Free the bulbs!!

South Carolina passed a law when this went into effect saying that the bulbs could be sold in this state, but the federal legislation would ban that unless the bulbs were made in SC. Last time I noticed we didn't have factories turning out thousands (hundreds?) of bulbs a year for the local Tea Party market for people who just enjoy wasting energy because that is what freedom is all about.
And I checked, there is nothing in the Constitution about light bulbs.

Unless you want to put it in your kid's Easy Bake Oven?

I need to check out the newer LED bulbs. But I switched to those CFCs, and regretted it, they're awful. In many rooms, by the time they have warmed up to get as bright as an incandescent would have been, I'm already leaving the room. They were supposed to last much longer, but they don't because all the on/off cycles wear them down. They only really last longer if you leave them on continuously instead of turning them off when you leave a room, which defeats the purpose of saving energy. Also, over time, they lose their brightness. And disposal is a whole other environmental problem.

With new CFLs, the first time you screw them in and turn them on, leave the lamp or fixture on for two or three hours.

For whatever reason, CFLs tend to crap out when they are switched off and on a lot at the outset.

The method above, though, takes care of that. I have some that still work after five or six years.

That's a great tip, if that really lengthens the lives, because yeah, I've had a whole bunch burn out way ahead of their time. I wish I hadn't bought a bulk case of them, so I'd be through them already!

Still, the quick burn-out is only one of their limitations, as I described.

about three years ago. I won't go back. I buy the daylight versions and have yet to have to replace a single one. 26 LEDs bulbs in our house, not counting the shop or the outside lights

The first two I purchased were cool white and I didn't care for those so they made it out to the porch light.

The bulbs do need to "warm up" a minute if they start cold, but that takes no longer than a minute, and it's not like you're left in complete darkness waiting for it (like my junior high gym - the sodium bulbs took five minutes and it was like experiencing a sunrise.) You can use a brighter light with more lumens and less wattage to make up the difference and it still saves money.

The CFLs I replaced in my house have been turning on and off for five years. I've replaced one that stopped working after a lamp was knocked over.

CFLs use about 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs, so you're still saving energy if you need to leave them on for some reason.

They also produce less heat, which over time saves on your air conditioning.

That said, I'm still interested in LED bulbs also. I've mulled buying them but they're still a little pricey when my CFLs are fine. I would love to have those color varying LED bulbs - they look so cool!

re: "The bulbs do need to 'warm up' a minute if they start cold, but that takes no longer than a minute...You can use a brighter light with more lumens and less wattage to make up the difference"

If I'm going to the bathroom, or to the kitchen to get a snack, or into the basement to get something, or triggering the light in my garage door opener to light my way to the car, or going into the big closet to pick out clothes, a minute is all I need. Even with a "100 watt" equivalent CFC, I basically have what seems like roughly the equivalent of a dim, depressing 25 watt bulb for much of the time I need it.

re: "CFLs use about 70% less energy than incandescent bulbs, so you're still saving energy if you need to leave them on for some reason"

With an incandescent in the bathroom and kitchen, I may use the lights for 5-10 minutes over the entire evening. If I were to leave those lights on, they would be on for 5 hours. So a 70% energy savings per minute still nets a whole lot more energy usage overall.

re: "They also produce less heat, which over time saves on your air conditioning."

I don't have central AC. Just a unit in the bedroom which is used maybe 20 days a year.

I'm glad it works for you, but as you can see from other posts, I'm not the only one who finds them irritating. And I'll give the right a point on this one, this was government over-reach. Conceptually, I'm okay with it, but for many people, the replacement technology was not good enough yet, and so it was too soon to force it, when there were so many applications where they are far inferior and even possibly energy INefficient if you are, indeed, tempted to leave them on when you leave a room instead of shutting them off, whether to retain brightness for your next trip or to avoid the power cycling which seems to shorten their life. I wonder if there were lobbies pushing for it because they were hoping to make money off new kinds of bulbs, as there was no longer any money to be made in incandescents for American manufacturers.

However, it's only in the past year or so that I've seen any kind of lessening of the supply of incandescents in the light bulb section. They had them at Walgreens a couple of months ago when I was in that aisle. To be sure, energy efficient bulb technology outnumbers it, but I don't think anybody is in a light bulb desert.

