Posted on 09/09/2010 7:47:50 AM PDT by Iron Munro
The last General Electric factory in the U.S. to manufacture incandescent light bulbs is set to close its doors next month, as a federal move toward green technology has made the product obsolete, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The Winchester, Va., plant partly fell victim to energy conservation legislation passed by Congress that will require Americans to start using more efficient bulbs by 2014, the report said.
The 200 workers at the plant will lose their jobs when the doors shut for the final time, as the replacement bulbs, known as compact fluorescents (CL), are manufactured mainly overseas.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, CL’s last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, while using about one-fourth the amount of energy.
"Everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon," The Post quoted Pat Doyle, who has worked at the plant for 26 years, as saying.
“We've been sold out,” Doyle added. “First sold out by the government. Then sold out by GE."
President Barack Obama has put an emphasis on creating green jobs, saying he wants the U.S. to create five million over the next ten years, The Wall Street Journal added.
Will the last factory in America please turn out the... oh.
No. You don’t want them within 50 feet of either.
Bummer for oven and refrigerator manufacturers.
But just think, when you turn the lights on in the morning, they don’t stun you as badly when that burst of light hits your eyes...
To add to your post, I dunno if you have heard, but it is my understanding that the light put of by fluorescent light, when exposed to for one hour or more, messes up your melatonin production and disturbs sleep patterns for up to 3 hours. When I first heard this, I asked coworkers what they thought, and they all said (I worked swing at the time), that on their days off they could all sleep normally, but when they’d leave from work (with fluorescent lighting), they just couldn’t get to sleep for a few hours. Food for thought. I have seen a big drop in electricity with CFL usage (My electric bill cut into a third, but I often use a whole lot of light, plus the heat has to be counteracted), but I still have no love for the light quality, nor effects of CFL’s. As one poster mentioned, they’re probably just a transition technology, much like CD’s appear to have been.
We found some Made in America incandescent bulbs not long ago, so I stocked up. I'll have to go get more while they are still on the shelves.
“When will they outlaw toilet paper?”
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I don’t know but if they are gonna do that I wanta corner the market on corn cobs, both white and red!
They also overheat the dimmer switches. I remember hearing about a dorm or house fire started by using CFL bulbs and dimmers.
Yes, that and old Sears catalogs.
Oh, no - I’m with you. I don’t want them banned at all. I was so surprised at this particular CFL that I posted my experience. :) 99% of any CFLs I have tried are total crap.
I’ve heard one theory that an incandescent burns out because it will only go though so many expansion (ON-heat), and contraction (OFF-cool) cycles before the filament lets go. Ideally , if you turn an incandescent on and -leave- it on, it’ll last dang near forever. I’ve had some low wattage night lights burn continously for almost a decade. Usually a power outage gets ‘em. As soon as the power comes back on, they blow. I guess they lose the ability to contract/expand.
The technology that I’m somewhat excited by, is the emerging LED lighting solutions. By using various carbon nano-tubes, they can create light refraction such that the LED can go from a blinding white, to almost any color, or combination of colors desired.
What florescent coloring, or a Sun-light, or tungston - you name it - it can be mimicked.
LED’s give off practically zero heat, last a long, long time, are extremely efficient (much more so than LCD), are resistant to vibration and can be made very inexpensively.
Another poster asked a very good question “What are we going to do about oven lights?”. No technology that I am aware of will work in an oven - as both LED and LCD have a limited temperature range that they can operate in.
I think folks should refrain from generalizing their individual experiences with CFL. Performance seems to be widely and wildly variable.
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