Better Get Those Light Bulbs! (Friendly Reminder)

[Patrick_B]

According to this article, Home Depot will be out of 40-60W bulbs in six months. With 75-100W already gone, we won't have many choices for too much longer. I'm not putting this up here for political discussion, so please refrain from those comments entirely.

I am just surprised when talking to folks how many of them are totally unaware, so just incase you haven't heard......

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/12/31/ ... ight-bulb/

 

[tcross04]

Wow! I had no idea this was happening! I assume this will effect replacements for my 400W pool light. What will be my options for this in the future?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Specialty lamps are excluded at this point in time. As LED's gain more traction, they'll probably ban the manufacture of all the other styles too.

 

[Patrick_B]

Wow! I had no idea this was happening! I assume this will effect replacements for my 400W pool light. What will be my options for this in the future?

I intend to ask my PB about it, but I imagine they fall in the category that Bama mentions.

Specialty lamps are excluded at this point in time. As LED's gain more traction, they'll probably ban the manufacture of all the other styles too.

I know that Halogen lamps are, do you know what else falls in that category?

 

[Bama Rambler]

Candelabra, ball shapes, non-standard Edison bases, flood and spot, etc..

As I said, as the other technologies mature, they'll eventually phase out all incandescent lamps. Even fluorescents will eventually be phased out. LED's will most likely take their place. We're already specifying LED's in place of floods and fluorescents in the plant I work at.

 

[Mike_W]

As Bama stated, the new ban only applies to the manufacture and import of standard 40 and 60 watt incandescent bulbs. The standard 100 and 75 watt incandescent bulbs are already banned. The 100 watt was banned in 2012. No other incandescent types are currently affected - but that will surely change.

I have already replaced most of my incandescent bulbs in my house and all of my yard lights with LEDs. I first tried Compact Fluorescents (CFL) but they tended to flicker and burn out quickly (despite the claims of "long life"). I switched the over to LEDs and saw a significant effect on my electrical usage (and electricity is not cheap anymore here in SoCal). I have yet to have a failure with any of the LEDs. I have been getting them mostly on Amazon.
Mike

 

[danjaymor]

"Rough service" bulbs are still exempt as well. You can still get those indefinitely in 40 & 60 W soft white and clear. For when nothing will do but incandescent!

I agree with Mike, though.....I've been slowly replacing with LEDs as some of my bulbs fail. They've made some pretty great improvements on the quality and light ambience of them.....and I don't mind not having to change bulbs so frequently!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Yeah, I used to be really irritated by this, but LEDs have gotten worlds better. If only dimmers worked well with them! I just put 4 into a 12' high ceiling fan, and am looking forward to not changing them for many years.

 

[Vegas Kid]

LED is the future.

So now I can buy marijuana but can't buy a lightbulb? Bizzaro World.

 

[n8henry]

Yeah, I used to be really irritated by this, but LEDs have gotten worlds better. If only dimmers worked well with them! I just put 4 into a 12' high ceiling fan, and am looking forward to not changing them for many years.

Are you using your existing dimmers? I think they make special dimmers for the LEDs.

 

[X-PertPool]

I few years ago I found the lamp that was used for my fathers 8mm camera It is a 600w light bulb, it's like having a portable sun!

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Yeah, I used to be really irritated by this, but LEDs have gotten worlds better. If only dimmers worked well with them! I just put 4 into a 12' high ceiling fan, and am looking forward to not changing them for many years.

Are you using your existing dimmers? I think they make special dimmers for the LEDs.

Yeah, the dimmer is one of those built-into-the-fan remote control models. The LEDs don't draw enough power for it to work correctly.

 

[Mike_W]

[quote="Melt In The Sun":3kz7wpye]Yeah, I used to be really irritated by this, but LEDs have gotten worlds better. If only dimmers worked well with them! I just put 4 into a 12' high ceiling fan, and am looking forward to not changing them for many years.

Are you using your existing dimmers? I think they make special dimmers for the LEDs.

Yeah, the dimmer is one of those built-into-the-fan remote control models. The LEDs don't draw enough power for it to work correctly.[/quote:3kz7wpye]

I am still using the incandescent dimmers with my LEDs. One significant difference is that the dimmer switches felt warm with incandescent and are now cold to the touch (much less current). I was staying inside the dimmers power rating with the incandescents, but it was near the max load. I have been meaning to try the LED specific dimmer, but haven't got to it yet.

The LEDs I am using do dim with the dimmer, but do not go all the way off (I can use the on/off switch for that). I suspect that with an LED specific dimmer they may go to totally off. Here's the LED listing on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DE23OK/

Mike

 

[chem geek]

If you need the high color rendering index (CRI) of an incandescent-style lamp, halogen bulbs are still available and the newer ones have infrared coatings on the bulb that make them about 30% more efficient than equivalent incandescents so they exceed the 27% minimum improvement required by the law. I'm talking about halogens using the same bulb sizes and bases as standard bulbs, not the high wattage wasteful ones that used to be in many torchieres.

My wife can tell the difference between even the best of fluorescent bulbs vs. incandescents. She went to the PG&E lighting center in S.F. and was easily able to tell which light was fluorescent in every case. It's not the whitepoint, which can be adjusted, but the shape of the spectrum. It changes the way colors appear depending on the illuminated object (and its reflectance spectrum).

We'll see how they do with the LEDs. The CRI for incandescents is 99+ (out of 100), for CFLs is 84-85, for LEDs is 91 (or 81 for some models). There are high-end fluorescents used in photography that get to a CRI of 90 or so, but standard bulbs for the home aren't generally that good.