Incandescent bulb bans

[Narei Mooncatt]

I've heard about the U.S. phasing out incandescent bulbs starting next year from a non-news source, so I looked in to it and according to Wikipedia, it seems like a world wide thing. I'm personally against it because CFL's are the next cheapest but so expensive that *if* you recover costs in energy savings, it would take so long that you're not likely to notice it in your electric bill. Not to mention the mercury concern since most people may not understand that you can't just toss them in the trash and have to properly dispose of them, and the very annoying "fluttering" when it starts to go out. There has only been one time for me that CFL's made sense and that was because the electrical system where I once lived was wacky and caused incadescents to pop after only a month or so, and CFL's actually would last a long time. LED's look great, but those are way more expensive and while price may come down a bit more, I still find spending that much on a simple light to be silly.

So, anyone planning to stock up on incandescents?

[Shim]

I completely agree. There should be no BAN on it. At school, I see people tossing and recycling the wrong things constantly, and this would be an even bigger annoyance. I'm perfectly content with my incandescent bulbs for now.

Also, yeah, that flickering gets obnoxious.

edit: pressed entire too quickly.

[Avan]

It also depends on where you live, because in some places energy gets ridiculous during certain hours of the summer... >.> *cough*socal*cough*
But I've had problems with incandescents chronically burning out on me anyways, so it's a pain to have to bother to replace them all the time. I don't care if they go or not.

[Alsek]

Actually,  the CFLs hurt my eyes and give me headaches.  o.o

I can't stand being in a room lit by them for too long... At work i brought my own lamp in to my office just so that i could use the incandescent light-bulbs.

[Avan]

I'm ok with CFL lighting - but CRT screens... D:

[Varg the wanderer]

I'm planning on stocking up. While the ban is unconstitutional in the US, we all know that our lovely politicians have as much concern over the constitution as a roll of toilet paper.

[Narei Mooncatt]

This is likely one of those things that even if it wasn't legislated, the EPA would have made some regulation on it to bypass stuff like constitutionality, though I don't think I'd go so far as to make a constitutional claim on this myself. They seem to have more power than Congress in that regard, all in the name of trying to fix something that isn't even surely broken. Personally I think the EPA's powers should be rolled back, but it's one of those things that if a politician tries to knock some sense into them, their career is over and will be called all sorts of Earth Killer type names.

[furtopia02]

I hated the new style bulbs at first.. but then the 6500k ones came out and I LOVE the colour they have!  However.. I'd had absolute terrible luck with ALL new bulbs. I've had 3 or 4 packs of them now. In various lights around the house they always go dead within a couple weeks. I've had some just stop working within a few days of use for a few hours each day. At $5 a pop for these things.. I'm NOT happy. I've gone back to the 40watt regular bulbs for now.. I'll buy many more before they are gone. Those things last ages for me.. the new ones? They suck in terms of life in MY experience (and no, my house is fine and does NOT have electrical problems, and nor do ALL of my lamps since they have all had them stop working in them at one point). I don't believe the claim on the packaging of longer life at all. I think build quality is going out the window with them right now and they are doing something wrong. Either that or I have even worse luck than I previously thought. I've been buying the nice brands, not the cheap stuff. The cheaper ones I've tried too and just flat out don't like them. They flicker, sometimes take multiple attempts to turn them on, and one box my grandmother bought take a couple MINUTES to get to full brightness. Mine get there in less than 30 seconds usually. There is a lot of room for improvement with these, and issue need to be addressed. On top of the annoying and financial aspects I have issues with regarding these there is also the environmental issue I have with them as well.

One thing I do like though is the 6500k colours ones.. but I am not looking forward to having no more dim, amber coloured ones for many light fixtures around the house (that give off what is like candle light). I foresee lighting things becoming more and more expensive for me in the future if my luck with these things continues the way it has..

(sorry my English is so terrible tonight)

[Narei Mooncatt]

Sounds like you're having the opposite issue I had, Brent. You may not have electrical "problems" but sounds like some anomaly is plaguing you. I wonder if contacting your power company and/or a CFL manufacturer may help if you run out of the old style bulbs. And also makes me wonder if a problem like that would be wide spread.

[Arbutus]

I've had no problem with the new fluorescent bulbs. I actually prefer them, because they've proven a lot more durable for me and they don't produce unwanted heat.

[Avan]

I've had no problem with the new fluorescent bulbs. I actually prefer them, because they've proven a lot more durable for me and they don't produce unwanted heat.

Less unwanted heat, sir bunny face.  It's still a nice improvement, but I do find they get rather hot still.

[Arbutus]

Really? I've never found that to be true. I can wrap my hand around the bulbs I use even after they've been going for a few hours.

I feel like I should share some information about what brand I use, because apparently they work better than most others, but frankly I have no idea because I've been using the same three bulbs for years now. Still going strong!

[Narei Mooncatt]

I've found the bulbs themselves are usually cool to the touch, but it's the circuitry at the base that heats up. At least in what I've seen.

