100w Light Bulb Ban

[sdowney717]

This is about more than just a bulb. And it's not about paranoia. This is how freedom disappears. One small step at a time. The next thing you know they are running your whole life.

It is basic central planning socialism at work, just like in Europe.
Centrally planned economies fail spectacularly. Yet governments do this because that is what they want to do, plan everything, part of their nature is manifested in control issues. People get in there and make stuff happen. It is a big power trip to get into office and push your agendas onto the people. Dress it up with propaganda and tell them this will be good for you, whether you like it or no.

 

[betterbillt]

Wonder if it has one of those government mandated water saver toilets that you have to flush three times to get it to work.

Chris

Usually it's not the toilet, it's the bad plumbing job.

 

[sdowney717]

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=aa7796aa-e4a5-4c06-be84-b62dee548fda

The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges' house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state's "safe" level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter. The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a "low-ball" estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began "gathering finances" to pay for the US$2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn't cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.

Ok so dont tell them when you break them.

How about when you go to sell your home. If over the next decade or so, lets say you break quite a few of these cfl in the house. Perhaps a mercury test will be required by law or you cant sell it. And if it exceeds a safe level which is very low, perhaps the house cant be sold, you will be evicted from the home due to it being in a hazardous condition, or the environmental clean up costs will financially ruin you.

 

[suntex01]

Bingo! That's right. Since a box of 8 100w bulbs only cost me $2.89, I bought several boxes. And when one burns out...I can just throw it in the garbage can.

Amen brother [/QUOTE]

a box of 6 60w equivalent CFLs cost me only $1 each last time. I bought ten boxes while I could.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The government touts energy savings from using CFLs and other non incandescent bulbs, but the reality is, their numbers are flawed, at least in residential settings. If I had nothing but incandescent bulbs, like we had when I was growing up, I would be certain to switch them off when leaving the room and switch them back on when re-entering the room. My dad used to accuse us of thinking he owned the power company the way we left lights on. You didn't dare leave the room for even a moment without flipping the light switch off.

Now, I don't care, I'm saving energy!!!!!!!!!!! Its ok for me to leave that CFL burning all day, lets see, 13w times 10 hours is 130 watt/hours consumed. Growing up, we had two 60 watt bulbs in the ceiling fixture, and I'll bet it wasn't on an hour a day all together, thats 120 watt/hours........................

But yes, I'm saving energy................ Not!!!

Guess I'll stock up on 40 and 25 watt bulbs for heating the cat house. Go thru several each winter. Many people use bulbs as heat for well houses and well heads, chicken houses, dog houses.

Not sure why the government felt it needed to mandate this, the market will take it that way without any help.

Charles

 

[crash02]

I'm not going to say you should use one bulb and not the other. I really don’t care enough to try to talk someone into one or the other.

I put 8 Phillips 100w CFL's in my kitchen and didn't like them all that much. For me they took too long to get bright. I would walk in the kitchen flip on the lights to wash my hands and they were just getting bright enough for my liking about the time I was finished and ready to turn the lights back off. Now what good is that? They are OK once they warm up a few minutes. I moved them to the kids rooms and they don’t seem to mind them . I guess I'm just used to the instant bright of the old school energy burning good for nothing bulbs. We are currently building a new house that I’m sure will have all CFL’s in it so I guess I’ll just get used to it like the crappy gas I have to put in my cars.

 

[caspian65]

I've used a few of the new bulbs in my house, some have already gone bad, so not sure about the life of them.

When I moved into my house about 10 years ago, the original owners had installed clear Tieber (sp?) brand incandescent bulbs in most every socket (the house was about 5 years old when we moved in). I'd say at least half of those bulbs are still in service throughout the house. Looked for the brand a few times, but could never seem to find any local.

Personally, I am fine with using the new bulbs, but doubt many will see a significant personal savings by using them. It's the bigger picture that I hope helps our energy consumption levels.

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

Personally, I think a government mandate is over-stepping their boundarys. If they want people to use energy effecient bulbs maybe just put an energy tax on them (make them cost more than a CFL or LED)? Food for argument.

Anyway, I use CFL where possible. I would like to to use LED but the cost is too high and I've outgrown being a leading-edger (always having to get cutting-edge technology). Being in the computer industry I know those costs will come down to more reasonable levels so I'm willing to wait. My biggest issue with CFLs is being dimmable. Our bedrooms and bathrooms still use incandescent because of the broad range of dimmability.

As someone smartly mentioned, don't buy a CFL that is an equivalent wattage to the incandescent being replaced! I agree, a CFL appears dimmer to me as well. Since I like light and LOTS of it when I need it, I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS bump up the equivalent wattage of the replacement CFL. I get more light and it still costs me less For example, if a fixture takes a 60w incandescent, replace it with a CFL that is equivalent to a 75w or 100w bulb. Thus, instead of using a 14w CFL use a 19w or 23w CFL. Click me for an equivalency table.

Don't forget, there are other lights available that use a little less energy but throw out more light than incandescent, like halogen and xenon.

I also agree that CFLs aren't the answer to everything. I've had issues with them working with photocells. I have a motion sensor in my garage that controls two bulbs. If I have both sockets with CFLs they will flash so I have one CFL and the other is an incandescent Straight from GE's website:

Can I use a CFL in applications where I will be turning the lights on/off frequently?
Compact fluorescent light bulbs work best if they are left on for over 15 minutes each time they are turned on. These types of lamps can take up to 3 minutes to warm-up. Warm-up will probably not be noticeable from a user stand point, but the lamp needs to warm-up in order to reach the point of most efficient operation. Frequently switching them on and off will shorten the life of the product. If the life of the lamp is shortened significantly, you will not reap the financial benefits (includes energy & life of lamp), that are common to CFL lamps.

