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United States Government

Biden Puts Final Nail In the Coffin For Incandescent Light Bulbs (cnbc.com) 267

Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a report from CNBC: On Tuesday, the Biden administration put the final nail in the coffin for incandescent light bulbs, the result of a decade-plus-long legislative path. The journey began in 2007 when the Energy Independence and Security Act passed. That law required the Department of Energy to evaluate whether efficiency standards for light bulbs needed to be set or amended and required a minimum standard of energy efficiency for light bulbs of 45 lumens per watt to be considered. The 2007 law required that if the DOE determined a new energy efficiency standard was necessary, it should go into effect by January 1, 2017. But politics intervened as the Trump administration appealed those rules.

The Biden administration picked the issue back up. And in April 2022, the Biden administration issued a rule requiring the minimum standard efficiency of 45 lumens per watt, which became effective in July. At that time, the Department of Energy said it would have a gradual transition to the new rule so that stores with inventory would not be stuck with light bulbs they could no longer sell. In Department of Energy lingo, this is called "progressive enforcement." Full enforcement of the ban for retailers took effect on Tuesday. The DOE does not disclose its techniques for enforcing these step-wise implementation of the rule. However, the agency's new regulations will be enforced in "a fair and equitable manner," and smaller retailers are advised to reach out to the DOE to speak about existing inventory they may still have on hand, a spokesperson told CNBC.

Enforcing the sale of the more energy-efficient light bulbs will save consumers nearly $3 billion per year on their utility bills, according to DOE estimates, and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years. That's about the quantity of emissions that 28 million homes generate in a year, the Department of Energy said. [...] Not all light bulbs are included in the ban. Exceptions include a whole slew of specific light bulb implications, including appliance lamps, black light lamps, bug lamps, colored lamps, general service fluorescent lamps, marine lamps, marine signal service lamps, mine service lamps, sliver bowl lamps, showcase lamps, and traffic signal lamp, to name a few.

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Biden Puts Final Nail In the Coffin For Incandescent Light Bulbs

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  • Yeah right... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Shaitan ( 22585 ) on Thursday August 03, 2023 @09:34PM (#63738686)

    "Enforcing the sale of the more energy-efficient light bulbs will save consumers nearly $3 billion per year on their utility bills, according to DOE estimates, and cut carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years."

    Maybe 30 years ago but I'm highly skeptical of these claims. If it is true they are missing needed exceptions because nobody is using incandescents where they don't actually need them anymore. The free market already handled this issue, as soon as they were cheap and drop in replacements everybody choose NOT to waste their money. Magic.

    • Re:Yeah right... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Can'tNot ( 5553824 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @03:22AM (#63739228)
      The law was passed in 2007, and light bulbs have been changing rapidly since then. The free market responded to regulation, as was the intent all along. Trump's little show of grandstanding in 2017 was, of course, ignored.
  • And nothing of value was lost.

    • Diurnal sleep signal (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Thursday August 03, 2023 @10:33PM (#63738876) Homepage Journal

      And nothing of value was lost.

      Your eyes have a special sensor for blue light that sets your circadian clock. It's not a rod or cone, but a special cell in the retina that receives blue light. It doesn't participate in the visual process directly. A Huberman video mentions this and recommends going out in the dawn hours, mostly blue sunlight, to set your circadian rhythm if you're having trouble sleeping.

      LED bulbs are blue/near-UV LEDs with a yellow phosphor that mimics the black-body spectrum of an incandescent bulb.

      The spectral response of a UV bulb still has a spike in the blue/near UV end [remembereverything.org], and this will screw up the circadian rhythm signal - this is why looking at screens, either phone or computer, has a tendency to give you poor sleep. Sunset and firelight are reddish/IR, and we're evolved to view this as a calming signal before sleep, which is why it's recommended to use an incandescent lamp if you want to read before going to bed.

      Has this been addressed in LED bulbs yet? I have no problem transitioning to LED, but older people (such as myself) sometimes have trouble sleeping and need a bit of extra help.

      • You can buy LED bulbs in a wide variety of specially tuned colour temperatures, and arrays of LEDs that include a mixture of light spectrums, which is used to produce LEDs for plant growth. Phillips' earlier models included a yellow shroud to tune out the excessive blues in earlier mainstream LED bulb replacements. I'm pretty sure this is covered now.
      • by ufgrat ( 6245202 )

        Most of my LED's have a small bump in the UV range, and then a DIP in the blue/green range. The majority of their output is in the yellow/red range. Warm white LED's are getting very close to Halogen curves, although Halogen has far more red, and extends into the infrared. I actually bought an el-cheapo spectroscope, because I was curious.

        You're right that it's a valid concern, but they've gotten much, MUCH better at tuning LED's these days.

      • Has this been addressed in LED bulbs yet? I have no problem transitioning to LED, but older people (such as myself) sometimes have trouble sleeping and need a bit of extra help.

        As far as I've been able to piece together looking into this previously if you get soft white (<=2700k) LEDs generally the blue spike will be (mostly)gone. Especially any fancy looking continuous COB elements found in modern strip lighting or those old fashioned looking edison bulbs with the fake filaments the spectrum charts I've seen even in the ultra cheap models was clean.

  • COVID (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    LED bulbs caused covid. Incandescent light bulbs are natural. LEDs were not invented or made by anything of nature. A natural process did not enable LEDs to come about. If the universe wanted to manifest an LED, it would have made a process to birth LEDs. Only things nature made happen should be allowed. As a matter of principle we should not use anything synthetic, no matter the inconvenience. it's never worth selling out to synthetic.

