The final death nell of the incandescent light bulbs is at hand....1 JAN 2014

[SittingElf]

Goodbye sweet light [sad]  We'll miss your strong soft light in our homes, offices and workshops. We will now have to learn to live with light that seems to suck the life right out of you, and we have to get used to "squiggly" bulbs.

Americans are about to see the remaining stocks of bulbs disappear from their store shelves. 1 JAN 2014 is the date after which importing or manufacturing these lights will be prohibited. Unfortunately, the alternative that DOES provide nice light (LED's) is still too expensive to replace all the bulbs in a normal home.  The affordable bulbs... the squiggly's... are simply AWFUL!

Here's the latest news on the issue:  The end of incandescence.

Having see this coming, I have adopted the prepper's method and made sure I won't have to switch for the foreseeable future [thumbs up]  (have to make just a couple more trips to the Borg...just to be sure! [eek])

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Sigh....... [wink]

 

[Wooden Skye]

Frank

Light bulbs are an interesting item to add to the "lifetime tools" list! [big grin]

 

[mike68au]

Geez your only now ending incandescents.  I've been been using fluorescent for the past 10 years and recently switched mostly over to LED...  80% of my home is LED now.
I dumped the Halogens as well.  e.g my kitchen lights went from using 150 watts down to just 30 watts.  

The price of LED is coming down very quickly and well I don't have to worry about changing globes every other month.

And the best bit my power bill went down as well.  Then i added a 3kw Solar system on the roof and now i generate power that i get credit for on my power bill.  

As for the Incandescent lights.... good riddance

 

[Holzhacker]

As much as I hate to admit it, my wife's been stocking up for the last year or so. We have quite a few. She doesn't like the CFL look. That will probably change though.

 

[bkharman]

Frank

Light bulbs are an interesting item to add to the "lifetime tools" list! [big grin]

I was going to say something similar...

You are dropping tens of thousands on lifelong tools, do the same on LEDs for a couple hundred or so and call it a day...  Or lifetime.

 

[peter halle]

The discontinuation doesn't bother me at all.  I only have 5 incandescent bulbs in my whole house.  I went low voltage back in the 90's.  I hate warm white light.

What scares me a bit is that once the stock is depleted of say 60 watt bulbs people who are "cost conscious" will be putting higher wattage bulbs in fixtures not designed for them and overload the fixtures and run the risk of a fire particularly in enclosed ceiling fixtures.

Peter

 

[mike68au]

Frank

Light bulbs are an interesting item to add to the "lifetime tools" list! [big grin]

I was going to say something similar...

You are dropping tens of thousands on lifelong tools, do the same on LEDs for a couple hundred or so and call it a day...  Or lifetime.

The amount of $ that may be spent on stocking up on extra globes could be invested in moving to LED, they would likely still last longer than all all the Incandescent globes one has stocked up with.

 

[Davej]

Typically led lights only use a tenth of the power of incandescent bulbs so you would get your money back within a year and after that you would save a lot of money over the lifetime of the led bulb, just a thought for consumption .
Dave

 

[Paul G]

CFLs suck! Glad dimmable LEDs are at Costco, been changing over to those for a while now.

 

[SittingElf]

If the LED's come down in price, and are fully dimmable, then I'm on board.

Of course I could always go into "business"...

"Hey buddy!... c'mon over here... got something to show you in the trunk of my car"

"What's that, man?"

"First I gotta ask you if you are in any way connected to Law Enforcement"

"Uh... No"

" Alrighty then!  How many light bulbs you want?  100W'ers are $15.00/each, and the 60W Soft one's are $20.00"

"Ummm... I only got a hundred bucks. Gimme what you can for that."

"Yup, no problem dude. Need a bag?"

"Nah... thanks man.. been jonesing without real light.  Take it easy... don't get caught by the MAN!"

Sound of car squealing off......

 

[peter halle]

Maybe you are thinking long term, but according to the link you provided it only is affecting 40 and 60 watts at this time.

Note to self - check lava lamp and see what wattage it uses.  [big grin]

Peter

 

[tjbier]

The cfls were junk.  I tried em but they just didnt last long at all.
I have been switching our most used light to leds and I can onlyget the ones that mimic soft white lights, I believe that they are 2700 lumens or less. The 5200 lunemsare like daylight bright and I would go nuts withthem in my hoise. Shop lights they would be better.
All new homes we do allthe tall ceilings get leds for sure just so they won't have to be changed anytime soon, as well as most other lights ledsare coming down in price.

 

[semenza]

The cfls were junk.  I tried em but they just didnt last long at all.
I have been switching our most used light to leds and I can onlyget the ones that mimic soft white lights, I believe that they are 2700 lumens or less. The 5200 lunemsare like daylight bright and I would go nuts withthem in my hoise. Shop lights they would be better.
All new homes we do allthe tall ceilings get leds for sure just so they won't have to be changed anytime soon, as well as most other lights ledsare coming down in price.

