Electric vehicles are like incandescent light bulbs. No, that’s not quite right. EVs are like the government-mandated replacement for incandescent light bulbs.
You may remember incandescent bulbs. They have been around since the time of Edison, which is a long time. This was so because they worked. Their government-mandated replacements – LED bulbs – also work. Just not as well and a lot more expensively.
Like electric cars.
Before they were banned, you could buy a four pack of 75 watt incandescent bulbs for about $2. They cost so little to buy because they cost so little to make. There was so little profit to be made from selling them that the makers of them did what modern corporate interests often do. They got the government to ban them so that they could make a great deal more money by selling people government-mandated replacements that cost people three times as much to buy. That same four pack now costs more than $10 – with the sell supposedly being that they last longer and so, over time, you pay less.
This is like the suggestion made by the Biden Thing’s secretary of transportation – who knows as much about transportation as the Biden Thing does about earning an honest dollar – that people “save” money on gasoline by spending it on an EV.
The EV, of course costs a great deal more than gasoline. But innumerate (and illiterate) people often succumb to such buncombe.
There is no mathematical way spending the $50k-plus it costs to buy a lower-tier EV will ever “save” money, however much you don’t spend on gas. At least, not as long as it is still possible to buy cars that cost half as much as the average EV. And that is why the government will almost certainly do the same thing to those money-saving alternatives to EVs that it has already done to incandescent bulbs, which you will soon not be allowed to buy anymore.
This fact tells you everything you need to know about how much money you’ll be “saving” by having to buy the government-mandated replacements for incandescent bulbs.
And EVs, too.
It is much like the “savings” we all enjoyed when the government – at the behest of a corporation (DuPont) that wanted to make more money selling refrigerant – banned the excellent refrigerant R-12, known commercially as Freon. You – as in the private person – could buy a can of it to charge up your car’s AC system for about $1, which saved you a great deal of money – on the refrigerant and the fix. This of course would not do. And so a “problem” was manufactured – that of a hole in the ozone layer, supposedly caused by Freon molecules escaping from AC systems and wafting skyward. The problem was entirely artificial, of course – in the sense that it was manufactured, to create the rhetorical justification for banning what worked (and was almost dirt cheap) to facilitate its replacement with something that did not work as well and wasn’t cheap.
Post-Freon car air conditioners do not blow nearly as cold – and you’re paying for that, too.
Just the same as they intend to make you pay twice as much to drive an electric car that hemorrhages electricity – even when it is not being driven – that you cannot drive as far, that makes you wait at least five times as long before you can drive it again, much less far (one can only partially recharge an EV at what are styled “fast” chargers by people who also think drugs that don’t prevent you from catching a sickness or spreading it are “vaccines”).
But, oh! It – the EV – is so very quick!
Just not for very long, if you use that quickness much.
Incandescent bulbs could be used without costing you much (the electrical power consumed by using a 75 watt incandescent bulb is trivial) and because they cost almost nothing, they cost almost nothing. Their government-mandated replacements, like government-mandated EVs, cost so much they have to be government-mandated, which begs an important question about them and all such things. That being, if the merits of EVs and incandescent bulbs are so . . . incandescent, as those doing the mandating (and defending it) insist, then why is it necessary to mandate them?
More to the point, why is it necessary to mandate that “inferior” alternatives (e.g., incandescent bulbs and – no doubt, soon – non-electric cars) be government-mandated off the market?
Good ideas don’t need force to sell them.
But bad ones always do.
. . .
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FYI you can not unsubscribe to this thread.
Try it.
Yep, I tried to unsub and couldn’t. I emailed about it and no response. The bad part is that I didn’t subscribe to start with.
Hi Ed,
Thanks for the heads-up; I’ll see what can be done about it…
Eric, the link to manage subscriptions hasn’t worked in years. If memory serves, it used to give you a choice: you could get notifications of any comment to an article that you were subscribed to, or just when there was a reply to your own comment. I seldom subscribe just because of the volume of emails that it sets off. People go off on tangents, which is fine, but then I have to wade through dozens of emails just to see whether somebody replied to me.
Eric: Three years ago to the month I recall by memory you writing, in effect, “Where’s the Beef.” Where are people keeling over and dying everywhere? Ummm, nowhere, except for poor folks already in a nursing home and very frail, or otherwise sick. Turns out, we know now that 2020 had a low rate of deaths if compared over the past numerous decades, like the third lowest in many decades.
