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 have 3 bulb fixtures in my garage that say they can only handle 3X60W. I assume overheating is the issue. I began experimenting with 3X120W CFL’s tho I have no info on the heat created by the ballasts. There seems to be no issue with overheating however. I must wait for them to warm, but once up to temp they’re throwing a lot more light, and I didn’t need to add fixtures. They last no longer than the incandescents. For all other locations, I’m hoarding. I have a large collection, and it’s growing.
When we arrive in the coldest part of the Grand Minima, will we finally see an end to this eco-nonsense?
In terms of CO2 saved, the following is from a UK government report from June 2010:
“As energy-saving bulbs use only 20% of the electricity of traditional bulbs and lighting
consumes a significant amount of electricity, the savings in cash and emissions can be
substantial. The Energy Saving Trust calculates that a home with 15 light bulbs would save about £45 a year by installing the new bulbs. In answer to a PQ in January 2009 it was stated that if only CFLs were used in households, the estimated total reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide would be just less than 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, some 2 per cent. of the total carbon dioxide emissions from UK households in 2006. 20 Earlier written answers had given a figure of around 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and this figure has been widely quoted. The difference could be due
to differing definitions of low energy bulbs and timescales. The Government’s Market
Transformation Programme, a body that provides evidence to the Government on energy-using products, produces reports that give some detail of alternative future scenarios: the difference between their reference (do nothing) situation and best feasible outcome for installing low energy bulbs is 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide saved in 2011”
Considering they estimate there are some 600 million CFL’s in use in the UK, the argument for saving CO2 seems derisory. And of course it comes from the National Guesswork Commission!
Charlie
I already experienced this in Spain, as the EU started this silly forbidding program earlier. I am not a big fan of incandescent bulbs, but the truth is sometimes you just cannot replace them. It happens to me with a standing lamp in the living room which I supply with a 150 Watts light bulb. I don’t have a lighting point in the ceiling, nor can I put it new (the flat is not mine). In addition, the living room is rather big. So I need to use a standing lamp, and I need it to be powerful. The CFL bulbs which produce an allegedly similarly powerful light are quite big, and that means that they are seen over the soffit, for a terrible visual effect, quite unconfortable to the sight. Furthermore, the bright control that my lamp has and which I use when watching TV for reducing the ambient light (as well as the power consumption) will only work with incandescent bulbs.
So what did I do? Well, obviously, I needed to buy 4 new 150W bulbs before they were banned. And I did. The 4 of them cost me less than one single CFL. And I am not so sure that they last significantly less. I have had this lamp for 4 years and a half, and I have only needed to replace the bulb twice, last one a couple of months ago. If things continue to work like that, I still have enough bulbs for the next 8 years. In a lamp which I use for several hours everyday. At a lower price than a single CFL. Hey, and it also warms me in winter! 🙂 And while cleaning it regularly, I have also verified that this light bulb’s very high temperature is a fantastic mosquito killer. What else can I ask for 🙂
Well the heating effect of incandescent bulbs cannot be denied. It is at least useful, not only in the home but also outdoors; especially so in traffic control lights which can become snow-bound in colder climates. (As reported on this blog at the start of this year.)
Speaking of the hating effect, heatball.de episode looks like it could go thermonuclear as the lawyer for the importers of the heaters has written a stern letter (on the 17th of December) to the local government demanding a retraction of the government’s unfounded claims and inappropriate application of EU regulations (which explicitly don’t cover such “special lamps”) resulting in damages to the importer. The lawyer identifies federal (German) laws that have been breached by the local authorities; including the unconstitutional restriction of artistic expression.
Just a small point. Edison did not invent the incandescent electric light bulb. That process was started by Sir Humphry Davy in the early 1800s and progressed by increments through a variety of people of whom Edison was only a latecomer. In Deed to maintain his patent Edison had to make a deal with Joseph Swann whose demonstration of an incandescent electric light 7 years earlier would have rendered Edison’s patent null and void. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Early_pre-commercial_research)
Here is the UK, pearl incandescents are now banned but not clear bulbs yet. We changed to CFLs about 3 years ago. The light back then was pretty poor – a sickly green – and they took ages to warm up. The latest twisty spiral bulbs from GE are fine. The light color looks normal and they warm up fast. You get enough instant light to see around – unlike the earlier bulbs which had you stumbling about in the gloom. Where we need a clear bulb in spotlights and chandeliers the halogen bulbs are fine.
