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There is no incandescent apocalypse imminent, so you can save yourself the trouble of hoarding incandescent bulbs from Home Depot, as well as save yourself from unusual stares at the sales counter.
There is no ban on incandescent light bulbs. You will still also be able to purchase incandescent bulbs even though the federal government’s Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 has officially started in October. The PDF is available to read:
At no time is there a mention of the word “ban”. Instead, the wording describes the energy efficiency standards that lightbulbs will need to meet in the future. Many claim that the standards effectively bans incandescent, because light bulbs today can’t meet them. By 2020, a second tier of restrictions would become effective, which requires all general-purpose bulbs to produce at least 45 lumens per watt (similar to current CFLs). Exemptions from the Act include reflector flood, 3-way, candelabra, colored, and other specialty bulbs.
Now to the truth……
The incandescent bulb of Edison’s time and those that changed very little since that time are wasteful. This is not an issue of brightness, it’s about wattage, which is much different. It is possible to have incandescent bulbs that will meet standards and have the same feel and brightness. We are not destined to a solely compact fluorescent existence.
Manufacturers now offer a high-efficiency version of the incandescent light bulb for the general duty 60-watt and 100-watt light bulbs: No curly pig tail. No hazardous mercury. The bulbs use a filament inside a bulb that looks like the familiar old light bulb . Because they are so efficient, however, you’ll be using a 40-watt where you use a 60-watt and 70-watt where you used 100-watt, and get the same amount of light. They are called halogen, and I found them at my local homes store under brand names Philips, they call their’s Halogena, and GE. They are dimmable and show no lack of performance in comparison to standard bulbs.
Alternate filament bulbs from Roost
These European-standard 60 watt bulbs are appropriate for U.S. fixtures and burn at a gentle 15 watts due to the lower U.S. voltage. Filament bulbs burn less energy and will last longer than standard 60 watt bulbs.
The benefit to this legislation is to motivate technology to make long overdue advances. The new LED bulbs are more costly than standard light bulbs, but prices will fall when products are more in demand, so we all win. Because they will last longer, some as long as 40,000 hours, you’ll be buying fewer bulbs. That makes the price point comparable to what we are current used to.
