Banning the Bulb
March 24, 2011
J. D. Longstreet
3/24/2011
Americans have nine months left in which they can purchase 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. As of the first of 2011, no new 100-watt incandescent light bulbs (except for those left in the store’s inventory) can be sold to the American consumer. The last factory manufacturing the 100-watt incandescent light bulb was has been closed and shuttered. The incandescent light bulb manufacturing business has moved the China.
The US manufacturers of light bulbs in America will make only fluorescent bulbs. You’d never guess, would you, that manufacturers will make more profit off the fluorescent bulbs than they did on the old incandescent bulbs?
And now… the rest of the story. …..
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One Comment
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Harold
The point is all light bulbs have their advantages -
the “switch all your lights and save lots of money” campaigns are like
saying “Eat only bananas and save lots of money!”
As for the unfortunate ban on regular incandescents, it is indeed a “ban”:
Yes, energy efficient halogen incandescent replacements are allowed, but
still have some constructional and appearance differences, a whiter light output etc compared with regular bulbs, apart from
costing much more for the small savings, which is why neither
consumers or governments really like them, since they have been around
for a while now without being sold much.
No light bulbs should be banned:
There is no present or future shortage of energy sources for electricity
justifying telling what paying consumers can use,
especially since the overall USA energy savings from light bulb regulations
are less than 1% anyway,
based on the US Dept of Energy’s own statistics ( http://ceolas.net/#li171x )
-remember the politicians keep including non-incandescent street and
industrial lighting in the usual high US usage percentages quoted.
Much greater, and much more relevant, energy waste savings arise from effectively organized electricity generation and grid distribution,
and from reducing the unnecessary use of appliances:
rather than from stopping people in their choice of what appliance to use.