We've had lots of intriguing discussion on this topic. The idea that by replacing all your incandescent lights with LEDs, you can save enough energy to run an EV sounds like it ought to be pretty compelling.
And it might be for those of us who already have an interest in EVs. What about for folks whose main concerns with a vehicle are whether it can accept car infant seats, carry all the rest of the family, and provide enough cupholders? Statistics mean nothing to real world consumers. Ask any advertising researcher -- of course they don't consider themselves average! You can tell them all day long that the average person drives 35 miles a day (which is over 12,000 miles per year). Doesn't matter. They still think that 100 miles of EV range can't possibly be enough for them. So is there a way we can convince them that FOR THEM, replacing all their incandescent bulbs with LEDs would pay for an EV's electricity? Well, maybe. How about something like the online solar energy calculators? I haven't used one for a while, but IIRC at least some ask you to enter your kWh usage from your electric bills for a year, and where you live (for rates, insolation, and incentives). Then they try to estimate how long a PV system's payback would be for you. That might work for the "LEDs pay for the EV's energy" argument, IF you could get enough people to care enough to spend the time with your calculator. But even if you could, I see one more big problem: Who has all incandescent bulbs any more anyway? Who even has very many of them left? There may be a scant few houses left with nothing but incandescents, but compact fluorescent retrofits have been pretty cheap now for something close to a decade. LEDs really started becoming affordable about 5 years ago. At your average home center or supermarket, all of the "light bulb" displays were mostly CFs by about 2012. Today they're almost all LEDs, with a few CFs on the lower shelves. You have to look hard to find old fashioned incandescent bulbs. I suspect that the only people who put forth that effort are the muttering whackos who think that CFs and LEDs are some kind of "deep state" mind-control conspiracy. And they've stockpiled incadescents anyway. :-( Unless you've been away overseas with your house closed up for a decade or two, chances are that -- even if you're not all that "green" -- your home already has a mixture of incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED bulbs. Incandescents that are used daily burn out fast, and get replaced with modern CF or LED retrofits. So, most folks have already harvested much of that savings in energy and costs. That horse has left the building, to blatantly mix my metaphors. For something like this argument to hit home and get them off their duffs, they have to able to nod and think, "Sure, that makes sense for us." Whether it's accurate or not, does "LEDs pay for the EV's energy" really do that, do you think? David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