    • I'm confused. Which natural process did you find that puts a carefully formed tungsten filament inside an bubble of glass filled with a Nobel gas?

      • by ufgrat ( 6245202 )

        I'm thinking a Nobel gas would be a bit... explosive.

        Most incandescents work in a vacuum. Kinda like the brains of some of the posters on this site. :)

  • I'm in Canada, but I can't recall the last time I saw an incandescent bulb in a store. And I can't imagine why someone would buy one if it was in a store, it's just going to waste money and heat up the room.

    The downside is I suspect there are some applications for which incandescents are still better, and I'm not sure their exemptions would have gotten all of them.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by resfilter ( 960880 )

      i am in Canada and have zero LED bulbs in my house

      i prefer the warm light of incandescent bulbs, and i get a massive headache from being surrounded from the narrow light spectrum of LEDs for long periods of time.

      you can buy candelabra shaped bulbs as they are exempt in any wattage as a 'utility bulb' or whatever which works for me because most of my fixtures are chandelier.

      you can also buy =40w utility bulbs, which, if you have multi bulb fixtures, are plenty.

      my house is way more energy efficient than yours

      • by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @01:05AM (#63739086)

        i am in Canada and have zero LED bulbs in my house

        i prefer the warm light of incandescent bulbs, and i get a massive headache from being surrounded from the narrow light spectrum of LEDs for long periods of time.

        I'm admittedly not well versed but I've seen a lot of different spectrums for LEDs (warm, cool, daylight, etc). I've also seen stuff advertised as full spectrum, but that may be more for grow lights.

        my house is way more energy efficient than yours.

        Sorry, it's not.

        why?

        when it's night time, it's colder (as in outside temperature is below my target inside temperature), and that's when the lights are on, so the heat from my edison era environment killing toaster bulbs, which are only on in the room that i am currently in, isn't wasted, it's just helping my heat pump out.

        Your heat pump is up to 300% efficient, unlike the light that is at best 100% efficient with waste heat.

        And if you're like most people, your lights are on the ceiling, so a pretty good portion of that waste heat is staying up there and radiating up and away through your ceiling.

        So your incandescent bulbs are probably operating at closer to 5% efficiency (the only useful energy you get out is the light) as opposed to 100%.

      • by ufgrat ( 6245202 )

        i prefer the warm light of incandescent bulbs, and i get a massive headache from being surrounded from the narrow light spectrum of LEDs for long periods of time.

        Say goodbye to 2002, and try some modern LED's. Most of the LED bulbs I've deployed lately are 2700K, 90+ CRI-- which means they're warm white, and hitting a 90% color rendering index. That also means that they're reasonably "full spectrum" (they drop out in the deep red/infrared regions).

        As for the rest of your desperate rationale induced rant, the reality is that your incandescent bulbs, being as small as they are, are simply being inefficient at producing both heat and light. They're turning electrici

  • I don't think LEDs will fare well. Will CFLs last in an attic?
  • I thought LED bulbs were simply better for almost all applications now. Were enough being sold that the legislation matters? The few cases where incandescents were being used were probably cases where for some reason LEDs wouldn't work. Ovens, maybe extreme cold, or where the heat output was useful (light bulbs can be low cost heating elements)
  • by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Thursday August 03, 2023 @10:06PM (#63738806)

    or something

  • I can't believe any town is still using incandescent light bulbs for traffic lights. They either need to be replaced super often or are extremely inefficient. Either way, there's no way the town is saving money by having 'em.

    • by Dwedit ( 232252 )

      Still might need some form of heating to melt away ice in winter. Previously, the incandescent bulbs were the heating. But with light sources being more efficient, you don't get ice melting automatically anymore.

  • ... on replacement mantles for my gas lighting.

  • Government didn't invent new types of light emitting sources, but they certainly will claim credit after most people would have bought more efficient light bulbs. As always there is no point to it, people decide based on their pocketbook, so eventually everyone switches to more efficient lightbulbs anyway.

  • by peterofoz ( 1038508 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @03:10AM (#63739210) Homepage Journal
    Anyone with half a brain will have already switched to LED for commonly used lights to save on electric costs on just pure economic terms.

    There are a few applications where the soft heat from an incandescent is what is needed more than the light, and now these are banned. Think about warming animal cages for chicks, small mammals, reptiles. Think about toys like Easy Bake oven. I had planned to use them in a home made wood worker drying kiln. Heat lamps in baths and showers.

    How about the grain of rice sized bulbs used in model railroads or doll house miniatures. The list goes on. There are also high temp environments where LEDs are not likely to survive like ovens.

    Be smarter about who you vote for - elections have consequences.

  • by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @09:39AM (#63739790) Homepage Journal

    Franlab did a good presentation on the ban and the main motivation: https://youtu.be/m6COwRlOUks [youtu.be]

  • trolls all (Score:4, Insightful)

    by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @12:12PM (#63740328)

    It seems that anybody who is not willing to go along with the /. pc narrative now gets labelled a troll. If that continues, /. will die. None of these people are trolls; they just have a different opinion or experience than those who want to silence them.

  • Edison Screw (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tkotz ( 3646593 ) on Friday August 04, 2023 @01:51PM (#63740612)

    Sounds reasonable, but probably pointless. There is very little economic incentive to continue manufacturing the bulbs they banned. Just stopping the manufacturing , the existing inventory problem would solve itself.

    I am just glad they are not trying to ban the Edison screw like California did with the GU24 debacle. Who thought deprecating 100 years of light fixtures would result in less waste?

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..." -- Isaac Asimov

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