I’m happy to save the money . We only use electricity for lighting, cooking and electrical equipment but, thanks to the windmill people, our electricity bill never goes down no matter what we do.
Trouble is there are no recycling facilities. But guess what? Nobody will set them up because they are fragile and toxic so into the household trash they go. Crazy.
In Europe they are phased out already in practice. During the 90’s factories piled up huge stocks of ‘energysaving’ bulbs which nobody wanted. After some hard and dirty lobbying in the European Commision they got the incandescent banned.
That’s the only reason they are, since heat from incandescents warms up your house. It isn’t ‘lost’. Industry doesn’t use incandescent much so they don’t count.
Money makes the world go round. Luckily i live on the border with Italy whose ‘enforcement’ of EU laws is lax at best so i can buy as many as i want.
http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/mencken-on-merchants-of-idiotic-ideas.html
As H.L. Mencken observed
“The kind of man who demands that government enforce his ideas is always the kind whose ideas are idiotic.”
Being sensible, sensible ideas seldom must be imposed by force. Sometimes sensible ideas are adopted gradually, as practices with widespread advantages displace less-advantageous practices and become part of customary behavior. Sometimes sensible ideas are adopted consciously and quickly, through the art of persuasion or the rigors of scientific demonstration.
In contrast, idiotic ideas have nothing going for them. Most people who voluntarily adopt idiotic ideas in their private lives soon abandon them if these ideas hamper their ability to thrive in the real world. The only way to implement an idiotic idea widely and surely is through force
Yes, they will heat your home (which is only useful in winter), but they use electric energy to do so; depending on the circumstances you may (in terms of fuel burned) get even or more, or not. If your electricity comes from water or wind, no fuel is burned. Burning fuel to make electricity is quite inefficient. On the other hand, burning fuel to heat is rather inefficient too – fuel is high-quality energy, whereas to heat, any waste energy can be used as long as it is some kelvins warmer.
The whole issue is silly, it is not as if CCFL were not used already due to cost savings, furthermore lighting in private homes is not really important factor overall, industry guzzles up real power, but – get this – energy-intensive industries like Al smelting have been made EXEMPT from all the expenses and “saving”, I think they pay the EEX wholesale price at 60 bucks/MWh. In homes/offices, the biggest culprits are air conditioning (how many diatribes do you hear against these devilries?), heating (but often overestimated, see above, impressive MWh numbers but they can be low quality energy, and if this fails, you can resort to freezing), and IT/TV/Telecom devices.
Furthermore, there are cases where using a CCFL is just plain dumb: any infrequent but short requirement for light like restroom, stairs, or even coupled with insane cold like in a cold storeroom, ice cellar, etc.
Also, some uses need a broad-band emission spectrum. I wonder how our propaganda industries handle this. They must use thermic emission since CCFL and LED light suck. A typical photo bulb is 500 watts, a typical light cannon for theatre/movie is like 2000 watts or more, I am told.
As to their toxicity, they do contain (small) amounts of Hg, and the inverter(?) in the socket is not nice either, but people have been using (larger) CCFLs for decades now to save energy, it is not some new thing that came along. They are also used in nearly all flat-screen computer monitors (only the newest ones have LED backlight).
Dave says:
December 27, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Make that two.
Have stored a thirty year supply of incandescent bulbs. Very cheap at Home Depot.
