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Incandescent Light Bulb Hoarding

 
 
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 03:44 pm
Quote:
After years of looming as a distant threat, the federally mandated phaseout of some incandescent bulbs is about to become very real.

Many Americans have no idea that most traditional light bulbs are about to disappear, to be replaced by energy-efficient compact fluorescent lights, light-emitting diodes, and halogen incandescents.

There are signs that hoarders have been busy. Sales of standard incandescent bulbs are up by 10 to 20 percent over a year ago at The Home Depot, according to the chain’s chief bulb buyer. A 2010 survey by Osram Sylvania, the Danvers-based light bulb maker, found that 13 percent of consumers plan to stockpile. At Lucia Lighting & Design in Lynn, some customers are trying to figure out how many incandescents constitute a lifetime supply.

The new law won’t ban all bulbs. Specialty products, including three-way bulbs, appliance bulbs, and those under 40 watts or over 150, are still OK. But not the bulbs that are most common in everyday use.

At The Home Depot in Dorchester, tutorials in the bulb section teach shoppers that a 25-watt incandescent bulb equals a 5-watt compact fluorescent light, a 60-watt incandescent equals a 13-16 watt CFL, and so on.

Actually, don’t get too comfortable even thinking in watts.

Starting Jan. 1, the US Federal Trade Commission is requiring manufacturers of incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED light bulbs to use new labeling on consumer packaging that - for the first time - will emphasize the bulb’s brightness as measured in lumens, rather than watts.

Lumens?

“Is it a measurement of light?’’ asked Bain, the artist, guessing correctly on the second try.

The Energy Independence and Security Act requires new bulbs to be about 25 percent more efficient than current bulbs. The act aims to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gases, and, according to a US Department of Energy estimate, it will save US consumers nearly $6 billion in 2015, the first full year after the standards go into effect.
(today's Bahstin Globe)


2012: 100-watt incandescent light bulbs can no longer be manufactured
2013: 75-watt incandescent bulbs are eliminated from production
2014: 40- and 60-watt incandescent bulbs are no longer produced


http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x336/RegionPhilbis/ltgcompare.gif
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Type: Discussion • Score: 11 • Views: 7,000 • Replies: 38

 
djjd62
 
  3  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 04:12 pm
@Region Philbis,
i might start a business pimping out incandescent light bulbs, start incandescent light bulb whoring, set up a bunch of rooms lit by incandescent light bulbs, and charge folks by the hour to read, look at pictures or whatever, all the while basking in glorious incandescent light
0 Replies
 
Reyn
 
  2  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 04:44 pm
@Region Philbis,
I hope the LED lights become readily available sooner, than later.

I don't like those CFLs. Mad
0 Replies
 
roger
 
  3  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 06:26 pm
I've been using the CFLs for several years. I'm okay with them, but they don't last as long as advertised, and they don't produce as much light per watt as the propaganda suggests. I wonder where the price will go when they no longer have to compete with incandescent bulbs.
Reyn
 
  2  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 08:24 pm
@roger,
roger wrote:
I wonder where the price will go when they no longer have to compete with incandescent bulbs.

They'll be good guys and lower the price, of course!
roger
 
  1  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 09:25 pm
@Reyn,
Smile
0 Replies
 
Finn dAbuzz
 
  0  
Reply Thu 4 Aug, 2011 10:04 pm
I started hoarding them long ago and I'm quite glad I did.

Of course the Texas legislature has now freed me of the need to horde, and yet I have a sense of fulfillment knowing I can ride out a number of years of Eco-Nazi oppression - should it ever cross the border into Texas.
Region Philbis
 
  1  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 05:37 am

we have one fixture (over the shower) that will not house a CFL.
it currently has a 75-watter, so we're ok for a while.

recently put a CFL in the fridge.
every time i open it, without fail, there's a split-second there where i wonder why the bulb burned out.
that characteristic delay of CFL's is something i'll prolly never get used to...
djjd62
 
  3  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 05:39 am
changed every bulb in the house to them years ago, to be honest never noticed much difference, other than longevity
0 Replies
 
Gargamel
 
  2  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 12:32 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
Finn dAbuzz wrote:

I started hoarding them long ago and I'm quite glad I did.

Of course the Texas legislature has now freed me of the need to horde, and yet I have a sense of fulfillment knowing I can ride out a number of years of Eco-Nazi oppression - should it ever cross the border into Texas.


