The state of California passed a law in 2001 telling people what type of lights they are allowed to use in their own homes! By law, any new construction or alterations made to an existing building have to meet the code. Even if you just remodel your kitchen, you are technically required by law to comply. Bathrooms, garages, and laundry rooms must either have "high efficiency" lighting or must be set to motion sensors. (What if you are sitting still on the toilet for several minutes and all of a sudden the lights switch off? Annoying!) In kitchens, 50% of the total energy consumption for lighting must be "high efficiency" The exterior of the building must either use "high efficiency" lighting or have lights set to motion sensors. All rooms in the house either have to have dimmers or "high efficiency" lighting. Homeowners will probably want to choose only one or the other because the typical fluorescent "high efficiency" lights quickly burn and do not function properly when dimmed. "High efficiency" means 40 lumens per watt. Regular incandescent and halogen lights are not able to meet this. Any fixtures with incandescent sockets are not considered "high efficiency", regardless of whether a screw-in CFL or LED bulb is placed into it. And even if you do have incandescent sockets, the state has passed its own law "phasing out" incandescent light bulbs. 100 Watt light bulbs can no longer be sold in stores. Normal 70 Watt bulbs have also been banned, replaced by halogen bulbs that are 3 times more expensive. Even normal 60 Watt incandescent bulbs have dissappeared from the store shelves. Looks like the state is invading the sanctity of peoples homes and workplaces. This is absolutely outrageous! By "high efficiency", there are really only two practical options: fluorescent and LED. Fluorescent lighting just has a horrible quality of light, and usually comes with several types of annoying problems, from high frequency flickering to vibrating sound coming from the ballasts. LED light, while better, is not so great either. It does not give off an even spectrum of light, giving it an either blue or greenish-yellow tint, and making colors in a room seem more dull. And LED light carries a very high initial cost. Depending on the situation, it may be a long long time before LED lights make up their costs in energy savings. No wonder the number of Libertarians in California is rapidly growing! If I lived in California, I would just ignore these (*)(*)(*)(*)ed lighting codes. And it's not just lighting. Stores in the state are only allowed to carry "low flow" shower heads. That means less water coming out. A shower just isn't the same with a low flow shower head. It's a little frustrating trying to clean yourself, and it takes longer. If the state wants people to use less electricity and less water, they should just tax it. All these regulations, codes, and "efficiency" mandates show that the state politicians do not believe in markets.
The US founding fathers warned for tyranny, this is exactly what this is. They try to force you into submission. Perhaps it's even a good idea to let them in (?), but don't talk about lights and shower heads, but tell them they have to tell their bosses the next message "we do not submit to you, we are fully aware of what you are trying to accomplish". And also warn your neighbours. If enough people do not submit (and not vote too) they cannot do anything, they have not enough power.
I agree with you, especially about the 'new' shower heads - they are terrible, and hardly any water comes out of them! People should be allowed to use whatever lights and appliances they please.
The state of California will now be mandating "smart meters", giving the utility company complete remote control over a home's power use at a moment's notice. I don't think there is any question what the state ultimately plans to do. It is putting in place the infrastructure to impose quotas on how much electricity each household will be allowed to use. I think this is their ultimate aim. Just like how most cell phone plans are now, they are going to bill huge overcharge fees for anyone that uses more than their mandated alotment of power in a given time period. Making the real aim of their mandate public would draw too much opposition now, however, as there is already plenty of controversy about these smart meters from those concerned about privacy or exposure to pulsed radiofrequency fields given off by the new devices.
Housing codes have been around for a lot longer. As for power consumption? Build yourself some solars or a windmill. Both can be built to code in a residential area, And as long as we don't have too much running in my house, we actually run the meter backwards most of the time. For lights, in your home... If you really think you own your property, stop paying taxes and see what happens. You're renting, they decide what happens on the land.
I don't think smart meters are necessarily a bad thing, just government mandating them. If a utility company wants to mandate smart meters as a prerequisite for access to their service then they should be able to, by all means. Additionally, while I think the reason you gave is sufficient to not let government install smart meters, I do not think that's their aim. Similar to how I don't want government to have access to an internet killswitch because of the possibility of totalitarian use, but I don't think Joe Lieberman is sitting in his home right now thinking about how great it'd be to shut down Facebook. ie: there's an infinitesimal chance of California ever using smart meters in this way, because if they did they'd be out of office before you could say "riot"
I don't see the correlation. Which hole do you want your government to stick an absurdly sized rubber fist in is what voting Democrat or Republican amounts to.
yeah republicans only want to control who you love, what you put in your body, when you have children, ect... .
This was from a thread in another forum titled "To really (*)(*)(*)(*)ing hate energy saving lightbulbs?", where people expressed their anger at the fact that the ceiling fixtures in their new homes were intentionally designed so they could not use ordinary screw-in light bulbs. http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_be...(*)(*)(*)(*)ing-hate-energy-saving-lightbulbs Awful. Hate them. Especially when I am just popping into a room to get something. Fumbling about in the dark, bang into stuff, find it and out while they warm up! Urgh. lookbutdonttouch 11-Oct-2011 Their morose grey light certainly is nauseating. Tchootnika 11-Oct-2011 Don't even get me started on the new bastard fittings they put in new build houses. Triple pin, only available online, mind numbingly expensive. (*)(*)(*)(*)ers. EvilElizabethPonsonby 11-October 2011 There certainly seems to be a lot of consumer outrage in the UK, probably because the government is so much further along in its phaseout, and the ban has already affected more people. To many people it's not a trivial issue at all. Plenty of headaches and migraines described in that thread. One person even went as far as to post this: I loathe the (*)(*)(*)(*)ers. I have graves disease (eye probs) and they actually make me nauseous within minutes of being on, I can see the miniscule flickering movements I swear. More often than is healthy, I go off to bed with a candle rather than endure these. They definately don't last as long as is claimed. As a lifelong Tory, I will be delighted to vote Labour if they re-instate Mr Eddison's finest. Where do I sign? perfumedlife 12-October 2011 Libertarians are born out of the totalitarianism and insanity of "progressive" governments. People don't like to have their their choices taken away from them in every little area of life.
When the Germans came for the Jews, if each one had killed just one German the nonsense would have stopped real soon. Why is it that we go so easily into submission, allowing ourselves to first be bullied, and later to be murdered? Arm yourselves and resist tyranny. If every time an environmental NAZI comes to a home to check on ones fixtures treat them as the earlier Jews should have treated the earlier NAZIs.
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me." - MARTIN NIEMÖLLER
I visited the concentration camp where he was murdered in the final days of the war between NAZI Germany and the (once) free world. It was in the part of Germany where I had some responsibilities for surveillance of the border. At some point the tyranny has to be opposed.
with the shower head remove the flow restrictor and the pressure will be there..and once you past inspection change the light bilbs and problem fixed
..or purchase more firearms..but wait, Californians aren't allowed to own guns.........guess their state is headed for a ditch
