YYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! In your face!

[Chetlaham]

Score for vintage light bulbs still left like Globes and 3 ways

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-e...stration-rolls-back-obama-era-lightbulb-rules

I'm going to have more time to stock up on real light bulbs for decades down the road. I don't ever plan on putting LEDs in my table lamps or vanity mirror.

 

[rp2813]

I thought specialty incandescent bulbs were still going to be available for an indefinite period.

 

I'm no fan of LED bulbs, and I particularly despise them for street lighting, but I can't support the motivation behind this latest bit of insanity from the psycho-in-chief.

 

[Chetlaham]

From what I've been reading eventually those would have gone away to for not being efficient enough.

There is nothing wrong with loosing efficiency in this regard. Consumers who like LED will keep or switch to LED. Those who want the old fashioned bulbs now have a way for manufacturers to legally sell them through say Amazon.

In the end nuclear power will win out (its the only option), so whether a home uses less or more energy will not have an impact on carbon output or environment.

 

[ea56]

We’ve been using CFL’s for almost 13 years now, and have also now been replacing them with LED’s when they burn out. When we first transitioned to the CFL’s the electric bill went down noticeably, so they do save on energy. The only thing I don’t like about them is when they burn out they have a nasty odor from the mercury. But the light has been just as good as the incandescent bulbs. The new LED’s are just great, better that the CFL’s as far as I can see.

We have a real crisis on our hands with Climate Change, just look at the intensity of hurricanes and all the other maladies caused by global warming, like out of control wildfires. We need to do whatever we can to preserve the earth. IMHO its selfish to feel we can just continue whatever energy wasting practices we want to, just because it suits us personally. At some point there needs to be a sense of personal social responsibility. The earth belongs to all of us, and we all must do our own part to preserve it.

And I so agree with Ralph about the motivation behind this. Deregulation will just cause the demise of earth to accelerate.

All that being said, we still have one incandescent bulb still in use in the closet under the stairs, and it was here when we moved in this house 25 years ago, I don’t know how long it was in place before that. We turn this bulb off and on several times daily.
Eddie

 

[Chetlaham]

"when they burn out they have a nasty odor from the mercury"

Its probably from the plastic... when CFLs hit end of life the cathodes keep running and the tube sometimes does break.

Which make me want to ask people if they are ok with the most powerful neuro toxin known to man being released into their living environment.

People will argue its only a drop the size of a ball point pen, yes, but do you really want a dozen of those beads scattered around in your carpet / floor evaporating away for decades on end? 10*F rise in room temp causes mercury evaporation to double. The phosphorus which absorbs some of the mercury as the lamp ages which needs to be cleaned up after a break? How many just use a vacuum or rags that go in the washer? Put them in the regular trash where is all adds up with hundreds of thousands of bulbs over the years?

The true effects will not be known until years latter. And those that do pop near term up will never be attributed to a lamp that can expose a person to much higher concentrations of mercury then coal plants releasing slightly more but in a much more open environment.

 

[Chetlaham]

"We have a real crisis on our hands with Climate Change... IMHO its selfish to feel we can just continue whatever energy wasting practices we want to, just because it suits us personally."

Assuming we do, and its man made, this is only a greater incentive for nuclear power. Wind and Solar are blackouts waiting to happen (look at the UK blackout when after the first power plant trip the wind farm just road down with the frequency) and can not provide the energy needed to power everything. Hydro is limited and fossil fuel will disappear one day even if its helping the earth.

The only option are melt down proof nuclear reactors. Fission in the future, but till then Fission will work well.

 

[Chetlaham]

*fusion is the future- my mistake.

And I know fossils do not help the earth

 

[iowabear]

Electricity is expensive and getting more expensive all the time.  LED bulbs are now often under $3.

 

So this "freedom" will save poor people $2 per bulb at the store.  And then cost them another $12 per year (or more) to operate them compared to LED.  Enough said.


 

 

[ea56]

As Far As Nuclear Power Plants

just consider the the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, enough said. With the potential of earthquakes in California and the carelessness of many in todays workforce, I say HELL TO THE NO on nuclear power plants.

Ask the people in both of these locals what they think about nuclear power. I’ll just bet it will be a great big negatory.

Eddie
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents_and_incidents

 

[Chetlaham]

Read what I wrote: melt down proof.

And Chernobyl is an awful example because 1) US reactors have a containment dome 2) They don't can't run away like the RBMK POS reactors in Russia.

