request for advice about lightboxes

[baratron]

After a couple of months of feeling blah which hasn't improved, I recognise that the dawn simulator alarm clock I have just isn't enough to deal with my SAD this year. Lying in bed with the full light of it streaming into my eyes barely improves my functionality. I feel like I'm living in perpetual twilight, and have very little inclination to do anything.

But I have a problem with buying a lightbox. I'm very environmentally conscious. Every room in this house, bar the kitchen, is lit with low energy fluorescent bulbs because I want to consume as little electricity as possible. I really don't want to use a lightbox that's running at 200 W for an hour a day, because that's like leaving every light in the house on for an hour a day. And I'm having great trouble finding out the energy consumption of different lightboxes from seller's websites. Some of them mention a 55 W fluorescent tube, or 2 x 80 W bulbs, but others simply say things like "LED lights consume only 1/10 the power of conventional incandescent lights, yet are 10 times brighter". Great, wonderful, white LEDs are lower energy than ordinary lightbulbs - but are they lower energy than a fluorescent tube? And more to the point, are they as good for SAD?

So, uh, if anyone knows someone I can talk to about this, or a retailer that details the energy consumption of every lightbox so I can make a fair comparison, that'd be great. (I simply don't have the energy to visit individual manufacturer's websites to try to take in information :/ )

Comments

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't extend that as far as deliberately making myself feel crap in the knowledge it'll make the planet a marginally better place.

I don't deliberately make myself feel crap. But I also feel that I don't have the right to use electricity or fossil fuels unnecessarily. Our heating is on for the minimum amount of time needed to keep the room temperature above 17 degrees C. We don't put on the heating until I'm wearing three layers and am still cold.

One of these days I'm going to type up the list of everything I do to try to help the planet for people to comment on & suggest improvements. The terrifying thing is that "if everyone on the planet lived like I do", apparently we'd need 3.08 planets. And I'm a childfree carfree vegan who eats locally-produced food wherever possible, refuses plastic bags in shops, uses washable sanitary protection, takes human-powered transport wherever possible and public transport the rest of the time, and recycles everything that can be recycled. For example, I shower over a plastic bucket and then use that "grey" water to flush the toilet.

I'd feel better about profligate energy consumption if we e.g. had a wind turbine on the roof supplying 500 W a day - that would power the lights we use normally + the lightboxes + at least one of the computers. But as it is we use 100% National Grid, which is >97% fossil fuel. I believe that fossil fuel use is a privilege, not a right. And I honestly don't feel that I, as a single human being, have the right to use more than my fair share of electricity simply to make myself "feel better". If everyone on the planet lived like I do...

[syllopsium.livejournal.com]

Without wishing to be too contentious, if you consciously choose anything other than the best option you potentially are deliberately making yourself feel crap. TPOTO if the difference in effectiveness between two models is minimal but one is vastly more energy efficient that's different, of course.

I would be careful with the LED option, as in addition to the wavelengths being a little different the light also tends to be more directional rather than diffused and thus might not be as effective.

Are you sure you've filled in the question in the quiz correctly, as by my reckoning you should be getting closer to 1.7-2 planets, at most? In fact, probably less (I can't remember which partners you do or don't live with).

In any case, the amount of energy you save by being childfree is vastly in excess of what other people could possibly save. It does somewhat annoy me that the assumption is you live in some form of commune, house share or have 2.4 children which is simply not a viable option in most of 21st century Britain.

Personally I think the emphasis of the world quiz is worthy, but utterly unrealistic. Most people consider those who would live to that degree of frugality a tad barking. The pressure really needs to be on industry, rather than consumers.

Myself, I won't do anything that makes me unhappy or decidedly uncomfortable just to be slightly more environmentally friendly. I'd rather pressure industry, or push people to develop new technology whilst taking the steps I can reasonably do so.