How long has it been since you tested them? I've been buying CFLs since the mid 2000s I think when they were more expensive. The technology has gotten better, they've produced dimmable fluorescents, and solved the greenish/cold color temperatures. I've even seen "instant on" bulbs that attempt to solve your warm up problem. Walgreens had a sale offering energy efficient bulbs for $1 sponsored by the power company to encourage people to change over about a year ago.

I don't mean to argue, and I can relate to the "I am not gonna leave my goshdarn computer on 24/7 because I turn it on only when I need it!" attitude. Most of the people I know might have grumbled that the light quality is a little bit different, but very quickly adapted to it.

Hopefully LED will be the technology leap that works for you but it's currently in its "too expensive to replace until my CFLs die..." phase for me.

re: "it's only in the past year or so that I've seen any kind of lessening of the supply of incandescents in the light bulb section. They had them at Walgreens a couple of months ago when I was in that aisle. To be sure, energy efficient bulb technology outnumbers it, but I don't think anybody is in a light bulb desert. "

Depends what you're looking for. 100 watts phased out first, then 75s, then finally down to lower wattages. So yeah, you've been able to find the dim ones, which didn't help much if your complaint about the CFC was that they weren't as bright as what you were used to!

re: "How long has it been since you tested them?"

You have a good point there... being a good liberal, I bought a large case of them when they were pretty new, and have been going through them, so I have little experience with what may be subsequently improved designs.

As the CFLs crap out, I replace them with LEDs.

... if used inside a traditional oven.

But those are special "appliance bulbs" I think I've replaced one of those in my entire lifetime.

The bulbs that terrify me are the halogen bulbs that are like a mini sun that heats up the metal of a desk lamp to dangerous levels.

... and THREW THEM OUT as soon as each bulb burned out.

Too bright. Too hot. Too dangerous.

I have tried various brands of the more energy efficient types and have only found a few bulbs that fit - and often when I go back to buy more that brand has changed bases to the newer ones no longer fit. Since it is a pain for my husband to climb up to change out bulbs while searching for bulbs that fit, I have been settling for incandescent ones that I know will. Someone here recommended a brand that they thought was smaller, but they didn't fit, either.

Most of our fixtures currently have CFLs, most of which have been there since we built this house ten years ago. Very few have burned out. We still have some CFLs from the case we bought to stock all the fixtures in the house. Once we use those up we will replace them with LEDs.

Don't fit or are ugly. Usually in seldom-used accent lamps, where power is not that big of a deal, but aesthetics are.

that are inside glass the correct size of a normal bulb so the spiral isn't exposed. They're pretty cool.

.....as a heat source.

I've done a lot of fiberglass work using epoxy resin and in order to speed up the cure it's convenient to point a shop-light (w/ incandescent bulb) at the part to gently warm it up.

Other than that I've now changed all the bulbs in my house to LED. I'm sure I could survive without the 3 or 4 incandescent bulbs I own, and obviously the planet will be a lot better off without the wasted energy. Fucking knuckle dragging repukes insist on clinging top the 1930s.

If incandescents go away, you could use a heat gun or a hair dryer with a good motor.

Often used in well pits to keep the pipes and pump from freezing. A root celler where one needs just a bit of heat to keep temps above freezing.

... when an early winter freeze arrived before we had a chance to winterize our RV.

I remember my dad used ordinary bulbs as "heat lamps" to keep newly hatched chicks warm.

While the breed I keep is a cold-hardy heirloom, I like to flip on some supplemental heat when it's below zero outside. Mounted on a 2x4 frame, two flexible desk lamps angled down provide a nice cozy spot for the hens to hunker down under.

So there's this tendency to have large plants that can't take a light freeze, and even greater tendency for plants that can't take hard freezes.

But about once a decade it gets down to about 20 F.

Simple solution: Throw a big piece of cloth over the plant, then a bigger piece of plastic. Put incandescent Xmas lights under it and on the lower branches. Then fling a big ol' sheet of plastic over the plant and anchor it with bricks.

I had things that tend to die when it's lower than 40 F cheerily pass nights at 21 F last winter.

