Genii Weblog

My Easy-Bake Oven should have clued me in

Tue 20 Feb 2007, 11:42 AM



by Ben Langhinrichs
When I was quite young, my parents gave me an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas one year.  (My parents were big believers in not reinforcing sex stereotypes)  I loved the Easy-Bake Over, as it allowed me to make cake whenever I wanted.  The coolest thing was that the oven worked with only the heat of an ordinary lightbulb.

It was only this year that I became aware of the obvious.  What made an Easy-Bake Oven work so well was that an ordinary incandescent lightbulb gives off 95% of its energy as heat, not light.  Great for toy ovens, that is pretty lousy for both the environment and our nonrenewable resources.  So, I was glad to see that Australia is trying to completely phase out the incandescent lightbulb by 2010 in favor of more efficient Compact Fluorescent bulbs.

I am also glad I have a real oven now.  I think I'll go make some cake.

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

What has been said:


559.1. Charles Robinson
(02/20/2007 09:11 AM)

I thought you were headed somewhere totally different with that subject... :-P

Of course Australia wants to reduce greenhouse gases. When I was in Canada last week I watched a program and climatologists are predicting that unless drastic changes are put in place Australia will be uninhabitable by the end of this century. The coastal areas will have flooded and large swaths of the interior will be at unsurvivable temperatures.

Now.. if only we could get our own government to take action.


559.2. Ben Langhinrichs
(02/20/2007 09:20 AM)

LOL. Sometimes blog subjects are designed more to pull people in than to really let them know what is to be discussed.


559.3. Debbie
(02/20/2007 12:33 PM)

Sounds like an interesting idea, but what about people who have problems with the Compact Fluorescents? Not all people can see well with them. It's the same idea as the new halogen bulbs in car lights, great for the driver, BAD for the person driving towards them! *sigh*


559.4. Gregg Eldred
(02/20/2007 08:08 PM)

Thanks to your earlier posts on this subject, I have replaced quite a few incandescents with compact fluorescents. The only drawback I have found is that some 3-way fluorescents don't fit in the lamps (too long). But I heard that there are more compact ones, carried at Walmart.


559.5. Gregg Eldred
(02/21/2007 11:02 AM)

Charles, thanks for the response. I hardly ever venture into Walmart, that is why I still don't have the smaller CF's. :-) I'll check out Lowe's (the nearest Home Depot didn't carry them).

And I would love to hear you on your anti-Walmart soapbox. LOL!