 

[kate1]

The answer to Chernobyl and Fukushima is easy, and it’s been around for decades as a solution, you literally just build reactors that are NOT water cooled. Reactors that are not water cooled do not require any external power source, can safely shut themselves down without any humans even being present, and present no risk of runaway chain reaction or meltdown. My grandpa helped work on these reactors for years until the government pulled their funding and the reactors were shut down. I’m 100% in favor of maximizing renewable energy, I live in a town powered by a hydro plant and I plan on putting solar panels on my roof, but to get away from coal, we need nuclear power too. We have to devote money to building the safe reactors which have already been developed and proven. Even nuclear waste can be recycled (so to speak) and reused in new types of reactors that are currently being developed. We have the answer to our energy crisis, our government just needs to get out from under the thumb of the fossil fuel industry and actually take a stand and invest in the right things.

 

[frigilux]

Every bulb back at the house was CFL. Through dumb luck I purchased the brand that CR later rated highest (sold at Home Depot, as I recall.) They were brighter on start-up and reached their full brightness more quickly than most. As Eddie mentioned above, I noticed a drop in the electric bill right away.

First thing I did upon moving into the apartment in July of 2017 was replace every bulb in the place with LEDs. No problems so far. Have two lamps with LEDs, as well. Can't say I have a problem with the quality of the light they emit. Bulbs in the bathroom, bedroom closets and over the kitchen sink are flood-lamp shaped; the rest are the traditional pear-shape.

 

[circlew]

I really like the last LED lamps I bought. They are Sylvania, made in USA, and have a GLASS outer shell. Got them at Menard's. I can hardly tell the difference between them and an incandescent lamp.

 

[gusherb]

I'm having trouble with several of the candelabra style LED bulbs I've been using, so much so that they're not even lasting a year, and these were "high end" Cree bulbs. Now I see everyones gone to a filament style with NO power supply which means they all have 120hz flicker, which is a huge NO for me (I can see it quite readily). After I use up the case of them that Cree sent me under warranty a couple years ago I may have to go back to incandescent candelabra bulbs (which I'd rather not because the LED's do save a good amount of energy in a high use fixture such as the one I'm talking about).

 

For various reasons I would prefer to have a choice in what type of light bulb I can buy as there is no one size fits all when it comes to lighting applications. 

 

[mattl]

I'm actively boycotting the 4 manufacturers that lobbied for this. It's a simple money grab as was done back in the '20s when the same group determined that bulbs should only last for 1000 hours, not the 2500 they were capable of back then.

The other partner in this is the coal industry who stand to profit due to the increased use of power and the need for more generating plants to support the ( insert the expletive of your choice) who support and implemented this -purely for corporate profit. The hell with the environment.

 

[kb0nes]

Not even looking at the issue of wasting resources, climate change, or even all the money I'm saving, I'm super pleased to only have ONE incandescent lamp in my house (self cleaning oven).

The overall quality of the light is far and away superior with LED's, none of that dingy yellow. And I haven't had a single lamp fail in my house in nearly 10 years now, just something I never even need think of anymore. Funny how this group bemoans appliance failures but doesn't embrace massive reliability increases when then pop up. #olderisalwaysbetter even if it isn't I suppose

It is a shame that energy efficiency needs to be government mandated, but it is does seem to be an American problem that people act selfishly. Most of the efficiency improvements we have made have been mandated vs voluntary. I just can't fathom that, but I was brought up with the idea that all resources are finite and shouldn't be squandered.

Oh well, the pendulum will swing back soon, especially seeing as how they seem hell bent to push it the other way

 

[lakewebsterkid]

LED

Every bulb in our house is LED except for maybe 2-3. We keep outdoor lights on at night and the LEDs are a few years old and we have had no issues. They are Meijer branded candelabra bulbs. We have had 2 failures on LED bulbs overall. One GE HD 100W bulb, and one bulb from our local electric provider (non branded). Both around 1K hrs of use. GE sent me a voucher for a new bulb no questions asked. We have had no issues with the quality of lighting or color. At this point, we will continue to use LEDs without thinking twice. I’m sure the electric bill is lower too!

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

(Long Live!) the AMKrayoKandelebra!

Well, no LED’s here:

Every bulb up here works, and has for the nearly nine-out-of ten that light has hung (I out her in) up there, and that we’ve lived here...