LEDs wouldn't work. Not going to use a blow drier or space heater.

Perhaps soldering irons would work?


I find that things like this tend to work themselves out. Tell people that compact fluorescents and LEDs save money and electricity and some will try them. Then more. Eventually, the market shifts. Nobody had to put out a government ban on corsets or horse-drawn carts. Those who want to use either are still perfectly free to indulge, even if it's not good for their ribs or it drops crap along the side of the road. Few do, but those who do have their reasons.

That was before we got together and finished the greenhouse Dad had planned for her.

She kept a line strung between two oak trees where the orchids were. When really cold weather threatened - not too often in Central Florida - Dad would throw sheets and maybe a blanket over the line, sort of like a tent. Then he would run an extension cord out and plug in a small space heater.

She still uses a space heater in the greenhouse when it gets cold - but now it is my sister and brother in law that run the extension out for her. Somehow we missed that an electrical connection would be useful in her greenhouse!

The manufacturers came to realize a long lasting bulb would put them out of business. They conspired to limit the bulb's life. Now, if you like the long lasting LED lights, I recommend buying them now before their life is shortened on purpose.

this issue is perfect fodder for RW hate talk radio. They can fulminate about the evil Federal Gubmint taking away their light bulbs. Plus, it has the added bonus of scary technological innovation and a changing world.

Perfect topic for their dim bulb listeners.

Kerosene just doesn't have the same aesthetic quality to it.

Under Repub free market rules, we should all be able to import ivory to make into hash pipes.

Aunt Aunt Lydia's liver pills and tinctures for "feminine congestion". Oil of tansy and rue - yum until your liver liquidates.

(Actually... I kinda wish laudanum/paragoric was still in the major pharmacopeia as harm reduction; it's as addictive as any other opiate, but it's not nearly as concentrated and almost impossible to freebase or inject. It took 4-6 ounce bottles of the stuff to kill habituated adults, with a much higher chance of vomiting it up, instead of the milligrams of injected fentanyl with no eject button.)

Nobody with any sense of history wants to live in the past. Only people who think history is a LARP they alone get to escape think the old days were any good. The old days sucked.

And certainly can't take abroad.

I have a mandolin made with ivory and Brazilian rosewood. Both were cheap when it was made in the 1890s. In some jurisdictions I'd be cited for possessing it because I don't have documentation as to when and where it was made.

In fact, I probably bought it illegally. There's no way for me to comply with the law. That, to me, makes it a pretty badly written law since reasonable implementation requires non-enforcement except in certain cases. (That's called "caprice" and "rule of man, not rule of law" where and when I grew up). The regs are there to achieve certain ends and I'd be incidental collateral damage. For having an old bowl-back mandolin from the plucked-string orchestra heyday. Still sounds decent. Needs new strings, though.

Don't know about my 7-string made in 1970s Moscow, either. The scant rosewood used in it might be banned under CITES. Dunno. Nobody documented the wood or its sources, and the maker's passed on. Again, it was written by goal-oriented advocate/bureaucrats. Neither class is interested in fairness, just Justice (tm) as defined by themselves.

Some of the laws seem like good ideas at the time. But are easily subverted or circumvented. And often include things that the bumbledores making up the rules don't consider because they don't care. They have a Cause. People with Causes should seldom have power.

Whale oil died a natural death as a fuel for lamps. No legislation made it go away. It's like finding lead cello mutes. I had one in the '80s. But they weren't banned, it's just nobody wanted to buy them. It looks like they're made out of steel now. (Whale oil apparently was used for machining and in some automatic transmission fluids. Who knew?)

My bet is 104 have ever changed one - that's how many women we have. The wealthy men? That's what housekeepers, wives, parents and/or grounds staff are for.

Middle class men? Sure. Working class men? Absolutely. Even some upper middle class men. But wealthy men only change bulbs in their midlife crisis-mobiles, and only if they have to be special-ordered from the factory in Germany, and that only because doing so is conspicuous consumption of their time and resources and avoidance of actual human relationships. And they've been hot for xenon and LED replacements for years.

