and yet still another article on LED's

AND YET STILL ANOTHER ARTICLE ON LED’S
You can all blame it on Bigun’s. He threw down the gauntlet. Oh, sure, he thought he was being all clever and sarcastic but little did he know that I was already in the process of my annual LED acquisition. Okay, perhaps he already knew after I mentioned I was going to buy more LED’s with a recent donation. But could he possibly have known what new and exciting products awaited us? I think not.
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Yesterday I mentioned the cosmic forces than attempted to thwart me. I didn’t get into the whole carrot and stick aspect of it. Today is your lucky day. If I were an all knowing and powerful deity and I was playing chess with the human race, I would have been bored a long time ago. I mean, we keep doing the same old crap. The rise and fall of civilizations is almost clockwork regular. Nothing new there, move along, move along. So you move on to amusing yourself with individuals. For whatever reason, the gods are interested in me. I amuse them. Of course, I am a fabulous fellow so it does stand to reason. But they aren’t going to just pick at me incessantly. That would not make for a very amusing game. They are going to provide both punishment and reward. If it was just the stick, and believe me it is never a willowy soft wood but a knurled piece of oak, I would soon go crazy and go postal. They have to provide the carrot to keep the game going. Granted, it is a Third World carrot that a field worker took a big steamy dump on to fertilize, but it isn’t like US carrots are all that sanitary anymore. We all remember when an illegal wiped his crack with a spinach leaf and the nations soccer mom’s recoiled in horror at needing to feed their organically fed spawn plain old iceberg lettuce ( I can hear the mirthful cackling now- take that you gringo straw boss puto ).
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So yesterday, after almost four weeks of toil and trouble, I received my new LED bulbs in the mail. First, I was in too much of a hurry and ordered the red rather than the white bulbs. I missed the distinction on both the order page and my confirmation e-mail. Then, it took over a week to be delivered. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal but the days were getting too short and I was ready for more light. When I first moved into the Bison Compound, I had one 15 watt panel and only the brake light 18 watt 12v bulbs. After one week of clouds, my batteries were drained down and we spent a month using just candles ( sucks-avoid if possible ) and flashlights. So I put up another panel and last December ordered a LED bulb, the bayonet 12v type ( replaces the car type 1156 used in trailers ). It was $30, but it only used 5 watts of power. I’ve used that almost a year and was satisfied with it. But now I was ready for more light. That bulb was good enough to read by but it only lit up a four foot circle. The rest of the downstairs in the trailer was dark as could be. So my new plan was to put up two 3 watt bulbs. One more watt, hopefully more light as I was spacing them six foot apart.
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I returned the old bulbs and ordered another batch, this time the right color. Two weeks for the first order to arrive, and a little over a week for the next batch to be delivered. The first time was the five dollar USPS delivery. The second time was the $10 UPS. The difference was a weeks time. So after I finally got the right bulbs I tried them out last night. What a huge difference! One bulb delivered more light than my old bulb. I was using three watts instead of five and getting just as much if not more light. I know that LED’s are just like computers. The price goes down as the performance increases. I just didn’t expect that in only a year there would be that much improvement. But wait- it gets even better. The price had dropped below half. Last years 5 or 3 watt were both $30. This year the 3 watt is $13 and the four watt is $17 ( I couldn’t find the five watt anymore ). So with my minions donation I got four bulbs instead of the two I was expecting, plus I had enough left over to order the new Stephen King book from Wal-Mart. See what I mean about letting me build up hope with a carrot?
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I bought my bulbs from http://superbrightleds.com/ . They are the folks I used last year. They have a pretty screwed up way of offering returns- I couldn’t get through with e-mail. But I did simply return the package rather than wait for authorization and they honored it anyway. So I forgive them the hassle. I would order from them again. One day I’ll replace all my old school bulbs in the trailer ( although I’m not sure if they can handle moisture so I might not change out the bathroom bulb ) and I’ll keep using that company as I’m satisfied with them. Especially if they keep lowering the prices ( grin ). For now I have two living room lights that light up the whole downstairs. I put the old 5 watt in the kitchen. And I have two spare. Life is now pretty sweet illumination wise out at the Compound. It sure beats cooking while holding a flashlight.
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