Justin has more information on the incandescent light ban passed by Congress. Looks like halogen bulbs will be affected as well. I’ve decided that when I get home, I will remove all my CF light bulbs in protest of Congress forcing me to use them. Say no to CFL! Say no to Congress!
11 thoughts on “More on Incandescent Light Ban”
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I’m just going to start doing with lightbulbs like I try to do with ammo.
Any time I’m at a store that sells light bulbs, I’m going to buy a few packages. They’re not expensive (yet) so, hopefully, by 2012, I’ll have a lifetime supply saved up.
I will say, however, that I think there is a possibility that this will get repealed before it takes effect. The “global warming” coalition is coming apart at the seams. This latest hysteria isn’t going to last too many more years in the mainstream (there will always be chicken little’s on the fringes) at which time there is a good chance that this crap will get repealed.
It’s not guaranteed by an means mind you…I’m just saying that there is a CHANCE that public outcry…especially after the global warming goblin is finally slain, and after the first stages take effect and the people who live their lives immersed in American Idol and Lost start to get a cluebat to the head…MAY convince legislators to see the light and repeal this nonsense.
Eh, I don’t see the point of cutting off my nose to spite my face, as the expression goes. As the last few incandescents I have die, I’ll keep replacing them with CFLs; they just don’t blow out as much, and my electric bill is high enough already. The vanity bulbs in the bathroom are the only ones I need to stock up on.
CFLs make me ill because of the color of the light. Even the “warmer” ones still aren’t quite right. I’m not opposed to them, but since I need to balance out each one in a room with a regular light bulb to maintain the right kind of light for me, this is a big freakin’ problem.
What I’m confused at is how everyone keeps saying incandescent bulbs only last a couple of months. Who on earth goes through bulbs that quickly? I maybe have to replace two lightbulbs a year. I still have bulbs in some lamps that have been in there since I moved in August of 2006.
Could they add a “removable resistor” to existing incandescents to drop them below 310 lumens?
Wait a minute, a 150 Watt lightbulb produces 2850 lumens (according to Wikipedia). So, those would be legal? (I’m a “100 watt minimum” person when it comes to light, so this would be okay for me.)
I like and use CFLs, but don’t want to forced to switch. I somehow broke one CFL (it just stopped working for an unknown reason). The light is usually good, but they sometimes look harsh.
I hate CFLs
We’ve started to stockpile them, a case at wal mart/home depot at a time, however I suspect Sailorcurt is correct and it gets scrapped when push comes to shove.
Hell, I lobbied thus bill (and the last one) and never heard about this till
I read it on blogs.
“What I’m confused at is how everyone keeps saying incandescent bulbs only last a couple of months. Who on earth goes through bulbs that quickly?”
I suspect our problem is old wiring. We’re in an old garden apartment style building that’s at least 50 years old. I suspect the wiring just can’t handle the sheer number of gadgets & lights we have. We have all the pcs on UPSs just to keep things even, for instance.
Or, maybe we’re just buing really crappy incandescents.
Does it actually ban a bulb that uses resistance to the point of incandescence to produce light, or does it ban bulbs that don’t meet an arbitrary efficiency threshold?
Neither one is good per se, but one is much less good than the other.
I wounder what GE and Phillips and Sylvania are thinking right now. CFLs are only 5-10% of their lamp sales. The majority of lamps sold are incandescent. It seems their huge push for these is starting to back fire a bit. I do think CFLs are great for table lamps and closets, but who wants to feel like their in an office building when they get home? Dimmers are a great way of saving energy! There is alot of dimming info on the web (check lutron.com/energy) and not only do you get engery and CO2 savings, but you get the option of setting the light level as you desire. CFLs can not be dimmed, even though some claim they can. The problem is the way dimmers work. In simple terms, dimmers shut your lights on and off around 120 times a second. What we preceive as dimming is actually the dimmer keeping your lights off longer in that on-off cycle. The dimmer the lights, the longer your lights are off, the more electricity you save, and the longer your bulb lasts ( potentially greater than 20x its normal switched life) The problem with CFLs is that the balast inside the bulb is also controling when the lamp is fired (using electricity) and that will always conflict with dimmers. One CFL manufacturer actually said they can be dimmed using a reastat dimmer. These things have been unavailable since the 70s when solid state dimming was coming of age (again check lutron who invented solid state dimming). Ok, so no dimming them. Another problem is installing these bulbs in down fixtures. The heat generated by the bulb with rise through the base where the ballast is located and shorten the life of that bulb significantly. Having to replace a CFL every 6 months is not a great way to cut your lighting costs. So now we have to replace all our downward facing fixture with flourescent fixtures with externaly mounted balasts. Should i keep going? Ok so you know that painting or picture we have lit with the sweet looking track fixture? well now we have use flourescent lamps… how do we aim the beam of light on the picture? You can’t (yet)! flourescent lights distribute light throughout the whole survace of the lamp. They can’t focus light like incandescent lamps can. I could go on and on but i will stop it here. There simply is not enough research being done by these law-makers to justify the termination of incandescent lamps. I am 100% for cutting green house gases and lighting is a huge component of that, but i am also expecting these law-makers to do their homework before jumping to a quick solution!
Don’t get me wrong – the marketplace should be deciding this; not congress.
So what is the situation with the non-standard types, such as the smaller “high-intensity” incandescents? Will they be banned as well? What about the even smaller socket light bulbs for certain light fixtures – or, is it only going to affect the standard socket bulbs? I can’t find any info on this. I’ve been stockpiling the high-intensity’s just in case.
Also, garage door openers won’t do well with CFL’s from what I’ve heard – too much inrush current to damage the relay. Plus, they need to warm up and don’t do well in cold. Crazy…
Oh yeah, and don’t forget appliance bulbs (in standard sockets). Imagine a CFL in your fridge being about half brightness when you open the door – once it flickers on.