Anyway, That week, After hearing the dramatic MSM propaganda, which gave me fear, I read you (and others of our ilk) and said to myself, hey, there’s nothing to be fearful of. “Be not afraid” says the Bible. Then my spouse said, well, it must be dangerous, all these other countries are saying the same thing about lockdowns, etc. AHH – HAA we said, this is scripted! When do 100 countries all decide to do a controversial same-thing at the same-time? So, we were fearful only one week, after that, we said, OK, we’ll go back to living our life as normal and tried to ignore COV19 for the 1 – 1/2 years (more or less) it was taken seriously in TX. Unfortuately our big anniversary trips were cancelled. Still went to Mexico resorts though, multiple times. Only a few minor hassles there. THANK YOU for the heads up in 3/20!!!! BOB / Susa n
ps – it is a blessing to have a likeminded “no nonsense” spouse, I’ve read about alot of folks, mostly men, having to put up with a wife full of fear/belief in Big Government. We call COV19 the Santa Claus disease, because we were all being told we HAD to “believe in Santa Claus” (even though we knew it isn’t true) (or else, you were going to kill Grandma and you were a disease on society), and you had to carry around in your wallet and provide to Human Resources your Santa Claus belief pledge “card”. Blippin’ nonsense!
Hi Bob,
Those three years seem a lifetime ago and yet still with us. I see fear-addled people – you can tell who they are at a glance by what is covering their face – every time I venture out of my redoubt. I don not think it will ever be the way it was, for many years to come – at best.
The sane, the rational, the empathetic and forbearing find themselves strangers in a strange land. We wrestle with how to separate ourselves from the insane, irrational, cruel and intolerant. It is what occupies most of my time lately.
Eric, there’s no way to unsubscribe from this thread. The unsub link goes to a 404 error page.
So… We have a small hardware store and in the back room warehouse we ares “storing” about a half pallet of incandescent light bulbs.
By state and federal law we cannot sell them we cannot give them away and we dare not destroy them – yet. Hopefully they are biodegradable. Ha!
The word government is just a synonym for insanity.
Redefine them as “heaters”. This is what European retailers have done to get around their “ban”.
Any law that violates the Constitution OR Natural Law is null and void. Period.
You could fall back on a jury trial, if we did not have a nation of morons that were created in what we euphemistically call public schools, but in reality are the 10th plank of the Communist manifesto.
The late, great Harry Browne said, “Government is like a thug that comes along and breaks both your legs, then hands you a pair of crutches and says, ‘See? If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t be able to walk.'” The corollary to this was when Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most dangerous words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.'” And in short, that’s all one needs to know about government mandates.
Speaking of Harry
I still have most of his podcasts on Liberty and Economics from the 1990’s.
Word has it that the “big guy” will get his 10% cut from the sales of new, deproved light bulbs and inefficient refrigerant gases. Well worth it.
“…They got the government to ban them so that they could make a great deal more money by selling people government-mandated replacements that cost people three times as much to buy….”
My take on all of the madness, is that is all globalist dictated.
Organizations such as the Committee of 300, the CFR, the CIA, Tavistock, and others do exist for the sole purpose of engineering us into whatever position is needed to herd us “willingly” into a one world government.
Um… What exactly is “The Biden Thing”? I don’t understand.
>What exactly is “The Biden Thing”
No one knows, for sure.
it could be audio-animatronic (a Disney creation), but is almost certainly not “human,” in the sense that most humans understand that term. 🙂
Hi Jim,
See the image accompanying the text. It is the pants-peeing thing shambling around as “president.”
Y – “We’re here to hellllp you…” Yeah – I actually was just looking for incand. 100 watt – went to couple stores – noooope.
The filament that lit up first in ol’ Edison’s brain was the same patented fascism as the stuff that s/warm-glow illuminates the Lilliputian lands today.
But that don’t stop the drunken midgets from continuing searching for lost keys under streetlamps “better light.”
If one’s own synapses don’t glow, why that’s one of the best “businesses” there is & there’s exogenous synapse sellers to spare out there – which is to say shit in a set afire paper sack ringing your doorbell.
