Confessions of a Light Bulb Addict
Please don’t think this is easy for me. I’m one of those crazed Americans who can’t walk into Home Depot, Target or my local grocery store right now without wanting to grab one of those king-sized shopping carts and stuff it to the gunwales with 100-watt incandescent light bulbs.
Maybe it’s the sheer thrill of buying bulbs that in just over a month, as of Jan. 1, 2012, will be banned for sale in America. What fun, in this incandescent twilight, to acquire legally what the federal government will soon treat as contraband, should it appear in any American marketplace. Or maybe it’s that gut sense that with the dollar teetering toward an abyss of unfathomable and inflationary government spending, those beloved old 100 watt bulbs will at least provide a decent store of value, even if all I do is use them to read by for the rest of my life — meticulously taking care never to violate federal law by offering even a single bulb for sale to some fellow citizen willing to pay for it.
Or, just possibly, this urge to stockpile incandescents is the product of simmering outrage. For decades, I have written about America as the world’s beacon of freedom, which it has been. Yet here we are, wards of the nanny state, with politicians dictating that even that prime symbol of American ingenuity, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb, shall be regulated into oblivion. All this has been ably exposed as an act of crony capitalism, designed to enrich manufacturers who prefer to sell pricier light bulbs that a lot of Americans, if free to choose, prefer not to buy. And the actual mechanics of this ban have been greatly blurred, Washington-style, by framing this fix not as an outright prohibition, but merely as a phase-out of light bulbs that do not meet standards set by Washington in the name of “energy efficiency.” First the 100-watt incandescents vanish from the shelves. Then the 75-watt, the 60-watt and 40-watt. It is, in its way, a bipartisan dimming of choice, tacked onto an energy bill signed into law in 2007 by President George W. Bush, and –despite an attempt at repeal this past July — upheld by Democrats in Congress under President Barack Obama.
I want someone to seriously investigate this. Incandescent bulbs are nowhere near as expensive as the new CFLs, and though we were told that CFLs would last longer, no one’s experience lives up to the hype. They burn out all the time, and you’re out much more money whenever you have to replace one. I’m wondering why no one *has* looked into this yet: did the companies that make lightbulbs somehow rig the tests, pay off the regulators or Congressmen, etc., in order to get these things shoved down their throats, so those companies could make more money.
Some common reasons for early CFL failures are:
*Installing them in fixtures where the base is up. While not widely publicized, this is not recommended, for the heat cooks the electronics in the base.
*Installing them in enclosed fixtures. Again, heat buildup.
*Frequent turning on and off. This shortens the lifespan.
So, if you want to get the rated lifespan, burn them base down only, in a well ventilated fixture, and rarely turn them off!
In the early days of CFL’s, there was a design I liked, and wish I had more of. It used an old fashioned transformer ballast, and had a replaceable bulb. Slightly more expensive, but probably cheaper in the log run. They were made in America by Sylvania.
Also, in the early days, circa 1990, Philips produced the good, but expensive Earth Light. I bought a couple because my employer sold them at a discount. They were completely enclosed in plastic, so breakage hazards were non-existent. I still have both of them, 20 years later.
Yes, a lot of us have heard the “if you do this” list of CFL life enhancing tips, but following these tips is counter productive to the intent of the new light bulbs. For example, leaving the light on for long periods of time may increase the number of hours the bulb will last but may not in the long run reduce the user’s burden on the environment. If you turn on a 100 watt bulb for 30 seconds to do a quick chore, you use only 100 W / 60min/hr * .5 min / 1000 W/Kw = 8.44 E-4 KW-Hr of electricity but a CFL that requires a 3 minute “warm-up” period to even get bright enough to see worth a darn plus needs to run another 10 minutes to avoid damaging the almighty lifespan is an environmental disaster. At 23 watts for the “bright” CFL (1600 lumens) we have 23 W / 60 min/hr * 13 min / 1000 W/Kw = 4.98 E-3 Kw-Hr This is roughly 5.98 times the amount of energy. Plus if the bulb is rated to last six to ten times longer well in this case you had to use the CFL 26 times longer than needed just to “help” it live up to its rated MTBF. Obviously, the longer the need to burn the bulbs the better the theoretical advantage to the CFL.
And the place where we burn lights continuously is typically at the office and those lights are already fluorescent.
Combine this with the toxic nature of CFLs which are the modern equivalent of lead or asbestos and things are not real appealing. Do we have to wait for the falling test scores of our children due to mercury poisoning before we realize that we are being penny wise and pound foolish?
Maybe when LEDs get to cost parity, then we will have a strong reason to switch.
It is just like low flow toilets. Sure they use less water with each flush, but one must often flush them multiple times for desired effect. Plumbers are well employed though.
Who is going to pay for all new light fixtures and lamps in my house so I can use these little dim bulbs efficiently? How much energy will be used making and installing all these new fixtures and then disposing of the perfectly good existing fixtures I just replaced. Oh, and I just added more to the landfills with my disposed of existing fixtures. Oh well, I guess maybe all this extra money spent is all part of the jobs stimulus package:(
Who in the hell wants their bedroom lit up all damned night?