There are some misunderstandings about the US law regarding bulbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Independence_and_Security_Act_of_2007
Incandescent lights
Under the law, incandescent bulbs that produce 310–2600 lumens of light are effectively phased out between 2012 and 2014. Bulbs outside this range (roughly, light bulbs currently less than 40 watts or more than 150 watts) are exempt from the ban. Also exempt are several classes of speciality lights, including appliance lamps, “rough service” bulbs, 3-way, colored lamps, and plant lights.[23]
The phase-out of incandescent light bulbs was supported by the Alliance to Save Energy, a coalition of light bulb manufacturers, electric utilities and conservation groups. The group estimated that lighting accounts for 22% of total U.S. electricity usage, and that eliminating incandescent bulbs completely would save $18 billion per year (equivalent to the output of 80 coal plants).[24] Light bulb manufacturers also hoped a single national standard would prevent the enactment of conflicting bans and efficiency standards by state governments.
FergalR says:
December 27, 2010 at 12:37 pm
My goodness. Temper, temper.
But to answer his question regarding climate scientists, try this:
Richard Siegmund Lindzen (born February 8, 1940, Webster, Massachusetts) is an American atmospheric physicist and Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindzen is known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than 200 scientific papers and books.[1] He was a lead author of Chapter 7, ‘Physical Climate Processes and Feedbacks,’ of the IPCC Third Assessment Report on climate change. He is a well known skeptic of global warming[2] and critic of what he states are political pressures on climate scientists to conform to climate alarmism.[3]
From Wikipedia.
Mark Twang says:
December 27, 2010 at 1:39 pm
How does that girl even get up in the morning? It is funnier than all get out. I would start laughing if someone started talking like this girl.
Reminds me of this:
However, I did find another clip from Mia Cool Moon explaining it all:
It’s a great shame that the myth that Edison invented the incandescent light bulb continues on and on. Although many had made crude attempts, it was indeed Brit, Joseph Swan. All Edison did was to make it better. This is not about what great nations invented, but giving credit to the correct person. I wish I had the power to remove that youtube video, and others where the info is simply incorrect!
If energy wasn’t subsidized in the US none of this would be needed.
A lot of talk here of the end of life problems with non incandescent lighting. There are also problems with their manufacture. An interesting article in the Dec/Jan 2010/11 UK issue of The Chemical Engineer – ‘Not so rare after all’ page 33 – 35. It is an article on the availability of rare earth elements (metals), REEs, and their mining & extraction. It talks about terbium, which is essential for non-incandescent lighting, and how, because of the high labour & environmental costs the West has not developed their own sources. Generally speaking, their are lots of REEs everywhere, but they are in such low concentrations that it is not economically viable to recover them. Up steps China. The article states:-
“It didn’t stop Chinese entrepreneurs who, using cheap unskilled labour, flood hilltops with chemical reagents and channel them into catch basins made from plastic-lined earthen ponds. The extraction liquor is partially evaporated and is then processed with crude tanks and makeshift solvent exchange. Only a small fraction of the heavy REEs are recoveredthis way, most remaining in the process residue”
Nothing against the Chinese, I like them, but can you imagine the response if a company flooded the Sussex Downs or the Rockies with a chemical soup and left a huge amount of chemical sludge there!
You’d think that ALL incandescent bulbs will go away or be affected, right?
Well, like all laws, there will be “exemptions”.
Here’s a list of the bulbs that WON’T be affected:
EXCLUSIONS- The term ‘general service incandescent lamp’ does not include the following incandescent lamps:
1. Appliance lamp (e.g. refrigerator or oven light)
2. Black light lamp.
3. Bug lamp.
4. Colored lamp.
5. Infrared lamp.
6. Left-hand thread lamp.
7. Marine lamp.
8. Marine signal service lamp.
9. Mine service lamp.
10. Plant light lamp.
11. Reflector lamp.
12. Rough service lamp.
13. Shatter-resistant lamp (including a shatter-proof lamp and a shatter-protected lamp).
14. Sign service lamp.
15. Silver bowl lamp.
16. Showcase lamp.
17. 3-way incandescent lamp.
18. Traffic signal lamp.
19. Vibration service lamp.
20. Globe shaped “G” lamp (as defined in ANSI C78.20-2003 and C79.1-2002 with a diameter of 5 inches or more.
21. T shape lamp (as defined in ANSI C78.20-2003 and C79.1-2002) and that uses not more than 40 watts or has a length of more than 10 inches.
