The Humble Light Bulb: a victim of political stupidity and green zealotry

The Market Oracle ^ | Jul 31, 2008 | Gerard Jackson

[longtermmemmory]

GE and Philips were the ones lobbying to outlaw the regular lighbulb.

Florescent= patent payments

Incandescent = no patent payments

essentially this is a financial subsidy via regulation.

The floriescent can’t stand on its own in the free market.

[meyer]

The floriescent can’t stand on its own in the free market.

The fluorescent can stand on it's own as an alternative, but not alone in the free market. It takes government coercion to achieve that.

[StACase]

I’ve got a house full of these curly little Hg filled critters. The local hardware has a deal on them at 99¢ a copy. I expect our taxes are paying the freight on this one, but it’s too good a deal to pass up. The little ones are the ones on sale. They light up right away, and don’t get hot. Down side? They don’t fit in all fixtures, and you can’t use them with a dimmer switch. Disposal? I toss ‘em in the trash and don’t worry about it.

[wolf78]

For living environments, (living room etc., den, bedrooms, bathroom, dinning rooms, etc) incandescent is the only way to go. It is a matter of choice.

You know that saying "the only way to go" implies that there is actually no choice at all? ;)

I agree with the choice part: Ultimately it's the consumer's decision. I disagree with the "only way part". I only use CFL light bulbs for a number of reasons:

1.) I mostly use the lights for a straight 4-5 hours during the evening.

2.) I have no problem with the slightly "colder" frequency spectrum of my CFLs, especially because with the specific model I use it's only a small difference.

3.) I find conventional lightbulbs rather unaesthetic, too. LEDs oder OLED panels, now that's something else.

4.) I'm frugal. Mostly because of my protestant upbringing. That doesn't mean I'm cheap. I like things that have a certain value and functionality. I have an expensive, hand-made mountain bike that I cherish and a nice stereo. I just don't like throwing away food that's still edible or paying more for electricity than necessary. I just dislike waste.

But that's my personal opinion, nothing more. Everybody is entitled to his or her personal opinion. But that's exactly my beef with the article. It's a lot of hogwash about time preference (That effect is more than cancelled out be the inconvenience and cost of having to replace the light bulbs more often, so you start saving money within a few months. Time preference is more relevant when buying a car or a house) when it actually boils down to a question of taste: Some people just like the softer, warmer light of incandescent light bulbs better.

[muffaletaman]

I find tungsten delicious! ;^)

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Oztrich Boy]

I have CFs running in half my house. Some of the remaining incandescents haven't been replaced since I took over the house 25 years ago, some have been replaced once or twice.

Those replaced more frequently will switch to CFs when they burn out. For the low usage fittings, I'm laying in a stock of incandescents.

[muffaletaman]

There were two or three name brands I’ve tried that really had off-color, which was totally unacceptable and I returned them. I have been checking on this 3-4 years but all were poor in color.

Finally late last year there was one brand called n:vision I found on sale at home de-pot though, for not much more than incandescent in multi-paks. They had three different temperature colors, and one of them - soft white - is a really good match to the warmer yellow we are used to. The other two - bright white and daylight - were TOO bright white or blue white for indoors, and were just wierd.

That has been the biggest issue in my family - wife in particular would NOT allow me to use the others. These she is fine with. Other soft-whites have still been to blue.

I had one early burn-out only - but about 18 or so others have been in for 10 months so far, with hopefully another 7 yrs to go.

[muffaletaman]

ALSO important - I checked the lumen rating compared to incandescents I was replacing and got brighter CFLs than the regular bulbs. The “watt” equivalency was not as accurate in practical use. Having MORE lumens was what worked. This I found was really important in making sure perceived color and brightness was good - not noticable or objectionable. I am well satisfied.

AND as a kid that ALSO played with mercury, I’ll just bag-em in a plastic bag and toss them in the trash - I am not buying what the parts per billion nazi’s are selling. BTW I am - of course - a genius, so the childhood mercury didn’t hurt me (but I didn’t drink it after all...).

IMHO ;^)

[Jotmo]

Bump for later

[Fresh Wind]

I have one CFL running 24/7 as a night light. It now has almost 14,000 hours on it. So far, I’ve only had one fail (out of about 20).

[dsrtsage]

I really really want to break a few hundred of these downtown just to see what happens..don’t have the nads to actually do that for I don’t want to do time for releasing hazardous materials in a populated area (even though I think the dangers of mercury are overrated)..plus I don’t want to be responsible for wasting hazmat and emergency teams resources...but I still dream of doing this anyway

[Robert A Cook PE]

Fine.

But - My “eco-green” fluorescents DON'T last as long as incandescents, and require $8.50 - 9.50 to replace every 16 months instead of $0.75 to $1.50.

Now, if my air-conditioning season in Atlanta is May-Sept (a little bit in April and October some years) when the heat gain from regular (quick-lighjtng) bulbs IS a drain on resources, BUT the added heat from the incandescents in Sept to April is REPALCING natural gas so I have to burn LESS natural gas for heating in winter .....

[Smokin' Joe]

Back to the three S solution. Sweep, screw in a new one and shhhhhh. Take out the trash, but shred anything with your name on it and dispose of it in a separate bag...assuming there are dumpsters to drop them in--and wear gloves so you don't leave any of those pesky fingerprints on anything--including the new bulb...

Unless you are in a major urban area which can afford to set up special facilities, or your taxes go up to fund the federally mandated (but unfunded) light bulb disposal center in your small town/village/nearest paved road junction, what will probably happen anyway is that it will end up in a landfill.

I don't particularly want them, I do not like the light, and I have grandkids (and a great-grandkid) jumping around on a daily basis.

So every time I see 60W incandescent bulbs in stock at the local stores (they go fast), I get a few 4-packs. I will continue to do so until they are no longer available, by which time I should have a pretty good supply stashed. Maybe by the time I have used that up Congress will pull its collective head out far enough to see a thin ray of daylight (but I'm not counting on it).

[SteamShovel]

I've bought a total of three of these types of light bulbs.

Two burned out within a month.

I had one of the bulbs (not the fixture) start to spark, sizzle, and catch fire (fortunately I was in the room). Later we found out a friend of ours had the same thing happen. I have never had an incandescent bulb (the bulb itself, not something near it) catch fire.

[AFPhys]

I’ve found that I need to burn more than twice as many of the CFLs in order to get the amount of light I am used to in the house. In addition, they break very easily - I’ve had three of them break now. That does not make me happy at all. Third big problem with them is the warm up time, especially in cool areas, is quite noticeable.

[Ginger1940]

It is IrishMike who needs lessons in economics, not Mr. Jackson. What IrishMike missed is that the author made a distinction between economic efficiency and technical efficiency. As a graduate in economics I can assure IrishMike that this is standard economics. Mr. Jackson’s use of time preference to explain consumer behavior regarding light bulbs is also standard economics.

The author’s argument is a simple one. Whether or not a good is economically efficient is determined by the consumer. Underlying this approach is the role of price. If fluorescent lamps are truly economically efficient in that they satisfy consumer wants then there will be no need for the state to intervene.