Give ‘em Hell, Delia!!!
yes David. the companies paid off the politicians. it’s called campaign contributions,that is why everyone should be very carefull who they vote for, every election, far too many people go to the polls and dont even know who or why they are voting for a person. they just recognise the name and vote,
When the government, in its wisdom, banned incandescents, it had no idea, nor care, of its consequences. Years from now, when the lousy alternatives waste energy, cost more money, and produce toxic waste, the ban of the good bulbs will still be on the books. To say that government is stupid is the understatement of the decade.
Things like this can only happen to a people who have given up their strength, their will, and their ability to think for themselves. In other words, the American people. Because of our misguided tolerance, our gullibility, and our willingness to allow a Leftist MSM to “guide” us with their blatant propaganda, we have become a nation of sheep. And, to feel less guilty about our own national weakess, we blame the elected, lying crooks in government, as if they got their jobs on their own.
The world sees us as the planets super nanny state, going around telling others how they must live, while being “FAR” from perfect here at home. They also see us as a nation of fools who are always quick to but friends, and pay everyone’s bills, even at a time when we can’t pay our own. Yes, America has become an international joke, thanks in large part, to it’s weak, mindless voters.
Insofar as it is sale of the incandescents that is banned, it is my hope that enterprising small businesses buy up as many incandescent light bulbs as possible and offer them as free premiums to shoppers who spend more than a certain amount.
I am sure that such businesses would build their own customer base and goodwill at low cost, and it would keep this absurd overreach of federal power in front of the public as we go into the election season.
If you don’t think they’re going to come flooding over the Mexican border…
The prospect of Americans actually being able to purchase the bulbs they want might cause Obama, Napolitano, and Holder to lumber into action and close the border.
lol, monkey!
have a few thousand 100 watters
hope they last as long as the grid, suspect i’ll be out of electricity before running out of bulbs.
the only real solution is to decrease the population.
energy hogs first to slaughter
Mr Gore? surely you will do what is best for Ma Earth?
Me too. I look upon my cache of 100W bulbs as my grandchldren’s inheritance.
Don’t forget CFL’s contain the same mercury, deemed poisonous and dangerous enough to ban it in betteries 30 years ago. Plus, what kind of extra energy and resources are needed to produce a CFL bulb versus an incandescant. This is nothing more than a colonial-type ban on native-produced goods, except this time it is the Chinese and domestic tyrants artificially manipulating the marketplace.
Mee, too. Over 1,200 100 watt bulbs and counting. Since my house generally uses 60s, I may need to have my attic reinformced with the number of those I’m going to end up buying.
And should I ever have to buy a CFL, once it burns out, I’m sending it to Fred Upton’s office for disposal.
Cheers
This is very silly.
In chinese markets where you get the florecents without a brand name markup, they’re 50 cents.
They last longer, they don’t burn you if you brush them.
There’s nothing wrong with them.
But I don’t care about the energy use, I’m sure it’s not particularly significant except for you energy bill.
So I’m like ooooh you bad girl. It’s like you’re buying hot pink lipstick or something – you rebel!
CFLs suffer greatly from intermittant use AND cold weather.
silly? I think a dishwasher is silly. Should I be able to ban them for everyone else?
There are companies that are going to make an end-run around the law, by selling incandescents as “heating sources.”
http://www.heatbulbs.eu/
Why do I think that yet another government-mandated program is going to go very wrong? I mean, when has the government ever been wrong?
Start buying as many lightbulbs as you can. You only have a month left.
I don’t care if I have to go back to using candles, I am never going to use the squiggly bulbs. Freakin’ hate them. If an incandescent bulb was good enough for my long-ago Easy Bake oven, I’ll be happy to do buy them as “heating sources” or whatever other label they have to be sold under to get around the nanny-state regulators. Until then, I’ll keep be adding to my stockpile as well.
I have a friend who has rental property and he had to quit using CFL bulbs b/c his tenants were stealing them! He had to return to incandescents for economic reasons – it became prohibitively expensive for him to replace them all every time a tenant moved out. This is yet another unintended consequence of dumb legislation by a dumb and dumber Congress. I can’t pick the type of toilet, the type of showerhead, nor the type of light bulb I want! What’s next, government mandated toothpaste, towels & bathmats? It’s maddening what these we-know-better-than-you do-gooders are inflicting on us! Let the free market sort it out – if CFLs are better, as we’re being told, market forces will see to it they sell better, and thus be profitable. Banning the competition is an artificial (and disastrous) method of dictating winners and losers in the marketplace.
As some previous posters have said, buy all the incandescents you can now so that after Jan 1, to sell them at a handsome profit to the people who are walking around in a cloud – they won’t know what hit ‘em until a Wal-Mart or Home Depot clerk tells them, “I’m sorry. Incandescent bulbs are no longer available.” Only then will the reality of an overbearing, overreaching, arrogant, nanny-state government hit home.
Instead of banning incandescent light bulbs, how about banning something really bad, like cigarettes? Oh, silly me – I forgot – cigarettes are fine b/c the government gets a piece of that action.
