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I was going to say that you could write just fine by candlelight instead, but it turns out a candle uses about as much energy as that light bulb (based on rando
by phyzome 8y ago
I was going to say that you could write just fine by candlelight instead, but it turns out a candle uses about as much energy as that light bulb (based on random internet spot-checks).
- dredmorbius 8y agoThe increase in energy-to-services efficiency of lighting has been stupendous. If you go all the way back to brands or torches (the burning sort), candles, oil lamps, gas mantles, incandescent, fluorescent, and now LED. I have to keep reminding older concerned family members that a light might consume a dollar's worth of electricity per year, or that the bright overhead floods actually consume half the power of the 'low-energy' under-cabinet system (incandescent).
- phyzome 8y agoActually, thinking back on this, I need to do a different calculation. The candle is directly converting hydrocarbons into heat and light. If you burned those hydrocarbons in a power plant, how many watt-hours would be produced? (For that matter, how long will that candle burn for?) Ignore delivery/transmission costs: I'm curious what kind of losses there are in burning (say) oil for electricity vs. just setting it on fire, in the context of lighting.