We just ain’t got the money to gin up the electricity to run all those 100 watt, James Watt (another 007 fascist for shore) light bulbs that ol’ Fast Eddie-san patented, so we gonna penstroke those right outta existence for the commons good tragedy aversion.
But now that the bulbs are gone we have found enough juice to replace all the internal combustion engines with Hannibal Lecter-ic motors.
Because … cue the scene where highbrow Hannibal the Cannibal uses a Tesla skullsaw to cut a Bastiat Window into the collective cranium, slice out some brain filets, tableside sautee the gray stuff, & feedback loop it to the very same fruitloops it was cut from.
Art imitates life less & less well. Started watching episode one of “Yellowjackets” because it was offered w/o charge to my electric-money account.
Turns out it’s a pale, despite gratuitous gore splashes, rip-off of Lord of the Flies.
Instead of schoolboys marooned on an island & getting their tribal-primitive on, its highschool girls (a soccer team – so another rip-off) marooned in the snowy woods, doing the same thing – but with nudity & cannibalism.
That’s enough of that – not even a candle, let alone an incandescent, to Golding’s story.
On second or third thought, there just might be an inverse relationship between cheap-abundance, including of electric light orchestras, & imagination.
If so, the upside of darkness has got some glow to it.
Long Black Road? Yup. Some good advice in that tune – if there were such a thing as advice. Ad(to preexisting)vices is the juice the juiceheads jones for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_2E8ecUYyg
The only way that LED lighting could be improved is by its emancipation from the bulb package.
Since a single LED can run on well under 5 volts of direct current, there should be no reason to have an electrician install what is the lowest of all low voltage devices. They are far more efficacious when deployed as panels or strips than in unnecessary and expensive bulbs.
Electric vehicles are on the other end of the practicality and efficiency scales, using the highest voltages of any consumer product, necessitating the installation of superchargers using the voltages used in distribution to make their charging even remotely as timely as the fueling of petroleum fueled vehicles.
Vonu….The flicker rates and the frequencies of these bulb are harmful to human biology.
(the globalists do nothing unless it is malevolent)
Come out of your cave every now and then and learn what is really occurring in the world.
For me, the big question about federal mandates is, “Where do they get the authority to issue any mandates at all?” That authority certainly doesn’t exist anywhere in the US Constitution.
Which of the thousands of administrative law agencies have any lawful authority from the mostly ignored Constitution?
“Stole” my thunder. That’s EXACTLY the point.
Had any “Congress Crittter” or Federal bureaucrat proposed eliminating a light bulb, or prior to Edison “inventing” it (there is considerable evidence he didn’t invent it at all…), a better kerosene or gas lamp, the surgeons of the time would have been faced with the challenge of how to remove the item from the rectum of said politician or bureaucrat, presumably inserted there by an angered voter.
Doing so to the head of the Federal Trade Commission, for starters, might go a long way to getting us rid of that form of Federal tyranny.
Vonu….The flicker rates and the frequencies of these bulb are harmful to human biology.
(the globalists do nothing unless it is malevolent)
Come out of your cave every now and then and learn what is really occurring in the world.
Suppossedly, there’s a new battery that can propel an EV across the US on a single charge. I’m confident that if this is actually the case, the fact that the metals used to build these batteries relies upon slave labor will become a moot point. Very few could care less as it is which tells us all we really need to know about those who drive these things.
I can see that kind of battery technology getting buried in a hurry. Would not want the blebs to be able to have any sort of freedom to go and do what they want like they are doing with ICE vehicles, you know. Funny how history would repeat itself, too. Remember how there was technology in the 70’s where engines could get the higher gasoline per mile (50-60) even in trucks, and the oil companies bought out the technology, and buried it? I suspect the same thing will happen with whomever (individual or company) has the technology for a higher range EV battery, as well.
I don’t buy the canard that oil companies “buy out” technology. That reminds me of the “Fish Carburetor” which was supposed to greatly increase mileage.
Attempts are being made to phase out gasoline as it has a high energy content in a portable, small package and can be used for “other purposes” than to drive motor vehicles.
One example is the “Molotov cocktail” which is easily made. It’s about taking away the means for the “little guy” to make meaningful change when governments are unresponsive and the “balloon goes up”.
….um…why do you think Marijuana…and most importantly Hemp has been outlawed all these decades? Hemp is a miracle plant, with multiple crops per year…and would have stolen a huge share of the steel, plastics, oil and wood business across the country. So you may not “buy it”…but others certainly do! Ha!
