I think is really good, considering that we keep the thermostat on about 71 degrees 24 hours a day year round.

71F degrees?!!  Y'all must be freakin' hot people.  It's 100F outside right now and it's 79F inside.  While 79F is not my ideal preference, it starts feeling a bit nippy below around 75F.

[MediumTex]

Our house is 15 years old now with 12 SEER AC units and about 3,000 square feet.  Our combined electric and gas bill is equalized and costs $313.00 per month, which I think is really good, considering that we keep the thermostat on about 71 degrees 24 hours a day year round.

71F degrees?!!  Y'all must be freakin' hot people.  It's 100F outside right now and it's 79F inside.  While 79F is not my ideal preference, it starts feeling a bit nippy below around 75F.

It's all about the humidity.

Earlier this year I had a business meeting in Imperial, California near the Arizona and Mexico borders.  That place is like Iraq.  HOT! and DRY!  I got into my hotel room and put the thermostat on 72 and almost froze to death.  It turned out that 78 in Imperial, California feels exactly like 71 does in Dallas, Texas.  No humidity in the desert.

[Pointedstick]

I'm confused, MG. The lower-right graph shows "warm white LED." I thought you said there were no LED bulbs that had the right color curve. Furthermore, all my LEDs are warm white--2700k. They're the nice Cree bulbs. The company has a huge thing about color mixing: huge nerdy report

Maybe one days I'll read that find find out how much I'm poisoning my eyeballs with blue light.

[MachineGhost]

I'm confused, MG. The lower-right graph shows "warm white LED." I thought you said there were no LED bulbs that had the right color curve. Furthermore, all my LEDs are warm white--2700k. They're the nice Cree bulbs. The company has a huge thing about color mixing: http://www.cree.com/~/media/Files/Cree/ ... mixing.pdf

They weren't common last I checked about six months ago.  But like I said, you need to see actual color emission graphs for any bulb.  In a LED, just mixing a blue peak into other colors to change the output color temperature won't get rid of it.  The point here is to avoid the blue frequency emissions at night because it does not occur naturally and is harmful to health.

So do you have any proof that your 2700K LED bulbs do not emit more blue than an incandescent?

[Pointedstick]

All right, looks like this is it:

[img width=500]http://i.imgur.com/2Uq4zB0.jpg[/img]

Is that bad? How much of a blue peak do you need to get rid of? The graph for an incandescent still has blue, even though there's no peak.

[MachineGhost]

Is that bad? How much of a blue peak do you need to get rid of? The graph for an incandescent still has blue, even though there's no peak.

Doesn't look good, but you'll need to see an incandescent on that same software to get a better relative idea.  Its too blurry to read the axis.

From a 2700K Philips LED, there is no supression of melatonin at 8, 22 and 60 after one hour on this chart; 19% at 200 and 37% at 720:

[align=center][/align]
http://www.omicsonline.org/a-working-th ... -4-150.pdf

[Pointedstick]

Can you post the spectral response curve of the bulb you use as a point of comparison, MG?

[MachineGhost]

Can you post the spectral response curve of the bulb you use as a point of comparison, MG?

Are you kidding?  I'm using this:

http://www.amazon.com/Feit-Electric-BPE ... 000LWIQ1C/

No blue at all or not detectable to the eye.

I don't exactly like it but until we have hard proof expensive LED's don't emit any blue or below the level of an incandescent, I'm not buying 'em.

[Pointedstick]

Hah, wow! So your house is totally orange at night? I guess it makes sense, since that's the color of a fire.

[MachineGhost]

Hah, wow! So your house is totally orange at night? I guess it makes sense, since that's the color of a fire.

It's not that weird.   My health is more important than what the neighbors think.  Remember, he who outlasts them all wins the gold!

[Mountaineer]

Hah, wow! So your house is totally orange at night? I guess it makes sense, since that's the color of a fire.

It's not that weird.   My health is more important than what the neighbors think.  Remember, he who outlasts them all wins the gold!

I'm going way off topic, but I have to confess that a super-long life doesn't really appeal to me all that much.  I am interested in health, and I don't want to die tomorrow, but I don't see the need to sweat the details to eek out a few more years at the end of my life.

I too debate (mentally masturbate?) with myself as to whether it is better to eat what I like (steak, eggs, butter, bacon, barbecue, chicken, fish, sausage, beer, scotch, etc.) and die of a massive heart attack in a few more years - or, worry my self silly over the perfect diet, develop Alzheimers, and live an extra few years but not remember who I am or what I did during those extras?  Decisions, decisions, decisions.  And besides, since I know where I'm going and will be in my perfect body forever when I get there ...... more considerations.  All futile debating as I'm not the one in charge anyway.  I just try to take reasonably good care of God's temple while I'm inhabiting it. 

... Mountaineer

[Pointedstick]

By the way MG, Gumby says that f.lux is ineffective: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ot ... /#msg81550

[MediumTex]

By the way MG, Gumby says that f.lux is ineffective: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ot ... /#msg81550

I am assuming that Gumby has now been away from the forum for many months, right?

It's like his old posts are a reference set for stuff that tends to come up here a lot.

If an anthropologist were studying the culture of this site, he would probably want to read all of Gumby's posts.

[MachineGhost]

By the way MG, Gumby says that f.lux is ineffective: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ot ... /#msg81550

Wow, that sucks.   I run it on 2700K at sunset.  I guess orange glasses is the only way to go.  That means your LED bulbs are no good either.

That being said, there's no way I'm going back to 6500K!  It burns my eyes a little and sort of makes them tired, so it must be doing something.

[MediumTex]

By the way MG, Gumby says that f.lux is ineffective: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/ot ... /#msg81550

Wow, that sucks.   I run it on 2700K at sunset.  I guess orange glasses is the only way to go.  That means your LED bulbs are no good either.

Do they have orange contact lenses that you could wear?

If they did, it would give you a distinctive look that you might be able to parlay into something bigger like a superhero persona.

MachineGhost was an up and coming internet forum poster when he was involved in a horrifying and tragic blue light exposure accident.  Physicians could only save MachineGhost's sight by affixing an experimental vitamin-powered light filtering device to his eyes.  A side effect of the surgery, however, was that the white of MachineGhost's eyes was now orange and he had the powerful urge to fight crime while wearing a costume of his own design.

[Mountaineer]

Wow, that sucks.   I run it on 2700K at sunset.  I guess orange glasses is the only way to go.  That means your LED bulbs are no good either.

Do they have orange contact lenses that you could wear?

If they did, it would give you a distinctive look that you might be able to parlay into something bigger like a superhero persona.

MachineGhost was an up and coming internet forum poster when he was involved in a horrifying and tragic blue light exposure accident.  Physicians could only save MachineGhost's sight by affixing an experimental vitamin-powered light filtering device to his eyes.  A side effect of the surgery, however, was that the white of MachineGhost's eyes was now orange and he had the powerful urge to fight crime while wearing a costume of his own design.

Way off topic question here, but a serious one:  MT, have you written any fiction?  I think you'd be a good short story writer if you gave it a try.

Also way off topic, but I agree with Desert.  You certainly have lots of material to work with from this forum - maybe start with something with a theme of the Permanent Buttwipe Portfolio vs. the Permanent anti-LED and pro-Orange Light Portfolio argued from the perspectives of Christians (the external view), Bhuddists (the internal view), and Agnostics (the don't give a crap view). 

... Mountaineer