Help the Post Office: flood the White House with letters! Help the phone and ISP companies: flood Congressional offices with phone calls and e-mails! Bring back the incandescent bulb! Three cheers for Thomas Edison!
Fred Upton, a leader of the incandescent ban under GWB, now chairs some committee where he swore to repeal it.
Obama announced he would veto any lifting of the incandescent ban, euphemistically known as “the incandescent phasing out”.
It is ALL is highly symbolic of something huge, so don’t feel like the Lone Ranger, Claudia.
The federal government says this is for my own good…
Drop a compact fluorescent bulb and you’ve got a toxic waste site
Our politicians are shirking their duties if they limit themselves to banning the light bulbs that most Americans prefer. They should be banning morning coffee and toast…
Many places have switched to “smart meters” where your energy consumption is monitored and measured remotely.
They’d like to be controlling all your activities as well, not to mention taxing you for how much air you consume, bigger lungs, higher rates.
You think I’m kidding ?
Not kidding at all, I just this month received notification from the electric company that we will be getting a smart meter shortly. I expect my bill to go up as soon as they do that.
this is a ridiculous law, and the fact that the Father of the Death of Incandescent Lightbulbs is a Michigan Republican (Fred Upton), I’m doubly ashamed for my state and my party.
I do not use 100 watt bulbs myself, but I’ve been gathering 40w and 60w bulbs for some time now. I’m hoping the new president will change the law back, if it’s not too late: incandescent lightbulbs have already joined the many other products no longer made in the USA…
You’re right, michiganruth, it IS ridiculous. This law, and the law regulating our size of our toilet tanks, our shower heads, are laws that place the federal government right in our homes! We have the right to personal LIBERTY! It’s right in the Declaration and Constitution. BTW, I have a cousin in MI named Ruth.
Be well. We conservatives will win in the end. God is on our side.
Mom in Wisconsin
Look, I tried buying these CFL lights years ago. They sort of work. Not for as long as everyone says they’ll work, nor is the light on at full intensity as soon as I’d like. I tried them. In some places I still have them. And in some places, such as my porch light, there really is no substitute.
Perhaps LED lights will be better. But I’m not going to hold my breath.
The problem with CFL bulbs is not the lighting part. It’s the ballast. That’s what is failing. Those don’t seem to be lasting as well as a plain old incandescent bulb does.
I look forward to purchasing 99 Watt heaters, just like the Europeans. If this administration think it can enforce Euro-Greenie stupidity upon us, they can try to figure out how to deal with European problems. Frankly, I see where they are and I would rather be different.
Only delusional math justifies the bulb ban. Infrequently used bulbs never recover the extra investment. Mercury contamination is real.The left no longer believes in efficiency so eco-fraud can’t be stopped. Green is like Veblen’s conspicuous consumption; it’s uselessness melds it desirable. Renewable only renews costs and waste so rational analysis can’t help.
I have been picking up a bunch of 100 Watt bulbs whenever I’m at the store. Haven’t filled a shopping cart yet, but am amassing my stockpile slowly but surely.
I’m with you, I’m never going to use the squiggly bulbs with mercury in them.
Its a freedom issue. I’m not going to let the snobs and cronies in Washington to tell me which light bulbs I can use. Never,ever. I’ve got my stockpile and I’ll keep adding to it.
So how many years will it be that we’ll have the “greenies” screaming that mercury is leeching from land fills because people threw away the squiggly bulbs in the trash?
Incandescents give off heat which actually cuts your energy costs if you live in a cold climate. The other bulb, which will never see the light of day in my house, flickers which causes headaches or other brain anomalies if you are too close to them. These are just a couple of items that aren’t usually mentioned.
Of course they didn’t mention the defects. First you suck the Rubes in, until it’s too late. Then,,,
I read somewhere – possibly here at PJM – that Europe banned 100 Watt bulbs a year or two back. Apparently, someone came along and started manufacturing a 99.9 watt bulb and they are selling like hotcakes. Of course, that’s only a temporary fix; once the government starts abolishing anything over 60 watts, that’s going to kill the 99 watt bulb too.
I just hope that someone, someone, keeps detailed plans for how to make traditional incandescent bulbs in the event that it becomes prudent to start making them again. I’d hate to see the knowledge of how to do it be lost. I’m not sure our descendents will actually have the ability to reinvent the lightbulb….
Janice
You are WAY understating the health impairment: CFLs repress Melatonin — a critical hormone that regulates mood and HUNGER.
It is the ramping use of CFLs that has triggered the staggering outbreak of obesity — with those populations most using becoming the most heavy.
LEDs are even worse in this regard.
In ‘Joe vs the Volcano’ this mood impact was made explicit early on.
——–
The light bulb industry has the SINGLE WORST ANTITRUST RECORD, PERIOD.
They gamed Congress by omitting cold conditions — which just kill CFLs — and by NOT cycling them on and off.
There are no patent walls to protect margins when producing incandescents — CFLs are a whole new thing.
Further, incandescants were made in America. Mercury bulbs are made abroad. An incandescant bulb factory just went defunct laying off a couple of hundred workers. Oh well, maybe they can get work on the Keystone pipeline—or not.