If your thought process is so wrapped in anti government and completely disregard basic science and economics of scale, then my good Lord help you.
1) EV battery battery prices have come down so much, 100KWH was 70k ten years ago, and now less than 10k, they are the feature don’t be fooled by this article
2) I like LED lights, they save me money
3) I am no expert on Freon, but I can tell you they have been largely replaced and the ozone layer is better for it, if you have never studied, investigated or published in peer reviewed journals, then what is your point?
How is the ozone layer better for the banning of freon? The molecular weight of freon is 137.3.The MWs of oxygen, nitrogen, and CO2 are 32, 28, and 44. Heavier gases do not rise through lighter gases. Chem one. How does freon get to the ozone layer? What scientific education do you have?
Good points Doug, does Chem 1 go into any detail on the effects of nuclear bomblasts on the ozone layer? I suspect that the very people responsible for destroying the ozone layer are the same people who are perfectly ready to blame us and our AC units.
never mind the ozoine layer, complete wth its “hoes” was well docuented back in the 1920’s, llong before gasoine usage was even dreaming about being significant, and before Freon was inventd. The main refrigerant in use for industrial refrigeration plants was ammonia. VERY hazardous to breathe, and not very efficient in hosehod appliance sized applictions, not to mention th mess a refrigerator sized ammonia leak would make if the machine somehow got compromised.. or old nd rotten.
I am fully convinced the whole EV scam is about control of our mobility. I can stockpile petrol and/or diesel, accumulate small bits over time, or even buy a big tank full of heatong oil. Then “they” can cut off the motor fuel supply and I remain mobile. Much easier than establishing manned checkpoints wth goons demanding “peppah pleeeze”. Or, as in Mexico City, restricting vehicle use to odd and even number plates in differend weekdays.Rich people simply have two cars one odd one even. Thumb THEIR noses at da gummit.
And one smallish elephant in the room that isalost NEVER even whispered about regarding EV’s is this” WHAT HAPPENS to all the wrn out batteries? They become a VERY toxuc and wisewpread item.
Ever seen dozens of old refrugerators sumped off the bank at the side or some rural roads? THis was the direct result of gummit mandating they be taken to “certified stations” for “proper” remoal of the dastardly Freon before being scrapped for the metal. Never mind that the REEAON 95% of those cntraptions fail is due to a LEAK in the “closed” system containing the freon.. thus there IS no ore left in the machine. Had to be $25 to get it pumped out. So, dump them. They finally figured that out, and now the scrrap yards can take them, PAYING you the weight of the machine for scrap, rather than you paying some certified dweeb to do.. nothing. Govern,ent mandates most often CREATE a new “unforseen” problem rather than fixing a known one.
T’is the way of goobermunt. Always was.
How do LED lights save you money? Does it ever get cold where you live?
Hi Jugata,
If EV battery prices have come down in price – as you assert – then why are EVs becoming more expensive, in fact? The average cost of an EV is close to $50,000. The prices go up rather down. Largely because of the cost of the batteries. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares conceded this the other day. See here: https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2023/04/01/saying-it-out-loud/
That you “like LED lights” is one thing. They do not “save you money” because they cost far more to buy than they “save” to use. Just like EVs, by the way.
As far as Freon and the “ozone hole” – no correlation has ever been established between the use of Freon as an automotive refrigerant and the “hole.” Just the same as “masks” do not “stop the spread.” That is my point. The whole thing was a con – designed to create a justification for a ban, so as to create the need for a new refrigerant, one that cost much more and which doesn’t work as well.
Like EVs.
>They do not “save you money”
Yes, they do.
Please see my reply to OL downthread.
the REAL backstory with the Frein scam is this: E. I. Dupont de Nemours comoany had awkened to the fact that their patents on FR12 and FR22 were soon to expire. They also realised their “price” on those two products was FAR too low. So they invented the “impending crisis” of the Monster in the Shed, er, squeeze me I meant the “holes in the Oh Zone” so as to “justify” the eventual phasng out of FR12 nd 22. Of COURSE they also had developed a very similar but slightly different ,olecule that though chemically near identical to the 12 and 22 products, was “differen” and DOD MOT we promise make any holes on the Oh No Zone “up there”. they mnaged to pull off this scam. No one brought any effecive legalaction against the EPA as they declared the 12/22 products “harmful”. Yes, harmful to DuPont’s bottm line.