For clarification, you don't really give a **** about the material consequences of the law right? Like, you don't seriously sit around fuming about light, correct? You simply don't like the idea of the government eliminating a choice. In other words, prior to the existence of energy-efficient bulbs, you didn't give a **** about the incandescent bulbs, and as such you ascribe to them no inherent value? Also, it doesn't help that for some reason you imagine that some very specific group is behind the push for the new bulbs, one you have decided also maintains other, more significant political beliefs that oppose yours? And if a cancer vaccine were discovered and such a group tried to require cancer vaccination by law, you would oppose it? And it makes one wonder whether the 2nd Amendment contingent actually cares about what it is that they're defending--might as well be lightbulbs--they just don't like the idea of the government eliminating a choice?
Finn dAbuzz
 
  -1  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 01:07 pm
@Gargamel,
Well, you're right about one thing: I don't care for the government restricting my choices anymore than is absolutely necessary. Restricting my choice of light bulbs is certainly not necessary.

And before you trot it out, I know that this particular restriction was passed during the Bush years. Makes no difference to me, it's wrong either way.

As for the light bulbs in question, I prefer incandescent, and I don't have to don a Haz Mat Suit when one breaks.

The subject really only occupies my mind when I am at Lowes and dump a bunch of bulbs in the buggy or when I'm writing on a thread like this one.

There is an organized group that is forever coming up with ideas and restrictions I don't like: The Democrats.
Cycloptichorn
 
  3  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 01:42 pm
@Finn dAbuzz,
Quote:

As for the light bulbs in question, I prefer incandescent, and I don't have to don a Haz Mat Suit when one breaks.


You don't have to wear one after a CFL breaks either.

And if you were truly against mercury contamination, one would think that you would argue strongly against the continued burning of coal for energy, a process with pumps thousands of tons of mercury into the air every single year, for your and your family to breathe in.

Cycloptichorn
Finn dAbuzz
 
  0  
Reply Fri 5 Aug, 2011 10:39 pm
@Cycloptichorn,
Here is what I am truly against:

Having a light bulb in my house that if it breaks I need to open all of my windows and leave the premises...just because some pissants in Washington think that light bulbs will tip the scales on evironmental integrity.

Of all the many things our government needs to spend time and money upon, light bulbs is not one.
msolga
 
  2  
Reply Sat 6 Aug, 2011 12:36 am
@Region Philbis,
Region, I have nothing significant to add to the discussion of this subject ....

But every time I read the thread title, it conjures up the funniest & most bizarre mental images! (I have a very colourful imagination.)

Very funny!
This has got to be one of the great thread titles! Very Happy

Carry on now ....

0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Reply Sat 6 Aug, 2011 12:46 am
I'm changing now to LED - it's really worth doing so, not only due to the price.

We've got LED street lamps since one year here now = excellent.
So excellent that even our very conservative town council now ordered those street for all over the town ... because it reduces the energy bill for at least 65%.
http://i55.tinypic.com/2w51qir.jpg
(Infos about the "Eco Streetline")
roger
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Aug, 2011 01:21 am
@Walter Hinteler,
I guess you like them, but how are they working out? The ones I've seen look like many leds all aimed the same way. Seems like they would work like floodlights at best; spotlights at worse. In other words, are they a good, direct replacement for incandescent bulbs in all respects?
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Aug, 2011 02:22 am
@roger,
You get them in as many 'shapes' as all the good old bulbs - and they work nearly very similar. (I use them e.g. in some antique lamps - the light seems to be better than before)
roger
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Aug, 2011 03:46 am
@Walter Hinteler,
Great. That has been holding me back even more than the price.
0 Replies
 
Dave World
 
  -3  
Reply Tue 9 Aug, 2011 12:44 pm
@Region Philbis,
Quote:
recently put a CFL in the fridge.
every time i open it, without fail, there's a split-second there where i wonder why the bulb burned out.
that characteristic delay of CFL's is something i'll prolly never get used to...

The word is "probably", not "prolly". Do you think it's cool to bastardize the language? It isn't. It just makes you sound dumb. I'll bet that your job, if you have one, doesn't require written communications. Of course, writing itself is quickly vanishing as a common skill. It's lucky for you that voice recognition will soon take over what's left of text creation. Of course, the computers will have to be dumbed WAY down to match the population. Rolling Eyes [I seldom use emoticons, but I'll make an exception for you.]
roger
 
  3  
Reply Tue 9 Aug, 2011 02:47 pm
@Dave World,
Do people often give you that look that says "Are you really that stupid"? How long does it take to get used to it?
 

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