Imagine the independent Farmer who pridefully insists on driving his ox-cart to market, while disdaining the offer to get his goods to market for 25% of his present cost. What Libertarian genius !!!!!
Wisea$$,
Visual quality is just as valid an element of the buying decision as cost (upfront and operating).
I know for a fact the TOC estimates for CFLs are BS due to premature failure in real world conditions — destroying *both* the ‘save money’ and ‘save the earth’ claims.
And I say that as someone who has been voluntarily using them for years in certain applications.
The color spectrum of CFLs is just another example of the government mandating them before they were ready for prime time.
The early CFLs had a high color temperature of around 4,000K (bluish tint), similar to that of the type of fluorescents found in offices and supermarkets. It’s no wonder consumers were turned off, being accustomed to the low color temperature around 2,700K (yellowish tint) of incandescents.
But now you can buy CFLs with your choice of color temperature: High (which few homeowners want), medium (good for a dressing table or bathroom mirror), and low (good for lamps in the living room or bedroom).
The alternative is those new halogen bulbs. Those are more like incandescents–they’re even shaped roughly like incandescents. The problem is the high price, but that price is starting to drop.
I should point out one more thing. So many women have white-collar jobs these days. In the morning they should put on their makeup and clothing in lighting with a color temperature similar to that in the office they work in, not similar to the bedroom they sleep in. Because they need to see how that makeup and hairdo will look under the bluish fluorescent lights of the office.
The savings from CFLs are illusory.
The savings assume that you run the CFLs optimally–you don’t switch them on and off (as you do in a bathroom or walk-in closet) which greatly shortens their service life.
And the savings assume that CFLs live up to their claimed service life, because the cost of purchasing CFLs is so high. What turned a lot of folks off to CFLs permanently is that the early CFLs were awful–they lasted only half as long as they were claimed to.
It’s a perfect example of Government arrogance: Mandate a product before it’s really ready for prime time, and then ignore the backlash from the public about it.
Give it a rest. The farmer who has an oxcart may be using the oxcart because it is what he knows and what he has.
In any case, the 25% savings nonsense is based upon unrealistic life expectancies of the light bulb. My experience from 20 years of using these silly light bulbs is that they rarely last that long. In fact, they last perhaps only two to five years of normal use.
I’m not exactly sure why they fail, but my guess is that the egg heads who keep pushing this notion forgot that the components in the ballast in the base of these devices have a lifetime too, and that lifetime is often a significantly shorter than the lifetime of the bulb.
Basically, you have a projected savings versus a known present cost. Perhaps the farmer would rather not take the chance. It’s his money –isn’t it?
I never stopped using candles. And I don’t wash my sheets I just hang them up and burn incense under them.
Edison was a Freemason and probably a warlock.
Funny how we did the Washington DC tourist thing with our 13yo last week, and on the White House tour we didn’t see a single ugly CFL inside.
Be grateful you’re not in California, Claudia. In our quest to be “greener than thou,” the legislature banned 100W incandescents last year. I’ve seriously considered making a trip to Nevada, just so I can stock up.
We really do have the lamest legislature in the Union.
You & michiganruth (#10) ought to get together & compare notes on each other’s dopey politicians. I bet you both can talk nonstop for a couple of weeks!
You don’t have to drive anywhere, you can stock up at Amazon.com.
Buying low power consuming lights makes sense for lights that are on for long periods of time per day (say 6+ hours). I converted common area lighting that runs 24/7 to CFL’s (now moving to LED’s) over a decade ago.
Now, what about say a light in a hallway or storeroom that gets about 15 minutes use a day?
Cost of electricity: $0.09 (about average for the country.. yes people in NJ, you are paying double the national average).
100 W bulb cost: $0.85
27W CFL Cost: $6.00
It will take you over 8.5 years to get your money back. On the commercial side of the energy efficiency industry, a payback of less than 4 years is normally the target for something that will likely need to be serviced / replaced in at least a 5 year window.
So congress is forcing the public to make crappy financial decisions…..
BTW: Given the reduced life of many of my CFL bulbs, I have calculated that in a number of applications, I actually lose money by going from a standard bulb to a CFL.
Given the reduced life of many of my CFL bulbs, I have calculated that in a number of applications, I actually lose money by going from a standard bulb to a CFL.
And the money you lose will go straight into the pockets of Obama’s cronies.
Here’s a solution use a socket adapter and buy two 60 watt or two 50 watt bulbs and then go here and get a couple of these adapters http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-128-I-Light-Socket-Adapter/dp/B001ATG0JU/ref=pd_cp_hi_0 then you have your problem solved hope that helps!
But, but, the good news is by this time next year General Electric just might have to pay taxes.
Mexico will have plenty of old school light bulbs. My tunnel between tijuana and San Ysidro is almost complete.
You forgot to mention that the incandescents are made in the U.S. CFLs are made in China. So much for all those green jobs we keep hearing about. In the years after they banned freon, the #1 value smuggled item into the U.S. was, you guessed it, freon. I expected a similar trade in incandescents. “Psst! Hey buddy, got a light?”
If the CFLs were so good people would be buying them.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the government didn’t need to ban horses when they started mass producing cars.