Of course, I have a dimmer switch there which I hardly ever turn on to full brightness (but I have come home to angrily seeing it on all the way, long after everyone’s got up from the table and/or left the room, but only a few times as she’s very seldom used) so I have those factors to those conventional incandescents’ (a flood light which was the only original bulbs that chandelier came with—I added the candle-shaped bulbs)longevity...

— Dave

 

[arbilab]

For those nattering light bulbs over what's 'killing earth', give it a rest.  Firstoff, lightbulbs are a fart in the hurricane of electric consumption.  Further, electric generation and consumption wastes half the fuel put into it, irrespective of which fuel is used. 

 

[kb0nes]

If everyone threw out one piece of trash into the street every day, we'd have an enormous mess on our hands. But alas it is only a little piece of garbage so it's not so bad...

It is wrong to justify wasteful resources usage based on thoughts that it is a 'minor' thing. We should all strive to be good stewards to this planet as we are all only brief occupants here. Selfish to use more then needed to not leave resources for those that follow us.

 

[ea56]

To say that light bulbs aren’t responsible for the large consumption of electricity just doesn’t make sense. Just look at the nighttime photos of any city or metropolitan area in the world and look at the thousands and in larger cities millions of lights burning. Yes, each light bulb by its self may not consume a large amount of KWH but in mass light is quite probably the largest consumer of electricity. So, if each light bulb can be made to generate the same amount of light for say 13 watts to give the equivalent of 100 watts of light then just that single light bulb has saved 87 watts of power. Multiply those savings by millions and this represents a monumental conservation of electricity and the resources necessary to generate that power.

This same kind of conservation mentality was instrumental during WWII in helping to provide the materials and resources needed to fight and win the war. So think of conservation of energy today as a vital step to winning the war on Climate Change and the preservation of the earth. These are small acts that everyone can be a part of for the greater good of all.

Furthermore, the conversion to LED light bulbs as the burnt out incandescent bulbs are replaced with LED’s requires no deprivation, like the rationing of gas did during the War and realizes saving of dollars in the long run

Eddie

 

[firedome]

While they last...

we still have multiple unopened packs of 16 bulbs each, all name brand, no weird off-brands: Phillips, Sylvania & GE 16pks: 40, 60, 75 and 100 watts available.
$20 for each 16 pack with FREE shipping.

Please send any inquiries direct to: firesweep "at" verizon "dot" net
regards,
Roger

Incandescent bulbs:

 

[rp2813]

Apparently there was a study that identified a link between LED lighting and macular degeneration.  This information came to me from a good friend of mine who is super knowledgeable about all things health-related, but I don't know if it may apply to task lighting, ambient, or both.  My mom had macular degeneration and I'm keeping on top of my eye health in hopes that I don't end up with it.  If LEDs do indeed have any influence, I'll be trying to avoid them.

 

Has anyone else heard of this?  I liken it to the issues currently being discovered with vape pens.  We don't learn about these types of things until they've been around and in use for a while.

 

[Chetlaham]

And folks still refuse to see nuclear as the only real legit solution. A solution that actually saves the environment and people can consume power like its air.

 

[sudsmaster]

Vape pen toxicity

Apparently the health problem with vape pens has been linked to the addition of vitamin E acetate to the pen oils. This is preliminary what I heard on the local news last last week. I don't vape so I'm not overly concerned about it, but it sucks for those who think they are doing a safer way to smoke and wind up with severely damaged lungs.

As far as lighting goes, I converted over to CFL's starting in the 90's. When LED's started getting more available and cheaper, I converted all my CFL's to LED's. The only fluorescent lights here are tubular shop lights and Circline circular bulbs. And even those I'm converting over (you can get LED replacements for 4' tubes. Haven't seen any for 8' tubes, yet. And unfortunately there don't seem to be many if any Circline LED replacement bulbs. Instead you have to replace the entire fixture.

The first LED bulbs were kind of horrible, with very low CRI (Color Rendition Index). Over the years this had improved dramatically. I have bought a lot of FEIT brand LED bulbs with "True Color Technology" and these are nice. I prefer these to daylight or cool white for areas where I'm going to be working later in the evening. The warmer light is nicer to induce slumber, you see.

Some newer LED light fixtures are adjustable... not just brightness but also in color temperature. Cool beans.

