Info Nearing last call for incandescent bulbs!

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,409
14,815
146
Why? Decent LED bulbs are much better.
Gawd, no sh*t. When we moved into this house, I replaced almost every incandescent bulb with LEDs. I still haven't dragged my ladder inside to swap the bulbs in my ceiling fan...which is over 10' off the floor...but those bulbs rarely get used anyway.
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
22,387
5,003
136
My wife hates LED and Fluorescent lights. She stocked up on incandescent bulbs as soon as she heard about the banning. We have a few closet shelf's dedicated to light bulb storage.

Getting really hard to find now.
 

WelshBloke

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
33,278
11,414
136
My wife hates LED and Fluorescent lights.
I honestly cant tell the difference when they are turned on.
Plus you can get fun smart bulbs! My kids have both got ones that you can turn off with a remote. Turns out teenagers like being able to turn the light off without getting out of bed. Who'd have guessed eh?
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,949
575
126
Well and maybe because the government says I can't have something anymore, I'm going to keep a cache of it, plays some role.... :p
 
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lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,378
10,771
126
I got a bunch of 40w incandescents years ago when led was expensive and kind of lame. I'm pretty sure I have a lifetime supply for a couple niche uses where I still prefer incandescent, but I'm good with the current state of led. I still slightly prefer the look/action of burning wire, but I like the energy savings of led, and they're close enough. Also pretty cheap.
 

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
21,222
16,445
136
The only thing I've noticed with LEDs are that in my kitchen if I watch my waving hand, there's a definite frame rate effect going on (an extreme example of this is to watch someone dancing in front of a strobe light) that doesn't happen in natural light.

I can't say it bothers me, certainly not to the point of paying 10x the electricity cost.
 

pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
22,387
5,003
136
LED and Fluorescent lights don't bother me at all. After living in a Submarine with all fluorescent lights for months at a time...
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
12,078
2,772
136
Hmm, didn't know that. Might need to stock and hoard halogens for the purpose of reading.
 

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,949
575
126
Plenty on Ebay, and some other independent sellers (e.g. lighting supply). Amazon has them, but won't even ship any "most common" household A19 or A21 40W ~ 100W to my state (CA). They will ship lesser common i.e. 'specialty' bulbs like 3-way bulbs, up to 150W.
 
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pmv

Lifer
May 30, 2008
15,142
10,041
136
LEDs are perfectly acceptable, but CFLs were oversold. Didn't last anything like as long as they told you they would, and annoyingly expensive. Plus the mercury issue.
 
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mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,773
1,768
136
^ Average person would have more mercury exposure eating tuna, than the trace amounts used in CFL bulbs, even if they did manage to break a few here and there which was a rare event for me back when I used them.

Main thing to me about LED is in certain areas it needs to have high CRI as well as not too cold a color temp. Heh, first swap from incan to LED in the dining room and it was terrible how greenish gray they made food look.

At least I wasn't stuck trying to use CFL for all my BR30 kitchen lights. CFL BR30 in recessed cans have terrible lifespan. LED lifespan isn't great either in this higher temperature application but at least they only cost 1/3rd as much.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,378
10,771
126
CFLs are complete garbage, and were largely the reason I stocked up on incandescents. I was an early adopter and had cfls before most people knew what they were. They barely got better from then to today; only cheaper. Flourescent lighting is the worst. It turns any space into a government issued office building from the 70s.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
66,409
14,815
146
CFLs are complete garbage, and were largely the reason I stocked up on incandescents. I was an early adopter and had cfls before most people knew what they were. They barely got better from then to today; only cheaper. Flourescent lighting is the worst. It turns any space into a government issued office building from the 70s.

I dislike flourescent lighting...makes everything look too white...fluorescents really aren't much better, regardless of the intended color spectrum.
 
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mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
8,773
1,768
136
I've been happy with my 4' T8 fluorescent fixtures. Used to be able to get tubes for them around $1.50 each in a 10 or 12 pack, are electronic ballast so reasonably efficient and didn't have the 60Hz flicker like the old school magnetic ballast driven type.

At the same time I wouldn't buy new fluorescent T8 fixtures today, am just going to run through the tubes I have then one at a time, replace with LED fixtures. I'll need around 30% more of them to end up with same lumens.
 
Nov 17, 2019
13,340
7,889
136
I trashed all my Incys years ago. I light the whole house now for less than 100 watts. Most units are 2-3 watts for normal use to keep me from bumping into things. Lamps and others have 6 or 7 watts units for task lighting. Even some of my track lights are LED spots that put out a whole buncha' more light than Hellogens and no heat.

Outside is the same. Several floodlights and a variety of other yard lights are all LED. Enough to light the yard all the way around the house enough to see on the cameras for about 100 watts, maybe less.
 
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Stiff Clamp

Senior member
Feb 3, 2021
941
358
136
Hmm. Don't know that I want to use LED Edisons - last I checked they looked . . . fake. Glow was off somehow. I use Edisons in the bedrooms. So romantic.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,378
10,771
126
I like the edisons, but yea, the ones I have aren't quite right with regards to color. Close enough. It's probably pretty hard to accurately simulate with the dissimilar lighting methods.