22. A B, BA, CA, F, G16-1/2, G-25, G30, S, or M-14 lamp (as defined in ANSI C79.1-2002 and ANSI C78.20-2003) of 40 watts or less.
23. Candelabra incandescent and other lights not having a medium Edison screw base.
So just think of the different ways you can convert:
a. Get the “rough service” lamps.
b. Get adapters (those that allow a candelabra light to be used in an “edison” socket).
c. Change single socket fixtures for multiple socket fixtures (replace a single 60W bulb with 3 25W bulbs).
If they think people are going to give up the lumens and colors we’ve gotten used to, then they’ll be surprised.
I too tried the CFLs. I didn’t like the flicker and dim light. Within the first 6 months power line fluctuations took out 7 of 8. I am still all for trying the LEDs, but not at $90 plus a fixture.
As far as uses for the heat ball incandescent bulbs, add my well pump house out back. In winter (45ºN) I heat it with a 75 watt bulb with a 1,500 watt milkhouse heater on a thermostat as a backup. I’d rather run 75 watts all of the time than 1,500 most of the time. I will be hoarding.
As Mike McMillan, Crosspatch and others have stated, let the market sort it out. The problem is, most of the environmentalist schemes don’t work well, so they need to be subsidized or forced by law. We can add CFLs to the failure list of solar, wind, MTBE, and ethanol.
Since a normal lamp is practically a very efficient heating device, and we only use the lamps when we have night (summers =20-24h sunshine here in the arctic, winters cold, dark, 4h-0h sunshine), there is no energy saved by switching to a lower wattage device and then using a heater to make up the difference.
Lamps will be banned here but someone is already selling “heat balls” which fit the existing lamp sockets surprisingly well and also give out light as a side effect. This is not a joke, the ban is. We truly need protection from giant company lobbyists pushing stupid and unnecessary, expensive sh*t by making options illegal.
Compelling people to use more economical forms of electrical lighting in no way requires them to use less electricity, or prevents them from using more. As they could manifestly afford to use the electricity they had previously chosen to buy they can now use it on other things and they will do so – perhaps even increasing their consumption if such consumption seems likely to bring greater utility than spending income on other consumption goods. What is more, global economic growth will necessitate or permit ever growing consumption of electricity. Increasing per capita wealth goes with greater per capita energy usage. See Mr Albert Gore for an example.
Can you imagine the government outcry if it was INCANDESCENT lamps which contained the mercury vapour – and not the dreadful ‘low energy’ ones..? Strange that governments worldwide don’t seem at all concerned about all the mercury which is going to go to landfill (oh – please don’t pretend that everyone is going to dispose of the twisty things ‘correctly’)..
I myself see them as the ‘eight track stereos’ of the lighting world – a short-term stop-gap which will be rapidly overtaken by LEDs – which are of course still being refined. Any time soon we’ll see candle lamps with the crisp light which they require, provided by LEDs, and able to fit standard bayonet or Edison screw fittings. Then the world’s governments can buy up all the redundant fluorescent thingies if they love them so much…
By the way – re ‘stockpiling’ – apparently one of the biggest stockpilers in the UK is the Department which maintains the chandeliers at 10 Downing Street…!
I have CFLs all over my house (over 35 in all) and I appreciate the savings in electricity. But I also have lights in my closets and hallways that hardly get used. It seems foolish to spend so much on a CFL bulb that will be used for a few minutes a day.
I am also deeply disappointed in CFLs. I have over a dozen that have burned out in the last 1-2 years (some only ran for a few months). But a few have lasted for about 10 years. There is no correlation that I can see with use, frequency, or even brand. Some are just lousy bulbs. They are not saving me as much money as they promised.
[Placing an order for 50,000 105w light bulbs from China to sell in California]
/sarc
I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading WUWT. Thanks to Anthony, and the many folk’s that contribute. I read WUWT almost daily and have learned much concerning our weather and climate. I have to admit, I was a fence setter, until that fool Al Gore started with his trash and of course the big conn with Mann and Jones and Climate Gate.
