California's Ban on Plasmas

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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I'm thinking nuclear power. Unbelievably effecient; safe (yes, I used the word "safe" to refer to nuclear power!); takes up minimal space, unlike solar or wind; and for those who believe in manmade global warming, almost ZERO emissions. Hydropower is great, as well. Personally, I think wind and solar are great on a small scale, as in home use, but on large scale they're total flops. They take up far too much room, and are unreliable, entirely at the mercy of the weather. As for "saving energy," I'm surprised that no nutso legislature has forced us to limit our AC use yet. I'd love to see a politician try to pull THAT off!

Just figure out something to do with the waste and I'm with you. Do you know the 1/2 half life of the spent fuel rods or what to do with the primary reactor cooling water when they must be changed?

Steve in NC
used to glow in the dark now only a dim glow

 

[Wildsky]

I think they're boosting the economy - because every person who can possibly buy a plasma tv right now in CA is doing just that!

Once everyone who has the money has spent it, they'll change their minds and not impose the ban.

 

[Hillsvale]

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I love mine too.... I bought a 52" panasonic plasma last year... there was no way I would spend as much as I did to have a plasma's of yester-year where things burnt out and cost more than the TV to fix or an increase in my power bill.... I haven't noticed any appreciable change there even with the sterio, speakers and all the other stuff hooked to it to produce that marvy picture and sound.. oh and my prior TV was a normal big box with a 24 or so screen...

 

[twentynine]

Don't live in Ca so maybe I ought to keep my mouth shut.

But I got to ask----- what in heck does it matter, what kind of TV some one owns.

According to the news Ca is either burning down, blowing away, bankrupt, mud sliding to heck. And the guberment is legislating what kind a TV a private citizen can own. Seems as if it's the old comparrison thing again.

The church is out of mopney so the solution is to turn the convent into a c#* house.

 

[ivan3]

Steve_of_sandspoultry wrote: Just figure out something to do with the waste and I'm with you. Do you know the 1/2 half life of the spent fuel rods or what to do with the primary reactor cooling water when they must be changed?

IIRC the primary coolant, in most light water designs, is run through a purification bypass and is later dealt with through waste treatment with resins. All those pooled fuel rods are just unreprocessed fuel that, if `rehabilitated' and reused, would supply the U.S. with electricity for the next 70yr.s (2006 use estimate). The upside of doing so is that the resultant `waste' would only be hot for a few centuries.

If we had some backbone we'd skip to 4th generation reactors and start siting those modular units at the locations of current reactors (skip all the regulatory rigamarole). It is worth the effort as we could remove ourselves entirely from the international energy procurement grid (wonder how much the price of gas will go up for thanksgiving? Want hydrogen and electric instead of paying the house of Saud, et.al?). Those who warn that we'll run out of uranium in 50yr.s are forgetting that we've enough thorium to burn along at full capacity for thousands of years...

That aside, hang onto your money and wait for another two years. I expect the current limitations of the new OLED flexible displays will sort themselves out and you'll be able to watch a commercial playing on the back of someone's coat as you walk down the street

Or watch your image moving over banners, undulating in the wind, hung from lamp posts as the street security cams broadcast live so as to keep everyone aware they're watching... Oh, brave new world...​

 

[BarkerChickens]

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Angie, the CA problem a few years back was pure politics in action along with some greed.

Generation is available. Transmission is limited. Politicians should all be, well, you know.

Oh, I agree. Enron had a big part to play in it as well. They need to make some major overhauls in their entire infrastructure. But, in the current climate there it's not going to happen. This is just another band aid on a bigger problem.

Why this is even an issue in such a sunny locale is beyond me.

While I agree politics was an issue then, we still have a population vs energy availability issue here. The rolling black outs did not go away. SoCal Edison started a voluntary program to allow the AC to be shut off in high energy demand times. Essentially, they attach some panel that allows to shut off my AC for up to 6 hours if energy consumption is too high on the grid. This allows them to not have to resort to a black or brown out. It is purely optional. In return, we get a discount on the summer months when they implement the AC shut offs. For us, it is great. We use a swamp cooler (MUCH cheaper). SoCal Edison is aware of this, but would rather have the system installed should we decide to use the AC or sell the house. I am all for finding ways to cut back more energy to prevent power outages. However, how common are plasma TVs vs older styles and LCDs? Would it really make that big of a difference? They already give credits for replacing old fridges to energy-saving models too.

 

[BarkerChickens]

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I agree for the most part. We do have an energy issue, but I can't imagine plasma TVs being the biggest culprit. As for your description of CA...yep.

We have fire season and rainy reason. Rainy season leads to mud slides, debris flows, and land slides in the area affected by the fire season. It is part of living in CA. Oh and the wind...it is a constant thing...pretty normal. In my area, 30 mph winds are normal....bad winds are 50-60 mph with 70-80 mph gusts. And it is a desert, so it usually means difficult visibility with all the dust blowing everywhere. Some areas aren't as windy and some areas are absolutely GORGEOUS, which makes it worth it (assuming it hasn't caught on fire). Our energy issue is just one of many, however.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Well Heck, maybe now some CA's will get the hint and move out of this strange but true state.

 

[SarahFair]

I just think they want people to use more energy smart TVs..
Is that really a lot to ask?


People leave these huge energy suckers on all night and possibly more than one.
Could you imagine the kid that plays video games 12+ hours a day?
Or the person that cant sleep without it on?

 

[mom'sfolly]

TVs are now about 10% of a homes energy consumption. They also generate a lot of heat, so in a warm climate they increase cooling costs as well. California is limiting the types of TVs sold, not outlawing them. It will be implemented over time. This is not so different from the increased emissions standards that CA required on cars. The car limits also ended up spreading across the country.