Until you Americans can enforce the constitution, you have no choice but enforce your liberty.
Do not worry I go to the gun range at least twice a week for practice and have plenty of weapons wither on my person or in my home and can carry legally either openly or concealed at any time I wish.
Dear Claudia Rosett,
Re……”holding a candle to…..”
…..”seen the light…”
WHEW~I thought I was bad….
I will vote for whatever candidates pledge to repeal the odious incandescent light bulb ban.
I hate the CFLs for all the reasons adduced here, especially having to wait three minutes for the damned things to come on when I need to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
GIVE ME THE LIBERTY TO CHOSE MY LIGHT BULBS OR GIVE ME DEATH!
One of the things that gets lost in the quite proper cries of outrage over government overreaching and micromanagement of people’s lives is the cultural destruction which this lightbulb ban represents.
We’ll leave aside that the incandescent bulb is in its way a primary exemplar of American ingenuity. Let us, instead, consider that there are thousands of buildings which have been constructed in America during the century-plus that the light bulb has been around, many of which have fixtures that are specifically designed for them. These fixtures, often handwrought, are an integral part of each building’s design.
CFLs simply do not fit in many fixtures—especially (though not always) older fixtures. They are too bulbous and clunky and in some cases too long. To conform with the new mandates, many irreplaceable architectural elements and artifacts will have to be scrapped or needlessly altered; many light fixtures of an earlier age, such as the Art Nouveau lamps with small fluted glass shades too delicate to accommodate the grossness of a CFL, will be rendered utterly useless. Many homeowners will be put to the needless expense of retrofitting their homes; many tenants will be forced to beg reluctant landlords to replace their fixtures with fixtures that will accommodate the new regime.
The imposition of CFLs and the banning of free purchase of incandescents is not merely an intolerable impingement upon individual choice, but an act of cultural destruction equivalent to that foisted upon us when pre-1985 children’s books were banned for alleged “safety” reasons, on the grounds that there were traces of lead in the printer’s ink.
The cultural destruction is *feature* of the legislation, you know. Bulldoze all those old buildings with their antique light fixtures (except for those owned by the politically-connected, of course) and replace them with stark, bland “green”[sneer quotes] units approved by Central Planning, contracts to be awarded to cronies. Eventually we serfs will all be living in the Robert Taylor Homes, and in 30 years (with some help from Obamacare, maybe less) there will be no one left among us who remembers living differently (nor will they remember a time when children’s books could have stories that weren’t about bodily functions, collectivism, or earth-worship).
Another feature: the ban’s imposition on low-income people. When they realize they cannot afford new bulbs and the new lamps that take them (so long, thrift store lamps!) for their dense concrete cubes, the cradle-to-grave welfare state will provide them with light in addition to the food, shelter, heat, medical care, etc, they already expect to be provided with no .
The Robert Taylor Homes, lest we forget, were bulldozed, as a lot of Cabrini Green has also been—something that Chicago has done with its public-housing filing cabinets that New York City, for example, has yet to do.
I hesitate to make overly-grandiose predictions about the level of collectivist regimentation the Left is slavering to foist on us, but I find the increasing assaults on not only history itself but the survivals from the past, and their justification for safety, health, or ecological reasons extremely disturbing.
CFLs have one redeeming feature. You can put a 100-watt equivalent CFL bulb in a socket rated at 60-watts! This brightens up many areas of my house nicely.
Yes, that will work just fine in my drier, in my oven, in my refrigerator.
*sigh*
My dermatologist swears away from the hippie light bulbs. She says she has seen several studies that the bulbs give off almost as much uv rays as sunlight.
“cultural destruction which this lightbulb ban represents.”
LOL. The distractions, and pet peevishness you people focus on stymies any hope that the Big Picture has any relevance, at all.
Why don’t you go fishing and worry about how many birds are in the vicinity? Delusional to a perfect degree.
What is the “Big Picture” here, as you see it?
Because all I see is a lot of little pictures: Consumers wanting to choose A and having the government force them to choose B. *Force* them, not persuade them.
That’s true of CFLs, and the mandate in ObamaCare, and lots of other things.
The only one here to launch a gratuitous personal attack (rather than dealing with the substance of the issues raised) is you. When are you guys going to learn that you can’t shame and ridicule people into agreeing with you?
Most “green” products are simply inferior products for sale at inflated prices. The proof of this is that competing products must be banned.
It is irrational for a sovereign to dictate the use of a device, here a CFL, in order to eliminate coal fired power plants because they emit mercury, because the new device, CRL, contains mercury.
It is unjust for a sovereign to dictate the use of a device, there a smart meter, in order to eliminate coal fired power plants because the meter allows a bureaucrat to shut down appliances inside your home, without warning, without your permission, at enormous cost, which you must pay, both for the meter and the appliance. By lying to you.
The commonality is the sovereign’s loathing of a free market, and an unbridled urge to dictate choices on any conduct which uses energy, i.e. all activities. In the holy name of the environment, we are losing our freedom, via a thousand knotted regulations being written in Washington D.C.