I have taken a long look at the science and have read countless hour about climate change written form both sides of the fence. My conclusion, I side with those that say man made global warming/climate change is pure rubbish, especially when it comes to CO2.
Concerning light bulbs, I purchased twenty five (25) CFL’s a few years back and have been disappointed to say the least. So far I have lost two (2) of the curly boy’s, I hope they all die soon. I hate them. Though I save a little on my electric bill, not a penny have I saved!
I have approximately one hundred (100) 60 watt incandescent bulbs stored away in the basement, with any luck, that could last me until I’m ready for the nursing home. However, a few months back I came across some LED’s that Lowe’s were blowing out for $8.00 a piece. I purchased their entire inventory of 6 LED bulbs. I love them, great light, fast on, no warm up time and with a 30,000 hour life, they very well could be the last thing I see before the undertake comes to pick me up.
In our society to day there is a lot of foolishness, outlawing incandescent light bulbs is only one. Here in Pennsylvania the state has mandated that all new residential homes have sprinkler systems installed. I can just see the grand kids targeting one of those sprinkler heads with their ball, accidentally of course. Hey grandpa, I think we have a roof leak! Fortunately one of our state represents is trying to get the law repealed, I wish him luck. I am told by some friends in the construction business that these sprinkler systems could add additional $3500 to $6500 or more to the cost of a new home. If I could just be invisible and carry a big stick! I could guarantee you some crazy lawmakers would have sore shins at the mere mention of this outlandish foolishness.
Wish you all a happy New Year!
I think the poll needs a few more questions.
What will I do? I have a few lamps and fixtures that are only suitable for use with the incandescent lamps. The black market will thrive. The envioros have decided that the issue of what lamp I purchase rises to the level of using armed federal agents to impose their opinion on me. Of course, it is my OBLIGATION to resist such tyranny. I will do so in so many peaceful ways, including making direct and indirect donations to causes to remove them from being able to impose any more of their dangerous ideology on society. I can also express my opinion in public and on blogs like this one.
I went though this with Freon. I had a freezer that developed a slow leak. I was told that because of the then-pending prohibition on the type of freon the freezer used, it would be far less expensive to just replace it with a new freezer. Thus, the enviros and their running lackey dogs in government were telling me that they had not cared about the environmental cost of junking a perfectly good freezer nor making its replacement when it came to speculating about the total environmental cost of this particular Freon. And they would rather give government the power to use the implied threat of deadly force rather than allowing people to peacefully replace and upgrade their equipment as it wore out or was removed from service. So, this was, like all proposals from the enviros, a move to increase government power destroy personal liberty. What else is new with tyrants? Our tyrants of today are sophisticated, and may employ focus groups and wordsmithing, but they are still tyrants.
Up here in Canada they are pushing for the CFLs as well. I originally bought some a couple of years ago for the supposed savings they provide, this was before I knew about the mercury.
I have since discovered problems on my own. Other than them not lasting any where near as long as they claimed, have you ever tried to use one out doors to light your step in -25c weather. I got more light out of my wifes little one LED car door lock light key chain.
The other problem I have found up here is that for as much as they push them up here, they have absolutely NO recycling program or facilities any where near where I live in the 5th largest city in Alberta. When our local Minister of Parliament was questioned about this, he failed to respond.
My thoughts are that when ever one of these CFLs burn out, we should take them to the parliament building or the homes and offices of all these green weeny’s and smash the bulbs on there floors and let them deal with the mercury released and the $4 thousand to $50 thousand dollar clean up cost for hazardous materials. Maybe after enough times of doing this they may change there mind about how wonderful theses bulbs are.
I continue to see massive numbers of pole-mounted LP sodium lights burning 24hrs/day along Interstate highways & especially interchanges, turning night into pink-tinged day. And then my 40W incandescent over the stove top is being banned because of energy-saving considerations?
Are we going to put CFLs in our oven’s stove-light socket to see if the frozen pizza is done?