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Thursday, April 28, 2022

Turn out the lights, the party's over

The Biden administration is pulling the plug on incandescent light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The phaseout of the old-fashioned bulbs is aimed at reducing utility bills and conserving energy. 

The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said it was raising energy efficiency standards for light bulbs, giving manufacturers 75 days to phase out incandescents before an outright ban in July 2023. Incandescent bulbs use a higher wattage than LEDs for the same level of brightness.
-Rurik

46 comments:

  1. They are a low wattage solution to keep the pump house warm enough in the winter to prevent freezing of the well pump. 100 watts versus 1000 watts for a space heater

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    1. They will probably still keep making "heat lamp bulbs".. BUT you'll have to pay $15 per bulb to accomplish the same thing. On the other hand, with the way inflation is going, that's the same price you'll pay for a LED bulb in a year.

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    2. I use relatively low-wattage halogen floodlights for a combined heat/light source for reptile breeding/husbandry and I see I'll have to stock up while I can.

      On a personal note, I use some LED lamps now and am NOT a big fan of the unnatural light cast by LEDs. I prefer either fluorescent or incandescent.

      Somebody in the WH must have just invested in a chinese LED manufacturing outfit.
      Ed

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    3. Indeed. Some enterprising individual (in Europe??) started selling them labeled as high-efficiency, low temperature heating devices. Wonder if someone could do that here?

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    4. China is so far behind on shipping basic electronic components you won't be able to get an LED bulb within a year...it'll be illegal to have light. You'll have to burn some nasty carbon in an oil lamp just to see at night.

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  2. Next up: Biden advocates wearing sweaters to save on heating bills, then goes on to be attacked by a swamp rabbit - ironic after being saved by the easter bunny.

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  3. The Biden administration should leave it up to the free market to determine the light bulbs manufacturers produce and which ones consumers buy. A cheap incandescent bulb for an attic light that is rarely used makes sense, whereas an efficient LED bulb for kitchen illumination that is used several hours a day is right for that purpose. Also, in humid areas such as Florida, an incandescent bulb in a closet provides just enough heat to prevent mold, and a few cents worth of electricity is well worth it to prevent mildewed clothing and respiratory ailments from mold spores.

    So, I guess it is time to stock up on incandescent bulbs to last me the next ten years.

    Finally, Let’s Go Brandon!

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    1. Leaving the free market to take care of things, the LED will command the majority market share to where the sales volume of incandescents will be low enough to where they are no longer profitable to manufacture. We may already be at, or past that point. Biden admin. may be just virtue signaling with this one. Then again, if you look at it in terms of an efficiency standard, a 100 watt light bulb is already one of the most efficient 100 watt heaters out there, and provides illumination to boot. Are we doing away with all electric heaters too?

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  4. At least LEDs are plenty cheap enough now, especially given the longer life and cleaner white light too. We've been replacing the old bulbs with LEDs for a while now.

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  5. The Scentsy people are going to be pissed.
    Another government "solution" to a non-issue that would eventually be taken care of by the free market.
    Way to go, folks. Let's go Brandon.

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  6. OMFG! No more incandescent bulbs. Looks like I'll be switching to Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina scented tapers.

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    1. Thanks. I just puked little in the back of my throat.

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    2. I tried that then couldn't keep 🐱's out of the house

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  7. Looks like it's time to stock up. We use them to heat pipes in the winter and provide a warm place for some of the neighborhood stray critters.

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  8. I don't really have anything against LEDs, but what ever happened to giving consumers a choice and letting them decide on what they want to buy ?

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  9. Federal government has ruined toilets, shower heads, light bulbs, cars and the question is what next?

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    1. Bill Cosby: "Don't ever challenge worse."

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    2. Indeed, and the gas cans also. There's nothing anyone can do or make that Mama Gubmint can't smother with care.

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    3. gas cans are the worst. i spill more fuel now with those damned useless valves than I ever did with a simple can and gooseneck filler +cap.

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    4. So buy new nozzles and vents.
      https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/ez-pour?cm_vc=-10005

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    5. Don't forget dishwashers, washing machines, and detergent for both.

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    6. The Duh factor is real. Buy the 5 gallon water jerry cans, mark them and fill them with gas or diesel as you like. The morons didn't outlaw real fuel storage containers, just the ones that said gas.

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  10. Oh for FUCKS SAKE !!! I use the old fashioned incandescent lights as a small heat source in a couple spots that do not need much heat now Im going to have to either buy a lifetime supply or hope to find a source of Black Market light bulbs. Lets Go BRANDON.

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  11. Reminds me of Jimmy Carter’s sweater wearing fire side chats.

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  12. My town in the NorthEast replaced all the traffic lights one summer with LED's.
    That next winter the snow that was blown sideways by the wind covered the traffic lights and UNLIKE the old incandescent lights the LED's didn't generate near enough heat to melt the snow and keep the signals visible.
    The next summer (after a epic winter of intersection traffic accidents) they were up there installing heaters to melt the snow at God knows what cost. I guess just reinstalling the old bulbs would have been admitting they made a mistake.

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    1. A thermostat-controlled heater plus LED's will use a lot less electricity than incandescent bulbs. But mainly, a good LED installation has a lifetime of a decade or more, while incandescents burn out and have to be replaced frequently. When replacing a bulb requires a lift truck and several city employees to put out traffic cones and try to control traffic through an intersection, this maintenance will cost more than the electricity used.

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  13. "W" tried foisting the incandescent ban on us and we got CFL bulbs, which have many of the same problems as LED's.

    Ordinary LED's don't last or don't work right in some situations: ovens, freezers, and garage door openers. I'm sure there's more. You don't know for sure until you've killed 4 or 5 bulbs. We need more Special Purpose bulbs to choose from at Home Depot.