Consider how the Gordian knot was untied. Only one massive united opposition will stop a dictator’s minions. Use a ballot, not a sword. Your sole peaceful protection is your vote. The issue is simple: Do you trust government to force our society, at hideous unsustainable cost, to meet some environmentalists’ goals? They seek a standard of living for most Americans to be similar to the America of 1900. Banning light bulbs is just the beginning.
Oh no they don’t! In 1900 they used both coal and wood burning objects. These people HATE people and want to depopulate the earth in the name of saving the earth. They are murderous heathens who think they can kill us off by freezing/heat stroke/refusal of medical care (in other words, a suffering death) and it won’t dirty their hands.
They really are monsters.
I pray that a successful black market rises up and it is easy to access. This is yet another example of how Congress is chocked full of imbeciles.
Many are stocking them up to sell them for $50 a pack on E-bay, once the ban takes effect.
Its either incandescent light bulbs or candles though I suspect they will soon ban that as well to protect us from ourselves!
This is disturbing to say the least.
I have a sensitivity to the the CFL bulbs which cause not only a headache if I am exposed to the lighting but I also break out in a heated red rash. I had them pull one of the lighting fixtures in my office and since then my migraines and rash have been greatly reduced. I cannot shop in stores or read in places which use this kind of lighting.
Additionally, I was staying at a friends house when a CFL accidently broke. As soon as I heard the smash, I quickly informed my friend of the danger of just sweeping it up as she was about to do. It didnt help that her condo was very tiny and there was no other room we could stay in. We did not know how to dispose of it and she called poison control center for assistance which proceeded to inform us that while we should not be concerned it would be best to keep windows open, wear gloves, and stay away from that room for a few hours. Again, no concern but uh its best you dont stay around it!
Last time I dropped a incandescent light bulb I just picked up the pieces and threw it away in the trash. There was no health risk involved nor did I have to vacate the apartment in the middle of the night, leave the windows open in the winter time in order to “air out” the room, and also throw away the broom and anything else I used to pick up the pieces of the light bulb with.
Why would anyone us a CFL unless you had to be forced to!
If we are all using less energy and our utility bills are smaller, isn’t that going to mean that the utility companies will be bringing in less money and their profits will go down and then they will have to raise their rates and we will end up paying more for less?
Funny you should mention that! Duke Power in NC recently requested a *17%* rate increase, and had to settle, poor things!, for a mere 7.5% increase instead. YAY!
A near term solution for the free market would be to manufacture 99 watt light bulbs. After the American people take back their country in 2013, and overturn this silly mandate, the 100 watters could reappear on the market (if so desired).
I highly doubt any republican will reverse this ban. It was promoted in a bipartisan manner by a republican, signed into law by Bush, and even a republican controlled congress couldn’t get the damn ban repealed. You think a Gingrinch or Romney will do it? The former appeared with Pelosi to expound on the reality of global warming, the latter a go-along-to-get along milquetoast republican who will indulge liberals and nanny statists and global warming ecofascists.
With the moral code of “saving the planet” there is no limit to how far the ecofascists will go to impose their agenda.
Trainwreck, I think Gingrich has seen the error of his ways. The Pelosi ad was a flat-out “stupid mistake” (as admitted by Newt). I get the bipartisan support of this bill, but we have to remember that George Bush wasn’t really a republican, you know what I mean. I know that Michelle Bachmann will go down swinging on this issue along with the support of other real republicans. Anyway, time will tell.
The ban is phased in–after a year, no more 75W bulbs, after two, no more 40W bulbs.
Dear All,
The problem with CFLi’s is your all used to poor quality, low colour rendering pieces of shi*e! There are so many better options available now but the do cost. Over here in blighty we are used to the ban and have not had frosted or 100w lamps since 2009. This year 60w disappeared! But these are for “domestic use” under the EU ban. So special lamps like rought service, colours, and marked with “not for domestic use” items are still freely available.
It’s a mad world where we think a 100w light bulb is a major cause of global warming but we can still buy 6 litre cars, have christmas lights strung up by helicopters that crash and have our politicians fly everywhere in private jets for meetings. What’s wrong with SKYPE! Of course these are just a few of the many wasteful items that this planet has to endure! Now some idiots are allowed to sell Carbon Credits on the stock exchanges around the world! WHY!!! So Companies that cannot be bothered to reduce their emmisions just buy credits and line the pockets of the bankers!! AGAIN!
Stay focussed, visit our website and watch out for a major uproar in the next few weeks as I publish an article on LED’s and CFLi’s!!
Believe it or not, the EU, which imposed the outrageously expensive energy-efficient light bulbs on us years ago, has already set the date for when THESE light bulbs will also be outlawed, in favor of even more efficient LEDs.
Yeah, and remember: to realize any efficiency—over-coming the high energy start-up in each lighting of the fluorescent bulb—you have to run it for 20 min.—that’s twenty minutes!
So, for instance, the kitchen might not be the best place for fluorescents—you know, the constant stream of late-night snackers; or say, you flip the switch on but then, bump the switch off and then you have to turn it back on again, well, cost-wise, you’re just never going to get ahead that way; so you know—like when you get a ticket, or maybe have a traffic accident—some days just seem to get started out wrong, and you later are to see, you would have better in just having stayed in bed. So yeah, do that. Go back to bed and maybe later, with a fresh start, a fluorescent light won’t get you off on the wrong foot, so to speak.