Ralph says LED street lights are bad. I agree; the street light here was changed from high pressure sodium to LED a year or two ago. The light must have an extremely low CRI. I describe it as "gray light". Giving LED lights better color rendition seems to add maybe 10% more power consumption, and the local municipal authorities probably opted for cheaper low CRI fixtures both for initial cost and running costs. Seems wrong when you consider that the LED's, even with high CRI, use so much less power than older technology. Oh well. I would imagine that tonier cities and towns will opt for more pleasing street lighting. Maybe. But it's still better than that ghastly low pressure orange sodium lighting of 20 years ago.

Such is progress.

 

[DADoES]

 
I want to convert the four troffer 4-tube fluorescent fixtures at the work office to LED.  They're all flaky, especially during extra-high humidity ... some not working or coming on dim until the switch is flipped multiple times, in some cases taking 10 to 20 mins wait to settle down. Some of the sockets are cracked and presumably the ballasts are going bad so I want to bypass them with non-hybrid tubes.  Also possibly convert the seven fixtures in projection, at least one ballast in there is leaking.  And whatever number of fixtures are in the restrooms, although those aren't exhibiting any issues.  Found an online source that offers retrofit full rewiring kits but the "tombstones" are 1" width and the existing are 1-1/4".

The cleaning lights in the auditoriums are even worse, numerous of those fixtures don't work at all after 35 years but I can't deal with access to the ceilings in there.

 

[iowabear]

On my street, the orange sodium vapor lights were replaced by LEDs a few years ago.

 

I honestly preferred the orange sodium vapor.  While very bright directly underneath, the LED light isn't dispersed nearly as well, leading to dark spots between fixtures that wasn't as pronounced with the sodium lamps.

 

Plus I think the subtle orange glow was simply more peaceful and calm, especially during the winter when snow cover reflects the light.

 

[sudsmaster]

There are two kinds of sodium lamps: low and high pressure. The low pressure ones have that very orange light. The high pressure ones have a much whiter but still orangey light.

I remember Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in the 70's. It was lit with those low pressure sodium lamps. It gave everything an orange look, like it was all made of brick. I remember reading that the reason why law enforcement liked the lamps was because they didn't cast any shadows, so it was easier to spot people at night. I don't know if that's true, but it did seem like shadows were muted on that street. Perhaps something to do with the longer wavelengths of orange light.

I have a workshop that's about 25' x 50'. There are three banks of overhead fluorescent lights in there: 2 are comprised of five dual 8' long continuous fixtures. A third by a wall opposite the windows is comprised of five dual 4' long spaced fixtures. If they are all turned on at once they consume... 2*80*10 + 2*40*5 = 1,600 + 400 = 2,000 watts. That's a LOT of electricity. I can replace the 4' tubes with LED versions, which use less watts; Altos use 32 watts. LED versions use 14 watts. Obviously LED is the way to go. However the fixtures are old, and in some cases I must replace the ballast. Electronic ballasts also may use less energy than older inductive ballasts.

However the real problem is the 8' fixtures. Stock tubes use 75-80 watts each. When I looked a few years ago, I was not able to find any LED versions. I just did a google search and now there are multiple choices of 8' LED replacement bulbs, wattage from 36 to 45 watts. These require re-wiring the fixture to bypass the ballast (fine with me!).

For some reason the dual-pin 4 foot LED bulbs don't require ballast replacement. Go figure.

One problem I have is that on the property there's a substantial stash of new old stock of 8' tubes. Even though they use more energy, I'm a bit leery of abandoning them, and instead I figure I should use them up instead of going to the expense of upgrading the fixtures to LED. I might just upgrade some of the fixtures (the 8's are switched two or three per light switch). I don't recall seeing any 8' LED bulbs at the home improvement stores, though, but then I haven't looked for a year or more.

Usually I don't turn all the lights on in the shop at once. Just a bank or two as needed.

Later!

 

[mattl]

While I'm a big proponent of LED lighting I have yet to find a 4' LED replacement for fluorescent tubes with close to the same light output. I have one light that uses 4 tubes, and those are putting out 2700 lumens each, I've neve fund an LED equivalent close to that.

 

[arbilab]

OMG, "city" lighting is INCREDIBLY wasteful.  In the mid cities, clear night, might be able to see 3 stars.  Or not.  In my house OTOH, there is a fluor in the kitchen and 2 incands on dimmers.  A 150W reading lamp dimmed to 30W and a 60W dimmed to 15.  Switching to LED would do me no good at all.