The Incandescent Light Bulb R.I.P. ?

[VMI77]

Another example of government mandated stupidity. Saves electricity but you pay a ton more for the bulbs and with fluorescents you have the mercury to deal with as previously noted. Remember when freon was banned? Of course that was only in this country but the whole world was still using it. Cost Americans a ton of money. Then there is ethanol for fuel. Mandated use that ruins older engines, most boats can't handle the ethanol, drives up food costs because corn is the source. Of course Archers Daniels Crooks love it. Then there are wind turbines that cost more to actually build than they will ever create in energy- of course we give them tax credits. Eagles killed by wind turbines are acceptable but birds killed near a refinery are taboo. It goes on and on. A government out of control. You can't even get a decent toilet bowl anymore.

Except in many of these cases it isn't simple government stupidity but corporate rent-seeking. GE lobbied big time to ban incandescent because there is a lot of competition resulting in low prices and low margins. In the case of Freon, Dupont lobbied for the ban for essentially the same reason, knowing they already had developed a substitute. But yeah, I agree that the government is totally out of control.

[VMI77]

Not only uses less energy, but the CFL/LED bulbs make better use of the energy consumed, where as an incandescent bulb converts about 95% (!!!!) of it's energy as heat, not light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Incandescent bulbs are much less efficient than most other types of lighting; most incandescent bulbs convert less than 5% of the energy they use into visible light[1] (with the remaining energy being converted into heat).

So what?......that's not the point. I personally like LED lighting but in some applications I choose to use incandescent. THAT's the point: CHOICE. The government has no right to take away my choice --even if it means I'm using more electricity, electricity THAT I PAY FOR. There is no difference in principle from banning a bulb and banning an SUV or pickup truck because a Prius is more fuel efficient.

[talltex]

So what?......that's not the point. I personally like LED lighting but in some applications I choose to use incandescent. THAT's the point: CHOICE. The government has no right to take away my choice --even if it means I'm using more electricity, electricity THAT I PAY FOR. There is no difference in principle from banning a bulb and banning an SUV or pickup truck because a Prius is more fuel efficient.

Exactly...if we had a true free market, you put the products out there and the market will dictate which ones survive, rather than government regulations...which are generally written to favor one product or manufacturer over the others in the market. It's called LOBBYING...and it's purpose is to legislate advantages. An uncle who was in the legislature for years explained it this way: "there's never been a bill written, or amended that wasn't going to make someone a bunch of money. We don't sit around dreaming up legislation...it's brought to us by "interested parties", via lobbyists... then we ( actually his staff) have to study it and try to figure out exactly what changing a few words in the existing bill is designed to accomplish...and then whether or not we think it will be better or worse for our constituents...assuming that you're not just taking the "campaign contribution" and the other "benefits" and just giving them the vote regardless." With very few exceptions, I've rarely seen his analysis proved incorrect.

[Dreamer42]

Yup. Ah thank ya massa Sam, suh, [abbreviated profanity deleted] allowin' us ta have deese here fancy new fangeled bulbs. They sho is nice. Thank 'ya, boss. (Slave rhetoric intentional to prove a point - no insult on any minority intended)

[ss1088]

Say what you will about government interference in the bulb market, it has led to some pretty neat technology in the LED market that would not have happened for many years otherwise. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Prices will become more reasonable as the years go on. We have already seen some major cuts in this market as the manufactures and engineers have been figuring out ways to cut cost.

If you really want to stick with incandescent, you will probably be able to find them if you are creative enough.

[03Lightningrocks]

I am thinking of stocking up on these and offering them for sale at huge profits.

[Abraham]

Pppppfffft, I'm cranking up my kerosene lanterns.

Me and the other Luddites agree, K.L.'s provide plenty good light - I'm mounting one on each side of my surrey and tuning up my buggy whip, consarn it!

[Running Arrow Bill]

The halogen bulb is much cheaper than the CFL and only slightly higher presently than the current incandescent. The halogen bulbs also do a really good job of reproducing the current color temperature of the incandescent, so you don't get the off-color of the CFL or LED that come with some of them.

