My Musings

As the temperatures soar day by day in Chennai, we feel it sweaty and difficult to travel anywhere in the city during the daytime; the day becomes hot and sultry even at 7-30AM. AC buses that have been introduced in Chennai have come as a godsend blessing for elder people like me. (My earlier post on AC buses here) In spite of the fact that the fare is about 7 times more expensive (than an ordinary "white board" bus), we prefer AC buses for their cool comfort, no pollution, and less crowd. Even in Bangalore during our recent trip (Feb - Mar 2009) we always travelled in AC buses. By the way, Bangalore has more number of AC Volvo buses than we can find in Chennai. Fare from Mandaveli to Central Station is Rs 20/- only. Yesterday (9 April 2009) Vijaya and I were to go to Anna Road Post Office, and I suggested to Vijaya that we walk a little further to catch a AC bus,than taking a white board 21 from Mandaveli terminus. We were near the Mandaveli signal that time, and as I u...

Compact Fluroscent Lights or Lamps (CFLs) are the latest innovations in energy saving lighting devices. Since long we have been using the incandescent bulbs with tungsten filament. These bulbs are energy guzzlers. Later, the fluorescent tubes (popularly known as "tube lights") came in the market and we switched over to these "tubelights" (particularly the 40 W tube). It is a gas discharge device that uses electricity to excite mercury vapour. Unlike the incandescent bulbs, tube lights need ballasts ("Chokes") to control the electric flow. Then came the CFLs, the real energy savers. Even though some mercury is present in CFLs, the level is very low and hence not considered a health hazard. The electromagnetic ballasts of tubelights are replaced in CFLs with electronic ballasts which are efficient and quick-starters. The CFLs come in 8W, 11 W, 14 W, 18 W, and 23 Watts. These produce the same luminosity of a 40W, 60 W, 75 W, 100 W, or a 125 W incandescent bu...