Also, there’s a poll at the end of this article, asking about what you might be doing for the upcoming ban in California.
On January 1st, 2011, just a few days from now, California will begin phasing out the legal sale and purchase of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. In September of this year, GE closed their last US light bulb manufacturing plant.
Here’s a Reason.tv video on why “compact fluorescent lightbulbs” (CFLs), the favored replacement for Thomas Edison’s most iconic invention are not all that. Personally I prefer LED bulbs/lights and have successfully replaced many incandescents with LED’s in my home.
The rest of the country will begin a phaseout in 2012, as mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.
This law phases out the use of incandescent light bulbs between 40 watts and 150 watts over a two-year period. Apparently China will still manufacture light bulbs at least until 2017 when they’ll disappear there too.
So the question is, what will you do?
One of my TV reporter friends asked me if I knew if people were hoarding high wattage bulbs. Since my namesake is “watts”, this seemed to be the place to ask.
Here’s the poll:
The poll is just for entertainment purposes.
I personally have no problem with CFL light quality. Two things I’ve noticed are that:
1) they don’t last much longer than incandescent bulbs, so we’ve been lied to in that regard.
2) the ballast (?) can burn out, making a horrible smell. I wonder if the vapors released when that happens are toxic.
My biggest problem is use of force (conservation enforced at gunpoint) by the government to keep people from buying incandescents. As some others have pointed out, the inefficiency of incandescents isn’t wasted in cool climates, it just reduces the need for other heating.
I recently returned from Cancun and was there during the tail end of AGW love fest (I didn’t attend but instead was loving the Dos Equis on the beach). On the access road leaving the airport were two large billboards advertising GE low energy lighting products… in English! Now granted, some Mexicans do indeed read English but far more don’t. So I can only conclude the signs were directed at the pinheads attending the UN meeting.
As for me, I’m now staging a one person boycott on GE products.
I think I’ll use carbon arc for outdoor holiday lighting from now on — at least it emits CO2.
Try Compact Halogen- fits same fitting, is dimmable, produces a clear bright light instantly. Lasts about three times as long as a GLS bulb , but is about 3 – 4 times the price (in the UK). 70w bulb produces same light as old 100w. GE make them I believe under the Edison brand in the states. Highly recommended.
BTW never believe the quoted life of any flourescent lamp as the lumens per watt falls off sharply over time, you will want to replace them long before they “fail”.
Your poll didn’t exactly match my strategy; I have been trending toward the CFL’s where they are practical to use, but they are not practical where exposed to extreme cold, or small lamps and fixtures, or fancy lights like candelabras. I have been hoarding a lifetime supply for these applications.
“I’ve tried CFLs and am not very happy with the shorter than expected lifespan”
Yeah, the previous owners of our house put CFLs everywhere. In three years we’ve lost about 25% of the bulbs and one melted light fixture… I’m not impressed.
By the way, I thought the incandescent bulb was invented by Joseph Swan who obtained his patent about a year before Edison.
These days legislation serves only 2 purposes: to buy votes and to settle past I.O.U.’s for prior political funding.
I will let you figure out which of these are the drivers behind this new legislation.
California – the home of America’s stealth politics.
So…the traditional cartoon expression : EUREKA! will no longer work , it will be a quite longer EU…….RE………KA.
Yes, we all know, Edison was the Bill Gates of his day.. That is to say probably smart enough to make what he sells, but also smart enough to simply muscle out those who have done it for you, and take all the glory.
DirkH says:
December 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I’m very happy with halogen lamps. I use a dimmable 500W R7S. For some reason, they’re not verboten in the EU. Attention, Halogens get very hot. So they’re a nice additional heater in winter, but if you have an air conditioning fight against the heat from a halogen lamp in summer, that would be kinda wasteful.
You have to hurry up cause they will be “verboten” either
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/6142118/Spotlight-and-downlighter-bulbs-next-to-be-banned-by-EU.html
Do you recall the line from Henry IV? It applies to other idiots also: “Let’s kill all the politicians” . In particular the ECOP (olitical) types.
I have no issues with anyone doing what makes sense for themselves(off grid, garden, etc.), but I get really bent out of shape when some citified overage hippie or politician tells me I ought to do something or other to save the planet. Or jumps up on their “greener than thou” soapbox and preaches that eco-religious BS at me. Makes me want to shove a CO2 fire extinguisher nozzle in their pie hole and pull the trigger.
I have nothing against progress, new technologies replacing the old.
But they have to be better in performance and quality and not dictated by Government.
We won’t have won the battle behind climate change until the ban on the incandescent light bulb is lifted.
It doesn’t matter that factories have been closed or moved to China.
If the ban is lifted and consumer demand is strong, the bulb will make a come back.
In a free world with free markets the consumer is king right?
OK, this is OT, but I’m ROFLMAO.
My “green” mother told me the other day in a definitive tone of voice that polar bears are drowning in the Arctic because of Global Warming. I challenged her to show me a video.
