Big brother eliminates the incandescent bulb

Cap wrote:I've had terrible luck with the new bulbs. They last about 1yr on average.

That's because they are made in China with the rest of the junk they send us. It also doesn't help that many homes today have line voltage of over 120 volts. I've got 123 volts on average here and that makes short work of a 120V bulb. I try to find 130 volt lamps which last a lot longer, but they are tough to find.

For places I really don't want to dink with replacing bulbs all the time I use 1000 lumen and 2500 lumen incandescent streetlighting lamps. They are hard to get in small quantities - I got some probably 10 years ago from Grainger. They are inefficient as h@ll, the 1000 lumen lamp uses 105 watts and the 2500 lumen lamp uses 202 watts. The upside is they are krypton filled and have 12,000 hour rated life. Yes, twelve THOUSAND hours.

And, for those of you who live in and around New Jersey, there are TONS of incandescent streetlights still in use, although they are slowly being replaced by "modern" light sources. Many of these fixtures date from the 40's through the 60's. After witnessing the conversion to the puke-colored sodium fixtures during the 80's, taking a walk at night under incandescent lights is very relaxing and peaceful, rather than feeling like you're walking through a prison yard.

Back to the topic - I find it amusing that compact fluorescent lamps are being pushed so hard and incandescent lamps are being made "illegal". The enviro-nazis really have no clue. Lighting is really a very small percentage of total electrical demand, and home lighting is a mere fraction of the total lighting slice.

In addition, the enviro-nazis have banned mercury vapor lamps from being produced because (DUH) they contain mercury. Well, compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury, as well as the puke sodium lamps and metal halide lamps. It's just that these lamps don't say MERCURY as part of their name, so the enviro-nazis and the rest of the sheep that follow them have no clue. The flipside is mercury vapor lamps have the longest lifetime (before the manufacturers quit making them "too good" back in the '60's) with lamps still in service today that were installed originally in the 60's and early 70's. That equates to over 150,000 hours of use! So how does that pollute the environment? Oh yeah, that's right - it doesn't offer repeat sales for the beancounters and stockholders.

So rather than install mercury containing CFL lamps and break a leg when I take the dog out when it's -10F and the bulb produces crap for light, I'll burn a big-hog incandescent and let the mercury from the coal powerplant do the job instead. Dammit, where's my coal shovel? I need to throw another bucket of bituminous in the stoker before Illinois freezes over.

Stated very well.

And, for those of you who live in and around New Jersey, there are TONS of incandescent streetlights still in use, although they are slowly being replaced by "modern" light sources. Many of these fixtures date from the 40's through the 60's.

The street light in front of the house I grew up in is incandescent, with a porcelain visor. Last I checked it was still there. IIRC all the lights on that street were incandescent.

We don't have street lights here, so we are doing our part!

In addition, the enviro-nazis have banned mercury vapor lamps from being produced because (DUH) they contain mercury. Well, compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury, as well as the puke sodium lamps and metal halide lamps. It's just that these lamps don't say MERCURY as part of their name, so the enviro-nazis and the rest of the sheep that follow them have no clue. The flipside is mercury vapor lamps have the longest lifetime (before the manufacturers quit making them "too good" back in the '60's) with lamps still in service today that were installed originally in the 60's and early 70's. That equates to over 150,000 hours of use! So how does that pollute the environment?

I purchased 3 brand new mercury vapor bulbs yesterday at home depot for my shop. Slowly converting them out but still have 3 in use.

I find a quality floresent bulb puts out great light...

Mercury thermometers contain about 125 times the amount of mercury in a CFL. I have cfl's all through my house, garage, basement, shed, etc etc. I have halogen spotlights outside for the motion detectors though. Also have LED lights in a few places but the light is more direct, narrow beam, others have led's arranged at all angles but the wattage is so low they are only good for night lights. Pictures below are of 7watt LED, they were on clearance at Sams club, marked down from $15 to about $3 so i picked up 5 of them.

I hate CFL's with a passion. I've tried avery brand out there. They don't last and they put out crap light for at least a half an hour and I don't keep my lights on that long. My father taught me to shut the lights off if I wasn't using them. Good old Edison bulbs last forever at my house. Because they're never on!

On the news there is a problem with installing the new LED's in traffic stop lights, they don't produce enough heat to melt ice.

I have the Lightwiz brand of CFL's all over the house -- I get them from a promotion that the electric company pushes. $1 a bulb works for me! Had good luck with those. Some are going on 6 years, & I use them all the time. Others either burned out right out of the box, or within a year - so it's hit or miss. Most of them have been good. Tried one from Home Despot, that one flickered, buzzed, & never put the light out that the Lightwiz ones put out.

I bought a $10 fluorescent torchier lamp ... got 3 months out of it before something internally fried (part of ballast) & I had to toss it. My brother has the same exact one that I bought for him for Christmas '05 & still works mint.

Feeling lucky? http://www.energyfederation.org/estarli ... cPath/2590

Did you bag and tag it as required when you tossed it?

Hey samhill you're absolutely right. Or should I say left. Everything is still Bush's fault, everybody should give up any abundance and prosperity that they worked for. And we should all welcome the nanny state but still hate those pesky welfare recipients. And don't forget to hate the rich. It's easier than working hard. Oh, and all steelworkers should submit to making building frames out of bamboo like they do in Communist China.

Funny ..... the O-man never mentioned that one in his speech ...

Hey Dann, once again read your own article, sounds to me like the energy bill signed in 2007 put the last nail in that plants coffin. And just to set you straight with the bamboo beams the year I retired from U.S. Steel, China was buying every ton they could get off of us, most of the olympic stadium construction had our steel beams. GE could have converted to making other type bulbs but the cost of labor is too high, just maybe if all U.S. citizens were willing to work for a lot less that wouldn`t be, & God forbid me for suggesting but maybe if stock holders & management would take a bit less that could help also. The American worker doesn`t set their wages, business does, if they couldn`t afford to pay their labor they would have shut down long ago. All types of business have been leaving for decades but all of a sudden its Obama`s fault, just how many places used to produce bulbs that have been long gone?

Why should the American worker accept less salary when the American business and political class continue to rape him with the magic of fiat currency?

The average person needs more every year just to keep up with what was stolen from him.

HAHAHAHa just bustin yer chops Sam, I said I wouldn't do that didn't I? I'm a horrible lying terrible Republican. What's the damn difference the world is going to heck in an eco-friendly basket. I'm waiting for a discussion to start on the worldwide muzzie riot that's starting up in Egypt. Of course that's all Bush's fault too. We worry about our lightbulbs, over there they eat sand. I know how to disperse the crowds, release a few million African killer bees dipped in ham juice. So please forgive me once again, it's the dirty electricity from the mind-control bulbs in my little shack I live in; part of the worldwide Bush conspiracy initiated by rich people. Only robin hood obama can save us and make everyone on earth equally dirt poor.

I was gonna add that if I worked for less dinners are gonna be pretty scarce around here the way food keeps going up in cost almost weekly it seems.

Starting next year I am selling a new line of heaters I will call heat balls. They are small heaters 50w through 150w and although they may resemble other things you have seen they are 90% efficient at giving off heat.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy ... heat-balls

Line up, line up......