Posted on 01/23/2011 10:17:15 AM PST by TaxPayer2000
The brightest bulb in most homes for more than a century is fading toward darkness this year as California turns out the light on the century-old incandescent.
Beginning Jan. 1, the state began phasing out certain energy-sucking bulbs, federal standards the rest of the country will enact next year.
Manufacturers will no longer make the traditional 100-watt bulb and stores will eventually sell out of current supplies. Consumers will have to choose from more efficient bulbs that use no more than 72 watts, including halogen incandescents, compact fluorescents and light-emitting diode, or LED, bulbs.
"These standards will help cut our nation's electric bill by over $10 billion a year and will save the equivalent electricity as 30 large power plants," said Noah Horowitz a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That translates into a whole lot less global warming pollution being emitted."
The change is part of the federal Energy Independence and Security Act that President George Bush signed in 2007, to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. California was allowed to adopt the national standard one year earlier.
The act requires new bulbs to use 25 to 30 percent less energy beginning in 2012 nationally — starting with the 100-watt bulb. By 2014, other incandescent bulbs, including the 75-, 60- and 40-watt, will also be phased out across the country.
Some specialty bulbs, however, will continue to be available. Consumers will still be able to get smaller lights such as yellow bug lights and aquarium bulbs.
Light bulb manufacturers said they haven't gotten any reports of customers hoarding 100-watt bulbs yet, though that may change once supplies begin to dry up and word gets out.
Nick Reynoza, manager at Royal Lighting in Los Angeles, said it's a shame the transition comes at a time when alternatives are so much more expensive.
"It's not really an option — you have this or you don't get anything," he said. "The options are more expensive. Four incandescents are $1.00, the halogens are $5.99 and the LED are like $20."
While conservation groups back the change and the lighting industry has invested heavily in new technology, not everyone supports the law. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who could not immediately be reached for comment, reintroduced legislation this year to repeal the law.
"People don't want Congress dictating what light fixtures they can use," said Rep. Barton on his website. "Traditional incandescent bulbs are cheap and reliable."
Adam Gottlieb, spokesman for the California Energy Commission, acknowledged that the change has resulted in a "great deal of hue and cry" on some blogs as well. Recent postings have included the titles "More dim bulbs: California banning 100-watt incandescent light bulbs" and "More evidence that California is nuts."
Gottlieb, however, said it was not a ban and that consumers can still buy whatever bulbs they want as long as they meet the new standards.
"After 130 years Tom Edison's old-fashioned light bulb is getting a 20th century makeover," he said. "The simple truth is consumers will save money."
The newer bulbs are more expensive than incandescents, but supporters of the technology say they last so much longer that there is a financial savings in the end. For example, while incandescents provide as much as 2,000 hours of light, compact fluorescents can provide light for six times longer.
Incandescents, which create light by passing an electric current through a tungsten wire filament, also waste 90 percent of the electricity they use as heat instead of light. Fluorescents, by comparison, apply an electrical current to different types of phosphers to produce light and produce less heat.
But fans of the traditional bulb say they provide a softer, more natural light and turn on more quickly. Michael Petras, president of GE Lighting, said the industry is aware of the shortcomings and is working to refine the technology.
"We've got compact fluorescents that look like incandescents," he said from the company's headquarters in Cleveland. "We have a product coming out this spring that's a hybrid of compact fluorescent and halogen that will provide energy savings and a better start up time."
Australia was the first to begin phasing out incandescents beginning in 2009, followed by the European Union, the Philippines and Argentina, said Petras. Mexico and Brazil are expected to follow the U.S.
And non-toxic. I don't need to call in an EPA certified hazmat team if I should break one. Plus they won't contribute millions of tons of mercury to landfills.
It happened during a drought in California. The utilities told people to cut back on usage. They did. Too much. Utilities lost revenue, so they raised the rates to make up the difference.
As one who is very sensitive to light, and especially "natural light", I will concur: Florescents are probably closer to natural light. I know that because I use florescent light to wake up with, and if I am around florescent light at night, I won't get tired.
That being said, florescent light SUCKS, is not as useful as light, and is poor to read by.
And compact florescents are *not* what they are hyped up to be either. We bought them for savings, but found they seldom last as long as advertised, causing our investment to go up, for what we consider to be an inferior product.
I keep seeing ads for the Nissan leaf. They keep saying innovation. All I see is “Innoavtion for brown outs”
Wrong! Don’t you know that one of the leading Republicans who started this bandwagon was appointed by “Boner” as Chairman of an important energy committee..I sure he will be on this like “white on rice” to get it taken down.../s
Have you ever considered the “math” involved with CBO “guesses”?
You can get incandescent light bulbs rated for 25,000 hours that are used by the hospitality industry. If you use them for an average of 7 hours a day they’ll burn out in just a little under 10 years and cost about a buck or less per bulb depending on how many you buy.
https://www.nathosp.com/product/25k19_c/standard_incandescent_light_bulbs
Once you stock up all you’ll have to do is watch out for the light bulb police who’ll be monitoring everyone who might be using those unauthorized, evil incandescents!
They mean the color - and they are quite correct.
No, you’re right—all technology _is_ FAKE.
These people who love their iPhones and Gore-Tex and plastics would also have us living in the Stone Age when it comes to energy.
It’s a real disconnect.
I couldn't find any reference he made to the specifics of home lighting.
The fact is home lighting is such a small fraction of American use of electric power that it really isn't worth discussing. The really big users of lights are department stores, shopping malls, schools, public buildings, offices, factories, warehouses ~ etc. and they've ALL been lit up with fluorescent lighting for most of a century. Highway and parking lot lighting are bigger consumers of electric power than home lighting ~ and there a wide variety of non-incandescent systems are normal.
The whole business of replacing home incandescent lights with some other form of light was just propaganda and to enable environmental activists feel they'd be "doing something" that hadn't already been done by hard core capitalist investors who owned factories!
Bet they don’t know about the ketchup!
If somebody knows how many incandescents would be in a standard “case”, please let me know. I’m looking at some online, but it is specifying “case”, but no number of bulbs. Grrrrr ...
‘You can get incandescent light bulbs rated for 25,000 hours that are used by the hospitality industry. If you use them for an average of 7 hours a day they’ll burn out in just a little under 10 years and cost about a buck or less per bulb depending on how many you buy.
https://www.nathosp.com/product/25k19_c/standard_incandescent_light_bulbs “
THANKS FOR THE INFO AND THE LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bookmarked it and will be stocking up, while they are still available.
Much appreciated.
A german company is selling bulbs as “heatballs” because the euro-nazis outlawed regular light bulbs in 2009.
Please check out link posted by JH:
https://www.nathosp.com/product/25k19_c/standard_incandescent_light_bulbs
There it says there are 24 bulbs in a pack — these are the 10-yr bulbs. The shorter life ones are much cheaper, also on the website.
https://www.nathosp.com/prod_detail_list/standard_incandescent_light_bulbs
There it says a case has 120 bulbs.
http://www.heinz.com/glutenfree/products.html
Heinz ketchup is gluten free. I don’t know what you are talking about with McDonald’s ketchup.
You make some excellent points. There is probably a study that indicates home lighting as a reasonable part of the electrical grid just because there are millions of homes. If one assumes rational consumers, CFLs and other less energy intensive technology will be utilized appropriately regardless of government mandates. The mandates only force irrational usage.
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