I just went back to the old faithfuls in the kitchen rather than waiting 2 minutes for the flourescents to warm up. I simply can't take the bitching of the Mrs. about it.
OK, sounds like its back to the drawing board to idiot proof light bulbs. In the mean time the millions of CFL bulbs in use are making it unneccessary to built many more coal and nuke fired generating plants - damn good trade off.
If you are using solar or wind power they make a 12 volt DC compact fluorescent lamp. We have used them for general lighting around the ranch. They screw into a standard A lamp fixture. They use 5 watts and can run on a small 12 volt sealed auto battery for about a month before having to be recharged. Or you can put a small panel on the battery and it will run untill something goes bad. We have had them running for over a year without any problems. You can buy them from Harbor Freight Tools for about $10. each. www.harborfreight.com/ From the Center of The Everglades Blackfeather
Have an emergency lighting circuit set up with the flouresents and a 12 v battery on a trickle charger to float the 12 volt. Have a 115 v inverter connected to that and a 115 v relay connected to the main power supply that switches from the power line to the inverter.. Lose the 115 and the cellar lights still work for 12-15 hours straight for filling the wood stove and I have lights in the shed to get out the generator and get it running. When I turn off the generator I still have lights in my bed room, hall, basement, and shed. The few times I have used it when we have lost power, we haven't even bothered to fire up the oil lamps. Probably pays for itself in saving electricity as well and I can use the genertator to recharge the battery as well. If the SHTF, I would use a solar panel to charge the batteries and take batteries from the car, nice and fresh and once the gas is gone, available for the sytem. The solar charger was about $90 for a panel and $35 for a controller. Tried them and they worked fine, but the darn float is so much less painful. They are packed in foil and in a metal building. Havent found a metal box that will hold the solar panel yet.