It's not about jobs, that's for sure -- the last incandescent lightbulb factory in the US closed in 2010 and had been low staff since the late 1990s. And that factory was in Virginia, not South Carolina, so South Carolina is, per usual, talking out their ass. (Halogen, tube fluorescent, CFL and LED are another story.)

We know incandescents are dead. We know this because the Directors of Photography, Lighting Designers, Cinematographers and photographers are elated to have better, remotely programmable, light-weight and lower power consumption LED cans, spots, PARS, and elipsoidals. Theater and film/TV would not be changing if it wasn't an improvement and a big return on investment, because technical lighting is not cheap. LED technical lighting doesn't set sets on fire. They take a tenth of the gennie power and 1/10th of the cabling, because you can run far more lumens for far fewer watts. They don't fall off the grid or flies and injure or kill crew because they don't weigh 40 pounds each. They don't require no-hands bulb replacement and reposition every 300 hours or gel refit every 200. The insurance for LED tech lighting is 2% of the old cost. (Production insurance is still high, but we're doing things like mechanical bulls 40 feet up for green screen.) Less gennie means less ADR and less noise reduction in post, which means faster editing and therefore lower costs. The pros have kicked the incandescent corpse. If the people whose paychecks and hundred million dollar budgets are done, then Joe in Palooka can adapt or sit in the dark or caress his 4 D cell Maglite while the rest of us shove 10 times the light for 1/10th the weight into our back pockets. It's over.

First, they need 8-10 years, 50 votes, and a lot of practice to repeal the black light bulb...

(Sorry!!!)

But when it does, I tend to rant.

Fucking light bulbs. This is the hill they want to die on. Seriously. :eyeroll:

They're more responsive, purer white (don't have to adjust gels for yellow), produce little heat (kinder to the gels), and last longer.

I remember in college during shows they had to check all of ~a hundred incandescent lamps before every performance, averaging sometimes 1-2 replacements every few days.

Then changing gels and bulbs would knock them out of focus...

High schools don't even use incans and gels anymore.

I needed to buy some gels for a perception experiment (red/blue/grey light on electronics) and even the theatrical supply house that the CU theater uses (which hosts a major Shakespeare festival) pretty much told me to expect gels and most films to be dead stock within a couple years. There are a few uses, but for the most part, all of the films through plastics manufacturing are more light stable and can be purchased through plastic manufacturers sized for digital cutting equipment (like the Cricut). The theatrical suppliers are moving people to LEDs.

Thank ghu. No more rigging monkeys with racked stacks of light bastard amber.

I totally forgot that LEDs can be programmed for the color. Totally cool.

Also, I remember our dedicated lighting person having quiet nervous breakdowns when a new person would clumsily cut the center out of a gel sheet. She saved every single scrap because gel media could get expensive, especially when they wanted most of the common colors on hand.

That is a fact.

We are too stupid to survive much longer, I give the whole human race 30 years MAX and maybe 30 days if trump nukes somebody.

and bring back "freedumb" in the form of outdated buggy whips, spats, gaslights and coal stoves. If they can keep appeasing the fantasy dreams of their voting geezers with empty promises of reopening ancient steel mills and making coal miner jobs for all, the numbskulls will believe everything and keep voting against their own interests.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Spends on incandescent bulbs and how much they'd save if they stopped buying them in favor of efficient bulbs.

They are cheap as hell nowadays.

The stupidity of republicans never ceases to amaze me!

I have two as outside garage lights and I kept track of when they were installed. They are now on year three (used to maybe get 3 months out of incandescent bulbs because of the weather and vibration of a garage door going up and down. These bulbs put out 120 watts of light for both and use about 18 watts for both. BIG win...........


No warm up time on LEDs,I've even got two in the master BR that are 3-ways. Expensive?? About 15.00 per bulb but regular incandescent were about 5.00 a pop and in no time one of the three intensities would go out. They've been in about six months and use hardly any juice compared to regular 3-ways.

If these asshole conservatives in Congress ruled for the last 120 years we would still be using candle light around the house. They hate progress.

Fucking republican neanderthal knuckle dragging troglodytes!

Or enforcing purchase of incandescents.

You know, you can still buy a horse and a buggy if you want. It's what the Amish use.