Here is a good comparison of the bulbs http://www.nrdc.org/energy/lightbulbs/f ... bguide.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I went to local hardware store today for some more 40 and 60 watt bulbs. Only had the Halogen ones. $5.79 for a package of 4 in 40 and 60 watt area. 2 times more expensive than the "normal" bulbs. There have been plenty of the "curly" bulbs around our area for months.

A lot of their "life" is a smoke screen. When our new house was built 2 years ago, contractor only put in the "curly" bulbs. We've already had about 10% of them burn out already...duh! Interesting part is that we use a lot of indirect sunlight and only burn a few lights after dark in evening. When we probably spend less than $5.00 a month on all of our light bulb usage...well, I'll never live long enough to recover the alleged "savings" from the twisty bulbs that cost 10 to 50 times more than a "normal" bulb. THANKS EPA! WE REALLY NEEDED YOUR COST SAVINGS PROPAGANDA!!

[jimlongley]

Working at Home Depot, I deal with people looking for incandescents and have to explain that the govt has mandated that they cannot use them any more.

I have been switching to LEDs for years, long before they were commonly available and were relatively expensive.

The government has mandated that they will not be available for sale...but if you have'em, you can use'em. I don't really care much, but my wife does...she hates flourescents, and over the last year or so has been buying up cases of incandescents and we probably have enough stockpiled in one of my storage facilities to last us many, many years.

Yes, you can use them if you have them, but once they burn out replacing them will be next to impossible.

With reference to wiring issues and such causing problems: I was a noise trouble shooter for the phone company for years, and getting the power company to admit that they were transporting a problem, much less causing one, can be a thankless and frustrating task. At one point I had to actually train a power company engineer in noise propagation in order to convince him to even try an experiment to prove the noise in my telephone facilities was coming from the power company's plant (which, BTW, was in serious need of re-engineering and reconstruction) and after proving to him that the problem was coming from his stuff, he eventually got it fixed. A couple of months later I called him about an issue we were having in a remote valley in upstate NY, and his first response was "We do not generate or carry noise." I did not bother to try to reschool him, I just escalated over his head immediately.

There are many things that can cause noise on the power lines, and some of that noise can be very high energy even if the 240/120 60Hz is near the nominal level. Spurious frequencies from both inside the home and outside can cause all kids of issues, including electric clocks that run fast or slow, fluorescent bulbs that do not last, "ghost" bulbs (usually fluorescent) that can be seen to glow in the dark and all kinds of other stuff.

I was actually writing a book on this stuff a bunch of years ago, but a ham friend of mine beat me to the punch. Purely co-incidental, we had both noticed the need and started at about the same time, he just finished first.

[VMI77]

Say what you will about government interference in the bulb market, it has led to some pretty neat technology in the LED market that would not have happened for many years otherwise. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Prices will become more reasonable as the years go on. We have already seen some major cuts in this market as the manufactures and engineers have been figuring out ways to cut cost.

If you really want to stick with incandescent, you will probably be able to find them if you are creative enough.

Seriously? You support the government taking away our choices and rationalize it based on an assumption of some future benefit? I hope you like Volts and Prius's because the logic of banning incandescent bulbs justifies banning SUVs and pickup trucks as well. Of course, it's unlikely, because that won't help Detroit's bottom line, and they're unlikely to lobby for it. And the logic that the government has a right to tell you what technology you must use is pretty close to the same logic that the gun grabbers use to justify banning semi-auto rifles.

[WildBill]

Working at Home Depot, I deal with people looking for incandescents and have to explain that the govt has mandated that they cannot use them any more.

I have been switching to LEDs for years, long before they were commonly available and were relatively expensive.

The government has mandated that they will not be available for sale...but if you have'em, you can use'em. I don't really care much, but my wife does...she hates flourescents, and over the last year or so has been buying up cases of incandescents and we probably have enough stockpiled in one of my storage facilities to last us many, many years.

Yes, you can use them if you have them, but once they burn out replacing them will be next to impossible.

