For the greenies...

[Joe_Black]

If only more folk thought like this, 'cause it really is this simple to effect change: Incandescent for CFL swap. (http://randomfoo.net/blog/id/4091)

[kpaske]

Yeah, I stopped buying standard incandescent bulbs a couple years ago and replaced them all with those flourescent tube lights. I've never calculated my energy savings, but I've never had one burn out and they are pretty cheap. It's certainly a way nearly anyone can cut energy consumption without ever noticing the difference.

[Joe_Black]

CFL lighting is getting more and more mainstream, but the really nice thing is that LED direct-replacement lighting for 110V use is gathering some significant momentum as well. The price is still high for the initial purchase but the TCO is ridiculously low. They make CFL look worse than incandescents!

http://www.ccrane.com/images/medium/led-household-light-bulb-economy-pack.jpg

LED Household Light Bulbs (http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx)

[WyrreJ]

One of my clients thinks it is getting on the energy conservation kick, I say 'thinks' because so far at least one out of every two changes they make to save electricity is just moving the energy cost from one pot to another. The most glaringly obvious was their wholesale conversion to CFL for the few remaining incadescent lights in the building.

This includes the elevators. Elevators with 20 sockets in the ceiling for low-wattage bulbs which they have switched to 13watt CFL's. What they still haven't figured out after a couple of months is that the elevators turn off the lights when no one is inside. Which means that the lights probably cycle a couple of hundred times per day. Every time I get on one of their elevators at least one bulb is burnt out - with about 10 elevators in the building the are probably losing a bulb a day on average. But those costs aren't coming out of the same budget as the electricity costs so some short-sighted paper-pusher thinks he's saving money...

[Joe_Black]

Yeah, some folk just don't think things through or research enough. Okay, most folk! :p

Elevator lighting is an excellent application for LEDs. They've been doing that in many of our larger towers at Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta and it really makes a difference. I was speaking to one of our facility managers in Orlando and they've seen a significant power savings (which to me is a amazing for such a large building!) and a 100% decrease in lighting related service calls where they've implemented LEDs. Plus they're always complimented on the quality of the lighting.

Have y'all seen the new OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays that are used in button switches? You can display any image you wish, even animated ones, and can also configure the button to change as it's selected. That would make for some wicked dash switches!

http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus-mini/overview/vert.jpg

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/keyb_002.jpg