[Avan]

Some of them can do that, depending on the current flowing to the ballast. Super-cheap ones (I think I was getting them for 2.80$ each or something) are really bad at that though, and will suffer over-heating of the ballast to the point that if used continuously (like the light on the front porch of my house) will deform and suffer severe oxidation, taking on a burnt, melted appearance, with the plastic turning blistered and charred in appearance (it's not actually melting or on fire, it's just the cumulative thermal stress, and it takes a year or so to reach this state (if the ballast hasn't burnt itself out by then)). We've since started using higher quality bulbs for the porch, and have not suffered this problem since.

[Mooshi]

I sure do miss the weird topics when I snooze...

If we're banning our old bulbs, may as well do it properly! You know your tv sets and computer monitors? Unless you have LED back lighting, you are using illegal lighting!! And those power supplies in your system...unless they meet the 80 plus gold spec+, you better throw those out too and buy a PSU that is really energy efficient..so what if they are 130usd+ and you won't see any real savings on your electric bill for a few years for things to pay for themselves..minor details. - Governments

:B

That sums up the madness. I'm all for efficientcy, but get real. Current pricing on these commodities may not be as expensive as they used to be, but they are still up there in price to make the argument "but you'll save money in the long run!" a laugh. There are also products that don't even exist yet that prevents some of us from switching! Your average schmuck knows nothing about the LCD panels. They just buy the cheapest and purdiest monitor they can. Meanwhile, people who work in print, graphic designers and anyone else who needs accuracy in colour (the kind who spends 600+ - 2000+ on a monitor) don't have LED backlit options for the better S-IPS panels.

How about before we start banning things, we have an ample alternative at a reasonable price first? Unless these new lights can last how many times longer that their price dictates over the candecent bulbs, do not want.

[Kobuk]

I probably don't care that much what type of bulb I'm using just so long as I have adequate lighting for reading, working, etc. 

*makes mental note to change burnt out bulb in bedroom when I get home from work tonight* 

[Mooshi]

-swaps Kobuk's mental note to one that reads "bring Mooshi candy"-

[Avan]

-swaps Kobuk's mental note to one that reads "bring Mooshi candy"-

-scribbles in "^and Avan" underneath "mooshi" and "candy"

[Mooshi]

-swaps Kobuk's mental note to one that reads "bring Mooshi candy"-

-scribbles in "^and Avan" underneath "mooshi" and "candy"

-adds "and light bulbs" in the corner after "candy" to keep things on-topic-

[Yip]

... and they don't produce unwanted heat.

The heat isn't always unwanted. Plus, the bulb shape is important for them to fit in a lot of lamps. 

[Foxpup]

... and they don't produce unwanted heat.

The heat isn't always unwanted. Plus, the bulb shape is important for them to fit in a lot of lamps. 

My point exactly. Besides, in my experience CFLs flicker annoyingly, give me a headache, are nowhere near as bright as they're claimed to be, and contain mercury (as everyone's already pointed out). Unfortunately, my stockpile is running out (I'm down to my last two cases), so I'll have to buy some more at some point, even though they're illegal... ¬.¬ Just kidding (for now, anyway; we'll see what happens when I get down to the last case...), and I do not endorse the cool crime of smuggling, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if lightbulb smuggling becomes the next big thing in organised crime. For all I know, it already is.

[furtopia02]

I caught this on the Wikipedia page. Might explain a bit:

General Electric has closed their incandecent light bulb factory in Winchester, Virginia and has started importing CFL bulbs from China.[77]

GE was one of them I bought CFLs from and had major issues (the ones that died within a week of moderate use). I'll be trying other brands and avoiding GE for a while.

[Yip]

Back when I lived on my mom and dad's farm, sometimes when I was the only one home I could stay plenty warm just by staying in my room with the light on.  So yeah, sometimes the heat is not unwanted.

One of my lamps is the kind that the shade clips onto the bulb. I've yet to see a non-incandescent bulb that would work as a replacement.  Plus as others have said, the light from incandescent bulbs is often just plain better.  Those ones that flicker...  ugh. Absolutely horrible.   Honestly, I think an outright ban is just a plain stupid idea. Bans should only be for stuff that's shown to be directly harmful. And even then must be used carefully. Instead, if they want people to use alternatives, then make the alternatives more attractive and people will. This means improvements in quality and price.

I have an adjustable desk lamp, and for it I don't like incandescent specifically because of the heat since this is a lamp I sometimes work closely under. But in other cases, like I said above, the heat is useful. Of course I'd imagine heat lamps will still be available. If not a lot of farmers will be up in arms about that. For farm use, it's good to have a few of those around. (For example, for sticking over young critters (like lambs) when they are ill to make sure they keep warm while you are nursing them back to health.)

[Avan]

Though for those who live in california, having something that produces less heat in the summer is important (however, I usually just end up resorting to LED flashlights, because even CFL's produce too much heat x_X)

[Serra Belvoule]

I like my eco-bulbs :3 There's ones that shine in orange just like the regular ones so either way it doesn't really bug me at all, and it helps the environment, I guess... If any, they're cheaper in the long run. When my family changed all the lightbulbs at home, next month's electric bill went down a ton x3