Well, she couldn’t – just sighed hopelessly at my heartlessness.
So I went and looked. There’s one video on YouTube that was given the title “polar bear tries not to drown” – but the clip itself says no such thing.
However, I did find another clip from Mia Cool Moon explaining it all:
Be sure to read the comments. It’s a laff riot.
What’s with the Heatball?
When CFLs are in a 40F. room they put out very little light till they warm up, some 3 or 4 minutes. How would a CFL work as a refrigerator light? Not very well. You would have to leave the refr. door open for quite a while to get enought light to find your foie gras. Where’s the energy saving there?
G. Rattray Taylor, in his book; ‘Sex in History’, described Europe during the Middle
Ages as a vast open air mad-house. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you read this article about the Cancun con you will know why it is important to fight and role back the power grab currently underway and why the incandescent light bulb ban is in fact symbolic of that battle.
Next time they your car, your heating system, your lawnmower or even your right to breathe.
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Flanakin-Cancunclimatesummit2.pdf
This is absolute insanity. The government shouldn’t have to *force* the elimination of these bulbs. If there were a significant advantage, the market would do that all by itself. How much mercury is mined and refined every year to support the production of these bulbs? Maybe China can precipitate it out of their coal power plant emissions.
Again we have a case of a patronizing government preventing individuals making their own choices “for your own good”. I have no need or desire for a parental government. I will use compact fluorescent bulbs where those make sense and incandescent bulbs where they make sense. Please allow me the dignity to make my own decisions.
I’ve got a corner of my basement stacked with 100 watt bulbs.
” . .Out of my cold dead hands.” ;P
Margaret @ur momisugly December 27, 2010 at 1:06 pm seems to have the same kitchen as I do. I’ve put in CFLs as the incandescents burned out. Some of those had rather short lifetimes, so I started writing the month and year when I put in new bulb. I quickly learned to do the same with the CFLs and have used that to make warranty claims. I fact, I just got a replacement in today’s from Feit.com for a bulb I put in in May and failed a few weeks ago.
A few cans have really old bulbs with heavy glass and poor light output. I put those in unimportant locations, so far, they keep working.
I also keep a halogen bulb over the stove so eggs look okay. The old bulbs made for some ugly pale yolks….
How many 60 Watt incandescents do you have to swap out with 13 Watt CFL’s to make up for the Tesla Roadster you just bought?
The Tesla can charge at 16,800 Watts (140 Amps at 120 VAC), so the answer is 357 bulbs.
If you buy a Chevy Volt, which only draws 3,300 Watts, you have to upgrade 70 of your bulbs.
We use a lot of 60W clear which I buy up when on sale or at garage sales (when new). So yeah I’ve already got my stock of >100 bulbs laid in (and will probably look for more) and I don’t plan on sharing. I do this partly because there may not be a similar replacement even though the bill allows use of halogens at least until 2020 (>25% efficiency improvement but not as “pretty” as standard incandescents as my wife says, especially dimmed, and also hot), rough service (with demand they may make clear), left hand thread and small base lamps (I foresee base adapters to get around the rules) but also partly because the cost of those will be much higher and not necessarily worth the additional money.
The military had a goal of an eventual electrical usage cut to 50%. This has eventually got to catch up with them and personnel in the manner of air conditioning and heating cutbacks and of course the conveniences such as microwaves and coffee pots will probably have to go (except for leadership of course). I worked in a large brick Air Force building in administration during the previous so called “energy crisis” under Carter and the interior got so hot and humid from lack of air conditioning that we had 2 people in my area pass out one summer. The dress code went from required coat and tie to shorts and T-shirts permitted, except for briefings which were usually held in well air conditioned rooms. One of course can predict the effect these conditions had on personnel efficiency.
I am using CFLs for my outside lighting. Not because I am green but because I won’t have to change them so often. I lost two outside sockets from these things so I won’t have to buy bulbs for those anymore, does that count as additional savings? My biggest concern is people like my neighbor. He has no plans to properly dispose of them. He figures the few he throws away in the land fill won’t harm anything. I can imagine a there are millions of people with the same attitude.
One thing that was often missed in the debate about CFL’s is that CFL’s put out a higher amount of UV than incandescent bulbs. While this amount isn’t enough to cause problems with most people, those with UV sensitivity (for example, people with Lupus), can experience severe health problems as a result.
I’ve seen this first-hand – a few years ago, my wife went into a prolonged flare and was not getting any better. We finally noticed that a new lamp we had purchased for the living room came with a standard CFL (we just hadn’t paid the bulb any attention), and it was the light from this bulb that was causing her flare. Her problems started a couple weeks after we got the lamp, and went away withing a couple weeks after getting rid of it.
None of the greens ever seemed to care about these sort of consequences, though.
I am lifelong epileptic. After my most recent “crash landing” almost exactly one year ago I was told by the docs to avoid the flicking lights of CFLs. Never really thought about it again till now but will ask my specialist about in January and report back.