Seriously? Most of the ones I have used go 4- 6-years! Not as long as LEDs but waaaay longer than incandescent (which usually only go about a year and get dimmer over time). That is for same use in same locations , durations on, etc.  I don't love them but I do like them.  Some give good light some don't. What I like is that I can obtain a higher wattage effect from a lower wattage fixture. They knocked some off the electric bill. To me the whole "slow to warm up" thing is blown out of proportion unless they are actually in a cold room.  I use incandescent in colder rooms where I want instant light such as stairway and pantry, quick on / off places.  For me they expand lighting options.  Also useful in locations where heat could be an issue.

But I need to for get some more incandescent too. Definitely don't like that mercury business though. If/ when I buy more I will be getting the ones that have the "fake"  light bulb shell.

I agree that the first CFLs that came out probably 15 years ago sucked. They have been improved since then.

Seth

 

[PeterK]

Problem with CFLs is that they have much shorter life in fixtures that are turned on for short periods of time. They work best if left on for hours at a time. I switched to CFLs several years ago but find in my house for my usage that I am lucky to get a year out of them. Even shorter for the 3-way type lights. I have never found the dim able ones for sale in my area and I have most of my ceiling fixtures on dimmers. Will have to try the LED type I guess.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Interesting point Peter brings up about the possibility of people putting higher rated bulbs in lower rated sockets. Will likely happen...

I've known Australia is off incandescent lamps for years; didn't realize 10 already. What I don't understand is your bulbs work and are likely priced correctly.  Crappy CFLs cost a lot here and don't work for anything.  I have one in my walk in closet. I'll grab clothes and change before it warms up and starts glowing. Same in the laundry room.  Those were older bulbs, but was there honestly a reason for us ever having crappy bulbs like that? They were already mainstream in several countries.  They should have worked better and not cost so much.

The fan above me has 4 CFLs in it from last year. I got a box of 6.  3 burned out.

These CFLs can just go away; manufacturers wanted to make cheap bulbs before LEDs were mainstream and charge a jacked up price for them.

If the CostCo LEDs are dimmable, I'm getting some.  I have dimmers all over the house.

 

[PaulMarcel]

The irony, though, is just before seeing this, I wrote a note to get a soft-white 60W incandescent bulb; I need it on a dimmer for camera lighting inside a box :-/

 

[greg mann]

The discontinuation doesn't bother me at all.  I only have 5 incandescent bulbs in my whole house.  I went low voltage back in the 90's.  I hate warm white light.

What scares me a bit is that once the stock is depleted of say 60 watt bulbs people who are "cost conscious" will be putting higher wattage bulbs in fixtures not designed for them and overload the fixtures and run the risk of a fire particularly in enclosed ceiling fixtures.

Peter

Once we get used to LEDs, which are improving and getting cheaper at a great rate, we will wonder why we waited so long. LEDs are showing up with warmer light as well. The cost is dramtically less. I have one on a motion sensor and it won't shut off! The minor amount of power that goes thru the circuit, and would not trigger an incandescent, will keep the LED at 90%.

Folks will have a hard time overloading a fixture if they use an LED, even a really big one.

 

[RKA]

Early on I had issues with CFLs burning up, then they got better.  But for some reason, to this day, I'm finding the failure rate somewhere north of 25%. That's premature failure (within 3-6 months of installation, it's dead).  I've had the last straw with these CFLs and just spent $200 replacing many of these with LED's.

 

[Bikeboy80]

Maybe you are thinking long term, but according to the link you provided it only is affecting 40 and 60 watts at this time.

Note to self - check lava lamp and see what wattage it uses.   [big grin]

Peter

I believe the higher wattage bulbs disappeared a few years ago.

 

[tjbier]

Some of them I still have outside,  but interior ones for whatever reason would crack and burn out. Ive tried both the curly type and the can light type.  [mad]maybe its just me , lol
bring on the LEDS

The cfls were junk.  I tried em but they just didnt last long at all.
I have been switching our most used light to leds and I can onlyget the ones that mimic soft white lights, I believe that they are 2700 lumens or less. The 5200 lunemsare like daylight bright and I would go nuts withthem in my hoise. Shop lights they would be better.
All new homes we do allthe tall ceilings get leds for sure just so they won't have to be changed anytime soon, as well as most other lights ledsare coming down in price.

Seriously? Most of the ones I have used go 4- 6-years! Not as long as LEDs but waaaay longer than incandescent (which usually only go about a year and get dimmer over time). That is for same use in same locations , durations on, etc.  I don't love them but I do like them.  Some give good light some don't. What I like is that I can obtain a higher wattage effect from a lower wattage fixture. They knocked some off the electric bill. To me the whole "slow to warm up" thing is blown out of proportion unless they are actually in a cold room.  I use incandescent in colder rooms where I want instant light such as stairway and pantry, quick on / off places.  For me they expand lighting options.  Also useful in locations where heat could be an issue.

But I need to for get some more incandescent too. Definitely don't like that mercury business though. If/ when I buy more I will be getting the ones that have the "fake"  light bulb shell.

I agree that the first CFLs that came out probably 15 years ago sucked. They have been improved since then.

Seth