Posted on 03/27/2014 5:19:29 AM PDT by thackney
The Obama administration’s War on Carbon rages, but the good news is the incandescent light bulb still lives.
For the third year in a row, the federal ban on the popular incandescent light bulb — the choice of most Americans — was postponed by Republican House intervention that defunded EPA enforcement of the law.
“None of the funds made available in this Act may be used . . . to implement or enforce the standards with respect to incandescent reflector lamps,” reads section 322 of the $1.1 trillion budget signed by the president in January. The language was cheered by Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers (R., Ky.) and endorsed by Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) who has become a champion of the common bulb after infamously teaming with Lame Duck Bush and then-speaker Pelosi to kill the bulb in a 2007 global-warming-fighting energy bill.
After a firestorm of criticism from consumer groups led by Freedom Action’s Myron Ebell, Upton & Co. stayed the bulb’s sentence hours before its January 1, 2012 execution. The law eliminates the common bulb by capping the energy that bulbs can draw — effectively a mpg law for bulbs that only CFLs can meet.
The Obama EPA, greens, and their corporate-crony allies have continued to push the ban, however. As in so many of its transformation-of-America ventures, the White House has teamed with Big Business — in this case GE, Philips, and Sylvania — as they use regulation to gain higher profit margins on alternative energy and expensively energy-efficient products. Hundreds of jobs have already been lost as these companies shuttered U.S. incandescent plants to begin CFL production in China – part of the process of “transforming the global lighting industry,” as GE put it.
A ban would come at considerable cost to consumers. In the run up to the 2012 ax, retailers tried to mask the inconvenience to buyers by advertising CFLs at huge discounts. They were short-lived. These days an 8-pack of 60-watt incandescents sells at Lowe’s for $2.98, while equivalent CFLs sticker for six times more: $8.78 for a 4-pack.
Now we know why the president wants that $10 minimum wage — to help low-income workers pay for his bulb ban.
The 40W-60W bulbs not only make up over 50 percent of the market, but CFLs are not the energy-savers greens promised. CFLs are fragile — particularly when turned on and off multiple times. Meanwhile, thanks to general media silence, recent polling indicates only 28 percent of the public is aware that their primary bulb source hangs by a thread. Keep the lights on, GOP.
I wonder if it could be an inconsistent voltage level problem or something.
There’s something wrong with them. I attended a meeting at a house that was entirely lit with LED. I could barely see after an hour or so. They are extremely harsh on eyes.
I like saving money. I’ve already bought some LED bulbs when the price was right.
However, I do not like liberals in Washington D.C. forcing me to buy something or do anything based on disputable science, especially a science that gives them vast new powers.
I cannot seem to find their “right” to force me to do so in the US Constitution.
We are mixed due to the California “Title 24” energy regs. We put recessed LEDs in our kitchen and dining area as well as under-counter during the remodel. They are ok, but color isn’t great, dimming isn’t great, they occasionally “flash” very briefly to higher intensity, they create a strobe effect on water streams and pouring dry goods, and there’s a short turn-on lag. I just love paying 10x the price for less quality. Thank you government.
To top it all off, our kitchen and DR lights aren’t on enough throughout the rest of our lifetimes to payback the damn things.
Same here. CFL’s suck. I stocked up on incandescents and am slowly buying LED’s for certain rooms. Mainly the lights that get left on by the wife and kids. It is amazing how much effort it takes to flip a switch as you are walking out of a room.
My experience with CFL’s is that over half go bad within the first year. Some just quit working, but most lose their brightness and take so long to warm up that I am done in that room and gone while it is still lighting its way around the curly Q. And don’t even try to use them for outside lights in the fall and winter if you live north of Florida.
Ha! Same here...
But, I've discovered recently that the wife WANTS all the lights on. It's not a matter of effort or forgetfulness, it's a matter of preference.
So, I express my preference of lower electric bills by shutting them off when no one is in that room.
Cfls are junk. As anyone will tell you in cold weather they are simply junk. They don’t fully light in cold. They don’t last as long as a plain old bulb. They don’t require a hazmat team to clean up if they break. They don’t fit in fixtures. You can’t dim them. And besides. The FREE MARKET would have phased out the bulbs with new LEDs.
Crappy CFLs, perverts in blue uniforms feeling up children at airports, random police searches, and an endless war. George W Bush, the gift that keeps on giving.
Gov't meddling at its finest. LEDs would be good for some uses. CFLs for others. Incandescents for the rest. BUT....rather than have people decide what's best for them, they decide what's best for everyone. @#%$@%@%$!
FWIW, I'm only replacing those lights that are on all the time. Eventually, I'll need to go LED for everything and hopefully by then the price point will have come down.
I'm using "Cree" LEDs, the "soft white", instant-on version. Haven't seen any of the issues that you're describing, no strobing or flashing, none of that turn-on lag (the lag would have been the deal-breaker for me, that drives me crazy). I don't use a dimmer for any of them; I've no idea if they're dimmable.
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