Oh yeah, and the basement, neither—say you have to go down to and get a couple of jars of canned something, well, you won’t be down there for 20 min. (that’s twenty minutes!) so, write down the trip to the basement for canned stuff on your list of things to do; or maybe, put a small desk or rocker in the basement, so’s you could sit down there maybe knitting for 20 min. or so, (that’s twenty minutes!); or maybe, use a candle (save the electricity, y’know), just try t’make sure you don’t trip or something, and end up knocked out lying there on the carpet at the foot of the basement stairs and burning the house down—I mean, we’ve just gotta make this bureaucratic electricity saving thing work because, bureaucrats need job justification, too—don’t they? Or do they? But however it might be, let’s just don’t kill ourselves and our family in the process because, . . . and not now to speak much about the loss in pictures and personal things which would be quite irreplaceable. Or, you could just take the carpet out of the basement, . . . Or, you could use a flashlight, . . . but again, please try t’not stumble over something, . . . you know how flashlights are, . . .
And yes, it can be kind of tough sometimes, the cock-a-mamie things coming out of govt work, but they’re trying; and that’s what it’s all about—isn’t it? And somehow, after Christmas, . . . we’ve just gotta try t’look forward to a Happy New Year! Ya’ know what I’m saying?
Oh, and I almost forgot: keep particle mask respirators located here and there because, fluorescents—if they break—can release some heavy metal particulates and vapor, and you know, air-borne mercury is immediately taken into the blood stream—kind of gruesome, I know, but, . . . it’s for your own good, . . . isn’t it? Is it?
Truthfully, I had forgotten about that January 1st loss of liberty!
I should like your readers to contemplate, however, that Thomas Alva Edison was
removed from the local school by his mother very early–and thereafter home-schooled…
No Harvard, no Yale, no college or university…THAT SHOULD SPEAK TO ALL OF US!
Think about the possibilities! If our government decide you only need one hot shower per week, we will need “smart meters” (made by a corporation that donated to the right campaign) to monitor that. Think about the bureaucracy required to figure out what your household allowance should be. Do children need to be cleaned more often? Old people? Will there be an exception for miners and sex workers? It´s lifetime employment for legislators and bureaucrats! Unfortunately I´m neither so screw them.
In our family household, we have built up for years what we call preparedness. It includes food, medicine, appliances, gas/propane/brickets, outside/inside cookery , BULBS by the thousands, gaspowered generators, powerstations, battery powered lantern-style lamps, and far too many other items to begin to mention.
What is my point? I don’t particularly give a crap about the new funnybulbs. Bought a few; won’t buy any more during our lifetimes. So screw the government and their micromanagement. This, too, we shall survive.
Oh, and we maintain the means the PROTECT all this. I recommend readers take heed. We will outlast the old style Republicans and the new style progressivist Demovomits.
Let’s start using kerosene lamps again. That’ll drive the greenies bonkers. Perhaps then they’ll let us have our incandescents again.
If you really want to make a point, how about whale oil?
Whale oil—the renewable biological choice!
Energy from the sea! Lots of new green jobs!
You’ll have to try it!
Hmmm . . . . whale oil. I like it! Great idea! But, mustn’t the whales be killed to extract the oil? PETA and SaveTheWhales will Occupy Whale Seas (OWS) over that. Wait, I know! People can start whale farms, and it will add jobs & truly be a renewable energy source as Bsmonkey says! An added bonus is there will be a renewable food source, too! I understand whale steaks & bacon are fantastic! The Japanese have been hunting & eating whale meat for centuries.
However, if this adds jobs, (whalers, oil extraction/storage/delivery jobs, lamp makers, wick makers, et al) . . . . . . bet the whale farm Obama will oppose it.
Oh Claudia, would that my craze were limited to the 100 watt bulbs. Last week I found myself in a “Big Box Store” and found shelves of 40s, 60s, 75s and 100s…so yes, I filled my cart with adozen of each.
Next stop …Betty Ford.
Maybe the US needs a ‘See Party’. You need 535+ individuals who will ‘accidentally’ drop a CFL in their Congresscritters office. Preferably on the same day. And preferably another group to do the same thing at the congresscritter’s local office. Both groups remembering to take note of the number of incandescent bulbs in use, versus the CFL’s in those offices.
You can listen to my radio show (about 8 minutes) here for more of the dangers of CFLs: http://www.peggyhall.com/storage/CFL_light_bulbs.mp3
Has anyone seen data on the reduction of city street and highway lighting at night? It may just be me getting old, but I don’t remember it being so dark.
The cheaper energy is – the higher our quality of life, the wealthier and safer we are. The more it costs, the more we sweat, the less it costs the more people we can reach with our ideas and products, and the more others can reach us with theirs. Which is an equivalent definition of wealth (we’re never richer than when competing for an order of magnitude larger customer base, and vice versa competing for our favor).
I recall reading a story about a Canadian company that found a loophole in their incandescent ban – they were selling incandescent bulbs as “heat balls”.
