Republicans Seek Repeal of Incandescent Bulb Ban

New American ^ | February 21, 2011 | Daniel Sayani

[woodbutcher1963]

Throw them in the trash that ends up in a landfill.

I do not lose any sleep over it.

[reagan_fanatic]

I replaced all my incandescents with CFL’s about a year ago, but I did it to cut my utility bill, not because the government told me to.

Just this last weekend, I replaced all the lamps in my bathroom vanity with LED’s (six of ‘em.) Still too expensive to do the whole house right now, but I’m hoping they’ll come down in price as more people buy them.

[TribalPrincess2U]

LOL

Just gotta laugh and go on. Hoping all this crap can be undone.

[woodbutcher1963]

“I replaced all my incandescents with CFL’s about a year ago, but I did it to cut my utility bill, not because the government told me to.”

I have been doing it for about 3 years as the old ones burned out for the same reason as you($). The CFL’s do last a lot longer. My wife hates them. There have been coupons available for the Slyvania CFL’s that make them free at my local supermarket. I have about 30 of them that were all free(even 3 way bulbs).

I used to put Christmas lights on 4 trees in the front yard up until a couple years ago. I stopped because my electric bill was going up about $35 just because of all those 6 watt bulbs(probably 300). I love the LED Christmas lights. If you buy them at the end of the season at Walmart they are really cheap.

[Ladysforest]

I can’t use the curly bulbs - I have migraines. These bulbs do weird things to people who suffer from most types of migraines, or have “sunlight deprivation” depression. LOL, I don’t think that is the technical term for that, but you get what I mean.

I can’t even sit next to a lamp with one of those curly things in it or I quickly feel sort of irritated.

After hearing about the coming ban on normal bulbs, I began buying ‘em up. Only Slyvania though, GE can screw off. I intend to buy enough to get me through till I croak.
The difference in our electric bill when we did have those curly bulbs was zero anyway, and Slyvania bulbs seem to last a decent length of time.

Honestly, before my experience with the curly bulbs, I never gave a thought to light bulbs having any impact on my migraines or temper. I’m a believer now though.

[sionnsar]

They got nothing better to do than pass stupid laws.

My nomination for Post Of The Day!

[Gen-X-Dad]

Just bought another case of 100W bulbs. If these idiots succeed in getting rid of them, I predict a thriving market on EBAY for these light bulbs based on my non-scientific experiment with Gore approved lights: 1) My wife hates them and complains their low light levels and greenish colors annoy her 2) the substantial extra cost per light bulb was not recouped by savings in electrical bills because most of them burned out about as fast as the incandescent lights and 3) these suckers are toxic, wait until landfills are full of them and oozing into the environment.

[sionnsar]

However, since I started replacing the lightbulbs in my house with the CFL’s , I have yet to replace one.

We started lamping the house with them over a decade ago, using them more in interior spaces as light quality improved. So far 4 have died -- one of the first two installed, running 24/7, started failing in December and was replaced.

Also, the amount of mercury in one thermometer is about 5000x more than a CFL lightbulb.

I think you're off a bit. The old fever thermometers contained somewhere from .5 to 3 grams of mercury. I believe CFLs today are down around 3 milligrams. So the ratio is approximately 1:160 to 1:1000.

I broke two of those as a boy. Which is equivalent to 300 to 2000 CFLs.

If we say that I've been using all CFLs for 5 years and 4 quit, and that's their steady rate of burnout, somewhere in 75 to 500 years I will have "released" as much mercury as I did with those two thermometers.

[SeeSac]

If we say that I've been using all CFLs for 5 years and 4 quit, and that's their steady rate of burnout, somewhere in 75 to 500 years I will have "released" as much mercury as I did with those two thermometers.

Part of the accounting has to do with the amount of electricity saved which results in less coal burned which reduces the coal plant mercury emissions.

[Georgia Girl 2]

God bless them each and every one. I hate the new bulbs and am hoarding the old ones.

[SeeSac]

And just what do they think millions of tons of mercury tainted CFL's tossed into landfills are going to do - freshen them up?

You are off by a factor of about one million ...

[longtermmemmory]

the green police come into our lives,
the green police they invade our homes,
police
police...

[sionnsar]

Part of the accounting has to do with the amount of electricity saved which results in less coal burned which reduces the coal plant mercury emissions.

True, but that gets considerably more complicated because I don't track burn time and via that energy savings (OTOH, most of our electricity is from hydros). This was mainly resulting from the "oozing landfill" remark.

[flat]

"However, CFLs are more expensive, many contain mercury which can be harmful even in the smallest amounts, and most are manufactured overseas in places like China. In September 2010, the last major GE manufacturing plant for incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. closed in Winchester, Virginia and 200 jobs were lost."

1. MORE EXPENSIVE
2. MORE MERCURY
3. MORE OR LESS NOT MADE IN AMERICA
4. MORE THAN 200 JOBS LOST..

And this AINT a good idea? WTF? Time to Win the Future Now... and

5. More or less...

→ → → → → → → DEEEP EFFIN SIX

            This clown car of an idea.......jeeeeesh

~SAVE THE BULB~

[woodbutcher1963]

My wife and I have an ongoing fight because she hates the color of the CFL’s. All I care about is that the use less electricity =($).

I knew my mercury facts were not acurate. Those figures were quoted on a talk radio show by someone who was promoting CFL’s. I think they were coparing them to your typical outside house thermometer. I was just trying to point out that the danger/fear was way overblown. The media loves to blow things like this out of proportion.

The problem I see with CFL’s is that they do not function well in cold temperatures.
I have 8’ flourescent lights in my unheated barn with a ballast that works down to 20 F. What do use to replace your outside post lamps ? I am tired of replacing those every 6 months. These lights(2) are on a photo sensative switch. They are on 10-12 hours everyday.

[BunnySlippers]

YES! I support this.

At the same time I am hoarding light bulbs.

[Sloth]

However, CFLs are more expensive, many contain mercury which can be harmful even in the smallest amounts, and most are manufactured overseas in places like China. In September 2010, the last major GE manufacturing plant for incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. closed in Winchester, Virginia and 200 jobs were lost.

Blah, blah, blah. All these reasons are utterly irrelevant. Are there no GOP types with the courage to say that this is a matter of freedom versus tyranny?

[sionnsar]

Try out a bulb with the *lowest* color temperature you can find, and put it in a shaded fixture (so you don't see the bulb itself). It's virtually indistinguishable from incandescent. HOWEVER, it might not be for everyone -- the light still bothers some folks and some report headaches.

Our kitchen has overhead fluorescents. My wife bought some high-temp color lamps for it -- it was horrid, bright and blue. We replaced them with much lower color temp, and the light is decent.

I live in a very mild climate (Seattle area) and we don't have outside lights that are turned on very often, so I can't answer those questions very well. But you might want to check the origin of the lamps you're buying -- I don't have enough personal experience, but others say the Chinese-made lamps don't last as long. (Then again, they're not making them in the US anymore apparently...) A name-brand such as Sylvania or Phillips *might* be better.

[GraceG]

I use LED lights for outdoor lights as they work when it is very cold and don;t suffer from “heat/cold” fatigue.

[Imnidiot]

We added CFLs to our house 4 years ago...so far 10-12 have failed.
Me not be happy.
If Congress can overcome the inertia needed to repeal this law, next they should get rid of Ethanol...it’s bad from everyones point of view (except for certain farmers).