    If you go to Home Depot most of the incandescent bulbs are really halogen bulbs inside a traditional A19 glass bulb and sold as "Energy Saving Incandescent Bulbs." I use LED's in many places, but not everywhere. The best place to get old fashioned bulbs is a garage sale.

    Geek

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    1. they have tried to do this before and it didn"' work, don't worry about it

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    2. LED's (like all solid-state electronics) will die soon in an oven or anywhere else that's too warm. I think this is the place for a halogen incandescent bulb, which is designed to run very hot inside the small inner bulb and so should be OK in an oven. A garage door opener motor will cause huge voltage spikes in the AC power, and might also induce spikes in low-voltage wiring for the light; I _could_ design an LED driver circuit with enough isolation from spikes to survive, but if you only need to run the light a few minutes a day, an incandescent bulb sounds like a much less expensive solution. A freezer compressor motor might also generate enough spikes to be a problem.

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    3. I seem to recall quite a bit of commotion over the hazards surrounding what happens when a CFL light bulb is broken.

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  14. Fucking Obama did the same damn thing. We stocked up and then The law changed under Trump. We still have plenty of good old tungsten bulbs so we can wait out this insanity.

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  15. For fuck sake, I thought they outlawed the filament bulbs a few years back when there was a panic to buy a lifetime supply of them. I like led lights, they're bright, they last and not really that expensive.
    Daryl

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  16. That's not right. Let the private sector determine the winners and losers of products.

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  17. LEDs and flourescents suck ass. They’re cold, uninviting and impersonal, much like my ex-wife. There’s nothing like the warm inviting glow of mid range wattage incandescent light shining through the window on a wet, miserable November evening. Try running CFL or LED lighting when they’re cold soaked after a few days at -40. You need to light a candle to see if they’re on.

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  18. I guess it was time to run the old 'Protect the Environment' light bulb scam again. The last one folded when people started discovering how much mercury was in the CFL's. How many Senators have been loading up on LED manufacturers lately? At least one can get LEDs in different shades of light though.

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  19. Incandescent bulbs were part of my tool kit for troubleshooting. Need to limit current while you're tracing a short? A 100-watt bulb gives you almost an amp to play with. Fuses don't blow, things don't overheat and burn, you can poke around to your heart's content. I have to look for alternatives.

    Wait! no I don't. I'm about to retire.

    Mostly Cajun

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  20. We bought a shitload of incandescents when oblowjob pulled this shit last time; end result, as I recall, was China having a monopoly on light bulbs.
    Every day these bastards give me another reason to hate them.

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  21. LED lights with a color temp of 2700K give a nice "warm" light. The "daylight" LEDs at 5000K are too "blue" for indoor use, IMNSHO. CFLs don't do it for me generally, between weird color casts and noise. (I mean audible noise. There's also RF noise which is another story.) That's a long way of saying I have few tungsten filament bulbs in my house, but it looks like I'm going to have to lay in a stock anyway because if I'm not allowed to have them, well, BFTTW.

    "Gwyneth Paltrow's vagina scented tapers"
    Eww. I think I'd rather make a candle by sticking a wick into a tub of Crisco. An actual wick. Not a euphemism.

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  22. Why can't the Feds leave us the f**k alone.

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  23. They did the same thing here in The UK to great fanfare (courtesy of the EU and its straight bananas) and ... it lasted all of a year before they had to (very quietly) rescind the regulation, because they don't work (unless you like lights you can't see by).

    Look for (as happened here) the politician who has shares in, or a relative working for, the company making/importing them.

    SSDD

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  24. Yeah, those LED and florescent bulbs will work great for those with pump houses and new born chicks. Broken pipes and dead chicks are a real sign of progress. Of course you could always buy an electric heater which uses about 1000 times the electricity as a bulb, but progress.

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    1. The bastards do not want you to be able to raise chicks (or anything else "Starve you peasants") and running water ? you shouldn't have that either How Dare You !!

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  25. !!! STOP !!!
    .
    LED produce destructive BLUE light.
    I cannot be around LED for any longer than a few minutes.
    Why?
    BLUE light destroys the macular, the lining at the back of the eye.
    Macular degeneration.
    .
    Hereditary.
    By 78, my mother's eyesight was reduced to the fringe, with only blackness in the center of her vision.
    She lived to 93, a blinded invalid, dependent on family for meals and dressing.
    .
    I chose my cellular telephone because I can almost eliminate the BLUE light through manipulating the settings.
    Although that changes colors to amber instead of an artificial 'natural' appearance, it is better than burning my macular.
    .
    Scientists know this.
    Physicians know this.
    And I am willing to bet the biden administration [spit] knows this.

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    1. My wife has macular degeneration. She can't see much beyond a couple feet, and even what she can see is cloudy.
      It's slow, but irreversible.

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  26. "... in favor of energy-efficient light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The phaseout of the old-fashioned bulbs is aimed at reducing utility bills and conserving energy..."
    .
    Do you believe anything else any government agents say?
    Why believe that?
    .
    They want us blind, helpless, starving, useless.
    They already call us 'old-fashioned'... just like the undesirable incandescent bulbs.
    Then they will point to us, and explain the benefits of euthanasia 'for the greater good'.
    .
    Try saluting the Flag if you do not know which direction to face BECAUSE YOU WERE INTENTIONALLY BLINDED.
    The woke will laugh at our incompetence... and not notice our absence.
    .
    I. Hate. LED lights.

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  27. Nothing beats the light an incandescent bulb gives to a leaded glass lamp shade. These fucking government mandates are ridiculous.

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