Can I use a CFL in applications involving vibration such as a ceiling fan or garage door opener?
Generally it is not recommended to use CFLs in vibrating environments. Vibration can cause the electronics in the CFL to fail. There is one CFL bulb (FLE11) that is available for use in a ceiling fan. Check the package for this application.

 

[caspian65]

I put 8 Phillips 100w CFL's in my kitchen and didn't like them all that much. For me they took too long to get bright. I would walk in the kitchen flip on the lights to wash my hands and they were just getting bright enough for my liking about the time I was finished and ready to turn the lights back off. Now what good is that? They are OK once they warm up a few minutes.

Same experience for me. I have 6 recessed sockets in the ceiling of my kitchen. I kept one incandescent bulb and replaced the other 5 with CFL's. That seems to help make up for the time it takes the CFL's to warm up. The light is fine once warmed up though.

 

[Jackfre]

I have mostly cfi bulbs. I too made the change years ago. In the beginning I bought a bunch of one manuf bulbs and had pretty high failure. Switched to another brand, returned all of the bad make and haven't had problems. As a sign of the times for me I cannot recall which manuf was the bad one. I have gone to LED's in the kitchen. It's an experiment, but the light is fantastic and the fixtures were expensive. I'm getting a better return on those than on any of my investments! To me that is a compelling reason for their use

10 yrs ago about the best central air conditioner you could buy was about 10 SEER. Due to gov't mandates, and only due to govt mandates, my current AC is 26 SEER. The ethanol thing is a bunch of freakin' hocus pocus and drives me crazy. That one was a solid miss.

I am all for mandates which improve our energy picture. Left on our own we and the manuf feeding us would keep making and using the same low efficiency gear. With some luck and oversight, and with some mistakes along the way, we will be dragged into energy self-sufficiency. I hope!

I am now in the perfect frame of mind to go put the new PVC water lines for the house and irrigation, and conduit for an underground power service. 4' trench by about 400'... sand for bedding and it rained last night. Brilliant...just like my LED's

 

[ElectroLight]

Not only that, the US is pretty late coming to the party. The phase-out has been well underway in nearly every corner of the world since the middle of the last decade. There are definite upsides globally, and some downsides that look like they'll be short-lived. All in all and over the long haul, I think it will be a good thing. Perhaps in thirty years, people will reminisce over those cute old fashions light bulbs with the squiggly spiral tubes....This is a change-averse nation and undoubtedly many will go through change kicking and screaming.

That's all well and good but how the hell am I going to make brownies in my Easy Bake Oven using a 23W CFL What's happened to America?

 

[rockchucker]

Edit: LOL^


I only use Lutron Dimmers and the way the Switch works it warms up the Bulb every time you turn on the light. This in effect eliminates the regular Bulb "Blow out" when you flick the Light Switch. Comes on to desired low level light for normal use then double tap the Switch for full light. I have only had a few bulbs blow out that were run by these Dimmer Switches in 10+ years of using these Switches. Since it is warming up the filament there is no shock and the Bulbs last virtually forever.


I highly recommend these Switches if you plan to run Incandescent Bulbs...


http://www.lutron.com/Products/Stan...tches/MaestroDimmerSwitch/Pages/Overview.aspx

 

[jhammerlick]

What happened to the market for a product determining it's success or failure? If there is a better bulb, taking into consideration all the factors that determine why a person purchases a bulb, it will succeed. Let the free market system determine winners and losers, not a proven inefficient wasteful behemoth. A company manufacturing a new bulb can market the advantages of the product, the energy savings, performance, etc. Allow the consumer to then decide the demise of inefficient products. Unnecessary Government involvement in the free market system always leads to inefficiencies somewhere. Free Market Capitalism is the Best Path to Prosperity.

John

 

[Zeke]

Wonder if it has one of those government mandated water saver toilets that you have to flush three times to get it to work.

Chris

After you unplug it. I only use 100w where I use a dimmer to get low level "yellow" ambient light. There will always be some lights around to buy. I can also use a 3-way bulb. They burn at 100 when in the single socket, IIRC.

 

[6768rogues]

I have a fixture over my kitchen table and it uses 6 chandelier bulbs. I put in the squiggly cfl bulbs and they do not last any longer than the old bulbs I removed. I have replaced 3 of them during the first few months of usage.
I can understand the government taking the lead in educating us to be wise consumers and buy what fits our needs economically. I am against mandates such as the bulb phase out. I could not find anything in the constitution about giving the federal government the authority to do that. If the feds want to save energy, how about removing air conditioning from the government buildings in DC? The founders of the country got their job done without the citizens funding their comfort.
I am in western NY and commercial buildings, even in our climate, are in cooling mode for most of the year. For a large part of the year cooling is provided by bringing in cool outside air. Lighting contributes to the cooling load along with large numbers of people, computers and equipment. That and energy efficiency are the reasons for fluorescent lighting.
Not the case in my residence.

 

[boostedgt]

i dont know if its been mentioned yet but it seems cfl's are all imported. yet more jobs going overseas

 

[Paco Pena]

I bought a case of 100w bulbs a couple years back. They should tide me over until a decent replacement type bulb is available at a reasonable cost. My experience with cfl's has not been great. Short life, less light and quite pricey. I still use the ones I bought but as they fail I go back to my supply of old technology.

Paco