The irony, of course, is that the government’s own findings might facilitate such a workaround – the objection is that over 90% of the energy from incandescent bulbs is wasted as heat. However, if you’re selling the product as a heat generator with light by-product… (And don’t forget, all that energy ‘saved’ by producing less heat will mean precisely dick the moment people’s furnaces begin compensating, however slightly).
Oh, and don’t even get me started on what this ban has done to some older houses up north. The house I grew up in had light fixtures under a couple sinks – you needed to keep an incandescent burning during the coldest winter days just to keep the pipes from freezing. Guess what happens when you try to use a CFL.
How fortunate for us that our politicians have lived such privileged lives that things like this could never even occur to them. How very fortunate.
The first politician that runs on a platform of overturning every regulation on the books could probably gather a large enough following to remain president for life.
Since, you know, this one has already shredded the Constitution.
In case no one mentioned it, Here’s a warning concerning the new fluorescent tubes. I had to replace the ballast in one of my kitchen light fixtures. After replacing them I put the fixture back together and was putting new tubes in the sockets. I stepped off the ladder to get the last tube and it slipped out of my hand and hit the ceramic tile floor. I know from passed experience the old tubes would ‘pop’ and scatter all that thin glass but these new bulbs don’t ‘pop’… they EXPLODE. It sounded like a gun going off and that thin glass pieces were blown everywhere. Not just on the floor but UP on the counter tops, across the room into the dining room. I mean they could be used for removing stumps. So if you ever have a need to handle one of these things… BE VERY CAREFUL. This was one of the four (4) foot type… I’d hate to see what one of the eight (8) foot bulbs would do.
Ive been hording light bulbs since I heard about the ban. I have 30 gal Rubbermaid containers. One for each watt and I’m starting exclusively on the 100s. Everytime I go to home depot, Walmart etc I buy out their entire inventory. Those stupid lights are not bright enough and give me a headache. And don’t get me started on the LED Xmas lights. They just look stupid.
With all the problems this country has don’t they have better use of their time. Especially since we know that man made global warming was just a giant fraud to weaken the developed countries.
Are you ready for the new (new!) “Specialty Lighting” market? Ie: Same old bulbs at inflated prices?
Wanna bet?
I cant use the CFLs. I have multiple sclerosis. About 5yrs ago I had my very first flare of MS. It was visual in nature. Called Optic Neuritis, my optic nerve caused me to temporarily lose my part of my vision in one eye. It was extremely painful. Incandescent light bulbs were the only kind of light bulbs that didnt cause me pain.
I could actually see the flickering that CFLs do. Something about my eye not tracking as well as it used to, the flickering became more apparent to me. The light from the CFLs gives me a Migraine Headache From Hell, and also I cant see as well under CFL light.
The government didnt think about how the ban of incandescent bulbs was going to hurt people with low vision. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a doctor’s note to still buy incandescent bulbs. That’ll probably be the only way to get them after the new year. By prescription.
I had always thought the leftists made a big deal about “getting the gov out of your bedroom”. But they seem quite eager to tell us what kind of bulb we must put in our bedroom lamp, and what kind of toilette and showerhead we must have. Hey leftists, follow your own stated position, and keep the gov out of my bedroom.
Not funny!
Do not encourage these clowns, even by way of joking. This is too serious to joke about as liberals will see the “rationality” of what you say and take things to the next level.
As for going to other parts of the world for good old incandescent bulbs, sorry to disappoint you but they were, as wards of the UN, etc. the first to jump on the global warming bandwagon and have switched long ago to the CFL. Good luck finding the Edison icon.
We had stopped buying incandescents because they don’t last. They are forever burning out & needing to be replaced. It drove us crazy. The longer lasting CFL’s end up costing less. We started using them months ago. And saving $$ is important as we do not have a good income. You don’t need a special fixture, we just use them like the light bulbs we always used.
linda,
read the comments here. you are missing the point entirely. if you want to use the bulbs pushed on us by the gov that is just fine. if you cant do the math and figure that you save money after the 8th year of cfl use that is fine too.
we just want to be able to use the bulbs we want. throw in that the reason for their forced use is inane, it just makes it that much more frustrating. (i.e. we need to change because the energy used for incans USES too much mercury, so we must use bulbs that CONTAIN so much mercury that when disposing you need a hazmat team.)I guess this is what hayek meant.
The fact is that all forcing us to buy CFLs does is cause us to pay more money for something we don’t want, all in order to make a few politicians look better. That’s not so bad, is it?
Personally, the only reason that I’m not buying carts if 100 watt bulbs is that they still make halogen lamps, which still use incandescent technology (no mercury or electronic components), but use half the energy and last twice as long. However, it’s only a matter of time until they too are banned.
i’ve read enough,if people except this as the law .then we deserve to be treated like the idiots that they think we are.my biggest bitch is some one telling me what light bulb or any thing else,that i spend my own hard earned money on is the problem here.just like obumercare.this is a free country ,last time i heard.we are letting the GOV. take our rights away.it is unacceptable.Gore can go jump in the lake & take obumer & the EPA right along with him. i grew up free & i intend to stay that way .i hope there are a few more out there that feel the same way.