Well, this is not new, the 100 watt and 75 watt incandescent bulbs have already been banned for awhile, but starting today, 40 watt and 60 watt incandescent bulbs will be banned. These will no longer be manufactured or imported into the U.S.A. There are some exceptions, such as appliance, fish aquarium and specialty lights, but the vast majority of lights sold are in this banned group. I heard on the news that the stores will be allowed to sell their inventory, so there is no rush to buy some.
Of course, there will be some foolish people who go to the store and stock up on several years’ supply of these power wasting bulbs, not knowing that they are just throwing away their money. Each incandescent bulb uses several more times the electricity of the CFL and LED bulbs, and the consumer pays heavily for it. The environment also pays, with increased greenhouse gases and more fossil fuel use.
I have converted almost all of my light bulbs to LED lights, and I’ve saved so much on electricity that I have been told that I’m lying when I tell people what my electric bill is. I haven’t yet had a LED bulb burn out (see Note). The ones I bought are the Philips “L Prize” LED lights. They were rated one of the best by Consumer Reports, good color rendition, low power – 10 watts – and high in other important criteria. But they were expensive, $20 (USD) each. Now a 60 watt replacement LED bulb can be purchased for much less, about half that price.
But the thought occurred to me… What happens when all of the incandescent bulbs burn out and get replaced with LED light bulbs? They’re supposed to last for 22.8 years. Then suddenly the number of LED lights being sold drops to a much lower level. What then?
I guess we’ll have to wait a few years to find out, huh?
Note: The one Cree LED bulb I bought started flickering when I first started using it. But for the last few months, it has been just fine. Then recently it started flickering intermittently again, It may flicker for a few seconds, then be okay for the rest of the day. Or it may flicker intermittently a few times in a day. It’s not that much where it’s a problem, but it’s noticeable on occasion.
The Cree LED light bulb died. First failure that I’ve had of any LED light bulb (made for home lighting use).
Yep, led’s are the way to go. I put in 4 Phillips led bulbs so far and I’m very pleased with them. The 75 to 100w incandesants are now banned here too and the 40 to 60w will be banned in 2015.
Uh-oh.. I can just see all the people here in the U.S. that live near the border going across to buy incandescents in the next year. Or like with the cigarettes, some entrepreneurial ‘businessman’ will try to bring them across and sell them. I saw on the news some guy who brings stuff across and has a store to sell the stuff – I think he is in Vancouver.
I just got done looking at stuff on eBay (see my blog) and found three LED light bulbs for $8 U.S. That’s less than three bucks apiece. Now either they’re poor quality or they’re the ones that have the LEDs that last only a few months before they go dim. But still, that’s a lot less than the $20 or more that they cost a year or two ago. Caveat Emptor.