4 Jun
2010
4 Jun
'10
10:36 a.m.
On 03/06/10 19:28, Tony Duell wrote:
Is it me, or is most of the 'green' movement one big con? If you're going
to force people to use a particular type of light bulb for environmental
reasons, then that bulb should be aa environmentally-friendly as
possible. And since the CFL tube contains mercury, it shouldn't be thrown
out for no good reason. So the electronics should be separately
replaceable/repairable.
[...]
Why isn't something similar done now. Have an
adapter containint eh
electronics which lasts for a long time, and just replace the fluorescent
tube when it fails?
Profit.
The Engineer Says: "I just made a lightbulb that lasts a million hours!"
The MBA Says: "NO! Don't tell ANYONE about it. It'll kill the sales of
our existing two-thousand-hour-lifetime products!"
The Engineer Says: "What if we split the tube from the ballast? Then if
one fails, the customer can keep the other, working bit?"
The MBA Says: "People don't want to buy two separate parts. Also it's
more profitable if they have to swap the whole thing." I haven't seen anything like this for ages -- the
Philips Softone bulbs
are one solid, welded unit (they're built like laptop PSUs, no screws at
all), and so are the GE energy-saver lamps if memory serves.
Oh wuite likely. And IMHO that's the sort of thing that should be banned
-- devices that are delibrarately difficult to repair (not supplying
service data is a related rant!). I have repaired several laptop power
bricks by cracking them open (a metal strip and a light hammer applied
around the join), but I don;t think that technique is a good idea on a
device which contains a sischarage tube like a CFL.
-tony