With reference to wiring issues and such causing problems: I was a noise trouble shooter for the phone company for years, and getting the power company to admit that they were transporting a problem, much less causing one, can be a thankless and frustrating task. At one point I had to actually train a power company engineer in noise propagation in order to convince him to even try an experiment to prove the noise in my telephone facilities was coming from the power company's plant (which, BTW, was in serious need of re-engineering and reconstruction) and after proving to him that the problem was coming from his stuff, he eventually got it fixed. A couple of months later I called him about an issue we were having in a remote valley in upstate NY, and his first response was "We do not generate or carry noise." I did not bother to try to reschool him, I just escalated over his head immediately.

There are many things that can cause noise on the power lines, and some of that noise can be very high energy even if the 240/120 60Hz is near the nominal level. Spurious frequencies from both inside the home and outside can cause all kids of issues, including electric clocks that run fast or slow, fluorescent bulbs that do not last, "ghost" bulbs (usually fluorescent) that can be seen to glow in the dark and all kinds of other stuff.

I was actually writing a book on this stuff a bunch of years ago, but a ham friend of mine beat me to the punch. Purely co-incidental, we had both noticed the need and started at about the same time, he just finished first.

What is the title of the book?

[rotor]

I have decided that I am going to ask for a government ban on 45 acp so that I don't have to keep hearing how great the 1911 is. I am going to limit everyone to .380 acp kind of like they do in Europe. And since there is never any .380 available I am going to make a ton of money selling it. Think of how much more efficient a .380 is vs a 45 and how much less lead we put into the environment. This should fly don't you agree?
Please someone save us from big government. Edward Snowden is starting to become my hero.

[jimlongley]

Working at Home Depot, I deal with people looking for incandescents and have to explain that the govt has mandated that they cannot use them any more.

I have been switching to LEDs for years, long before they were commonly available and were relatively expensive.

The government has mandated that they will not be available for sale...but if you have'em, you can use'em. I don't really care much, but my wife does...she hates flourescents, and over the last year or so has been buying up cases of incandescents and we probably have enough stockpiled in one of my storage facilities to last us many, many years.

Yes, you can use them if you have them, but once they burn out replacing them will be next to impossible.

With reference to wiring issues and such causing problems: I was a noise trouble shooter for the phone company for years, and getting the power company to admit that they were transporting a problem, much less causing one, can be a thankless and frustrating task. At one point I had to actually train a power company engineer in noise propagation in order to convince him to even try an experiment to prove the noise in my telephone facilities was coming from the power company's plant (which, BTW, was in serious need of re-engineering and reconstruction) and after proving to him that the problem was coming from his stuff, he eventually got it fixed. A couple of months later I called him about an issue we were having in a remote valley in upstate NY, and his first response was "We do not generate or carry noise." I did not bother to try to reschool him, I just escalated over his head immediately.

There are many things that can cause noise on the power lines, and some of that noise can be very high energy even if the 240/120 60Hz is near the nominal level. Spurious frequencies from both inside the home and outside can cause all kids of issues, including electric clocks that run fast or slow, fluorescent bulbs that do not last, "ghost" bulbs (usually fluorescent) that can be seen to glow in the dark and all kinds of other stuff.

I was actually writing a book on this stuff a bunch of years ago, but a ham friend of mine beat me to the punch. Purely co-incidental, we had both noticed the need and started at about the same time, he just finished first.

What is the title of the book?

AC Power Interference Handbook by Marv Loftness KB7KK

My book was tentatively titled "Interference Troubleshooting" and used cases that I worked on as well as those of others and gave practical advice to deal with power, phone, and other companies to clear up interference. I also had chapters explaining the theoretical basis for some of the common household interference that homeowners experience. I no longer have a copy of it, merely excerpts.

[JP171]

Another example of government mandated stupidity. Saves electricity but you pay a ton more for the bulbs and with fluorescents you have the mercury to deal with as previously noted. Remember when freon was banned? Of course that was only in this country but the whole world was still using it. Cost Americans a ton of money. Then there is ethanol for fuel. Mandated use that ruins older engines, most boats can't handle the ethanol, drives up food costs because corn is the source. Of course Archers Daniels Crooks love it. Then there are wind turbines that cost more to actually build than they will ever create in energy- of course we give them tax credits. Eagles killed by wind turbines are acceptable but birds killed near a refinery are taboo. It goes on and on. A government out of control. You can't even get a decent toilet bowl anymore.

ummm "Freon" was never banned its still available in several forms, please before spouting check your facts