Majority of Americans still in the dark about...

...incandescent light bulb phase-out.

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So what do you think of this?

Good. Time for us to take another step forward into the future. I see little to no benefit in keep incandescent bulbs around.

What cracks me up about this country is water is in critical shortage all over the place yet we still allow people to water their stupid lawns. This whole light bulb thing is just a feel good measure. There are better ways to save energy.

I'd say its a long due step. In countries with a high standard of living people are not really all that concerned about power efficiency and a less expensive power bill. But in places with lower standards of living people try to save up as much money as possible in anything. Here in Gaza incandescent lamps are pretty much nonexistent and it came to fully be the norm years ago. Florescent lamps are used everywhere instead. LEDs are only available in torchlight form. I'd like to use them however for general lighting purposes as well.

I haven't seen an incandescent light bulb in like 5 years.

I didn't know people still used them.

I hate energy saving lightbulbs tbh, every time I walk into my bedroom to look for something I have to wait like 3 minutes for mine to reach full brightness.

What kinds of lighting bulbs are you using? Florescent bulbs reach their full brightness momentarily.

Yeah I agree with this statement. If I need to light up a room for 10 seconds to grab something I don't want to stand around for 3min to wait for it to be fully lit so I can see what I am doing.

I've always wondered why it takes a government mandate to get people to buy energy-saving light bulbs since they're supposedly so obviously superior to incandescent bulbs.

Wait, people still use those???

They always pop and use too much power. Haven't used them for years.

who still uses those anyway?

The government has to mandate them because lighting companies don't seem to be smart enough to make energy saving bulbs affordable. Let's face it, incandescent bulbs are dirt cheap. LED and Florescent lighting is considerably more expensive.

Its one of the things the Bush ad!inistration set in motion that I applaud. We live in a world where the demand for energy is only going up, and the more efficient our technology becomes the less we will have to see rising energy costs.

Not anymore. They're dropping rapidly (and have been for some time) due to increased economies of scale.

this is bs.. how will i cook my easy-bake oven treats now??

Considering their heat output, there are plenty of food-related applications for them still. Popcorn machines wouldn't function without one.

And I still haven't seen a fluorescent bulb capable of reproducing a soft yellow light that comes from a tungsten filament.

I have heard reports that street lights are far more prone to icing over in the winter when using florescent lights.

Do we really want the gov mandating what's good for us?

Incandescent bulbs are cheaper, look better aesthetically, and it's still questionable whether or not you actually save any money

@huggybear1020: is that really true though

The bulbs that have a globe casing around them still cost an arm and a leg, and the ones without the globe casing look ugly as hell, especially around a bathroom mirror where there's no lampshade on them.

Hope LED comes down in price soon they will last much longer then CFL but use around the same power maybe a little less.

old news bro seriously

Depends on the type of bulb, and the veracity of the claims the manufacturer makes. Personally, I've had some CFL bulbs last drastically shorter than the claimed 10,000 hours, some as short as a couple months (I don't doubt these are manufacturing or shipping problems and not inherent to the design).

There are some "energy saving" bulbs out there (like halogens) that cost way more to buy and use (there is a 90W GE halogen bulb that costs $5.49 a bulb, and costs almost double that of an equivalent incandescent to operate over several thousand hours).

There is no doubt in my mind that the type of light that fluorescent, halogen and LED produces is not "natural" like we've become used to over the past several decades, and fluorescent in particular runs at a frequency that causes headaches for many people (my girlfriend gets cluster headaches from extended exposure to fluorescent light).

Then the last point one has to take into consideration here is that these "energy saving" bulbs are designed to last 10,000 hours. There is a TOTAL of 8760 hours in a year, and nobody is running their home lights all day long for a straight year. Even assuming you run your lights for 3-5 hours a day, that's only 1095-1825 hours a year, only a tenth of the total life of the bulb. So these bulbs are sticking around for a decade, so make sure you pick the right ones for the application, or you'll be out a lot of money.

I bought a pack the other day...

the light above my bathroom mirror have 4 light bulb sockets and I have one incandescent on the far left and one those swirly lightbulbs on the far right. When I torn on the light switch one, the incandescent turns on right away, the other takes about 5 seconds to shine, and its not even as bright either.

Energy bulbs are great. I hate bright light.

They've been illegal in Cuba for a few years now. I think America needs to phase out the ol' 120 volt socket.

LOL you're kidding right?

Maybe there's something wrong with the wiring in your house... I've never had to wait for them.

incandescents were definitely better light bulbs while they lasted and moving towards the energy efficient ones feels like a step down

changing them frequently kinda sucked, though

The government needs to mandate them because the new ones are worse light bulbs, and efforts to reduce carbon footprints are necessary.

i havent used the old ones in quite some time

That's the main reason they haven't become obsolete. They're still cheap, and most people can't justify the small premium.

garbage pight bulbs should of been taken off the merket long time ago...

they dont last as long

they break super easy

they consume more energy

everything sucks about them

No