Light Bulbs
 

Does anyone know the current and correct answer to whether the production/sale of incandescent light bulbs is going away in the future due to gov regs?

Mike

I treat incandescents like bullets. Everytime I go to the store, I buy a box of each.:)

I do what TD does but mainly the standard based lamps, the ones with the smaller bases used in some outdoor and special fixtures won't be discontinued. I can just picture three CFLs in our post lamp.

BTW look for Sylvania lamps, still proudly made in Pennsylvania, GE and Philips are made in China where the idea of a long life lamp is 24 hours.

I have a house full of the new curlyque bulbs. Have no problem with them, except the one in the bathroom takes a second to come on. It's a little disconcerting, I reflexively lok up at it everytime it happens. They have had a noticeable effect on my electric bill too.:) Most of them have been in for well over a year.

Now, some of my more specialized bulbs are still incandescent.

Dave

No one is coming to take your guns.

Dave

not yet anyway :)

I may be a dim bulb, but I do have experience with light bulbs.

My conclusions.

Buy commercial service incadensce (I'm drunk) bulbs, they are rated for 130V as opposed to 120V. They have a heavier filament, which means they will take the shock of being turned on and off better. I suppose you could wire an inline thermistor in like I used to do with my old Fisher equipment, but it IS a damn lightbulb.

The CFLs do seem to hold up better to a garage door opener, even better than a rough service.

YMMV,

Charles

You are not a dim bulb, and I value your advice on electrical issues. (Even when you're drunk.)

I was in Home Depot tonight, looking for some curtain rods and curtains for the study/dedicated vintage audio room. I stopped in the lightbulb aisle and began searching for "Made in the USA". Man, what a depressing exercise that was. It appears that Philips and GE both still manufacture the large flourescents in the US, but that's it. Virtually every other bulb in that aisle came from China, ALL of them. A visit to the lamp aisle was even more depressing.
It seems like nearly everything is manufactured in China. Good grief.

A quick Google search revealed that the GE Lighting plant back home in Warren, Ohio is still operating. Although they did layoff 78 of their 400 workers back in September. They make specialty incandescents, and have been since 1911, believe it or not.

Dave

That would be wise.:)

yep, this is my experience with guns. They make folks feel real warm fuzzy and cocky. A bad thing when alcohol is involved especially. Again, that is just my experience. :cool:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incande...lightbulb_bans
I like the new CFL's now that they're cheap. I leave a few on all night outside so I can see all the border jumpers and have noticed my electricity bill has dropped a fair amount.

Cool, isn't it? Now multiply your saving times the billions of lightbulbs in the United States alone. That's a buttload of energy and money saved.:)

Dave

We changed to CFDs about four years ago. Even with bill averaging, we started to notice a change in three or four months. They have improved the design now where you have a choice between brighter or warmer light. They are also considerably smaller now than when we first started using them. My firm also changed over recently. It helps because we have a few lights that we need to leave on all night.

The weaknesses of the CFDs that I have seen are that when the weather is cold, the outside bulbs will take a few minutes to get up to full brightness, because they don't come on instantly they don't work very well for testing a circuit, and the three ways are far too large and are undependable. Also, they don't make mini bulbs or high intensity bulbs.

Overall, they're worth it. They have been improved enough that you can avoid the off-kilter fluorescent glow. They provide an especially natural glow through a lampshade, but I don't wear lampshades often enough for it to matter much. Dave has the right idea. Use incandescent for those applications where you need the incandescent properties, and use the CFDs for general lighting.

Regards,

D-Ray

Unless the flickering bothers your eyes, and it does for some people, Florence can't stand flourescents. The other disadvantage is that most are made in China, so we take pains to tyurn off lights and other stuff we are not using. Hey over twenty years ago when we had this house built we insisted on 2 x 6 outer walls. Seven years ago we replaced the heat pump with a high efficiency unit. Recent skylight and patio doors all have Hi-E glass. All this is as much for keeping Constipation Energy's hands out of our pockets as anything. So far the PSC sems to have told them where to stick their smart meters.