Not only are the new products far morelikley to fail (the molecule is far smaller and thus the old seals used for the larger 12/22 products were not effecive enough, and the systeks leaked down far more quickly. Seal technology nad to be reinvented. BEsides that, the new molecules are not as effective as regrigerants, this need ore energy to gat the same heat pump effect.
Of COURSE, DuPont’s bottoom liine always in view, the “replacement” products cost about eitght to ten times as much, and the valve/guage system needed to accuratly charge a system is different. Now a guy has to have two different toolsets, of course. And still can’t even buy the”new” “safe” product over the counter in many states.. nlyicenced refrigerant Ecks Spurts” can buy them.
Scam scam scam. All enabled and promoted by our government.
Reminds me of the fairy tale about the Northern Spotted Owl, invented out of whoe cloth by Feds to take out logging and timer activity in the Pacific Northwet. The claim was that the silly birds refuse to nest/reproduce on any place other than “old grown forest”, of which there was, in reality alost none in the PNW. I KNOW that is a fantasy as I have SEEN those silly birds nesting in the cross trees of the high tension electical poles/lines in many parts or Washington and Oregon. Maybe they are spart enough to have read the gradng stamps on tose very tall poles branding them as old growth” manufactured poles? I don’t know….. but I seen ’em up there. And I know the difference. Friend of mine back when this all came up had grown up childhood chums with the head forester in one of the local offices. He went and asked his old school chum. He told my friend “the whole thing is a made up scam. The owns nest where they want to, don’t nest ONLY on old growth.
More government terraforming, in OUR nickel and to OUR harm.
If environmentalism restricted itself to truly caring for our natural resources, I would have no problem with it. However, with the secret science and questionable funding that these environmental groups possess taints the whole barrel. It turns out that many claims that environmentalists make have no basis in fact and are not based on good, honest, scientific investigation. Environmentalism is based on communism, using government to illegally “take” land and impose restrictions on land use as well. Environmentalists are like watermelons–“green” on the outside and “red” on the inside.
This is why environmental scientists have to hide their data, as it does not fit their agenda. A good example of this is the so-called global warming crap, now renamed climate change. For one, the climate is always changing. The East Anglia emails in which data was purposely falsified by climate scientists comes to mind. Not only that, the climate scientists purposely installed temperature monitoring sensors in cities, contrary to manufacturers recommendations and good scientific practices, in asphalt-covered parking lots, and other heat sink areas in order to prove their (faulty) hypothesis. This is scientific dishonesty at its worst.
It turns out that the solar system is in a cooling cycle due to decreased solar activity. There are two long-term solar cycles that reinforce themselves when in phase and cancel themselves out when out-of-phase. Look up the Maunder minimum. There are no SUVs on Mars or other planets, yet they are also experiencing the same solar variability.
Environmentalism has been the method used to impose communist principles on western society, especially in the USA.
Environmentalists are not content with promoting clean water, air and land, but are hell-bent on controlling human behavior, and yes, promoting extermination plans for much of humanity as these anointed types consider mankind to be a pestilence (except for themselves) to be reduced in population by any means necessary.
Environmentalists HATE the God-given concept of private property and have imposed government-backed and enforced land use controls on private property owners without compensation, clearly an unconstitutional taking of private property. If environmentalists want to control land use, let them purchase it themselves, not by government force. Today the only method of negating government-imposed land use restrictions is shoot, shovel, and shut up.
If environmentalists had their way, the earth’s human population would be reduced by approximately 90%, with the remainder to (be forced) to live in cities, in soviet-style high rise apartments, utilizing bicycles, buses and trains for transportation. The use of automobiles and access to pristine wilderness (rural) areas would be off-limits to us mere mortals, and would only be available for these anointed environmentalists.
The endangered species act is another abuse of environmentalism. Species are always changing, to adapt to their environments-survival if the fittest. In fact, the hoopla over the spotted owl (that placed much northwest timber land off-limits to logging) turned out to be nothing but scientific misconduct and arrogance. There are virtually identical species in other parts of the northwest.
More scientific malpractice occurred when government biologists attempted to plant lynx fur in certain areas to provide an excuse for making those areas off-limits for logging or development. Fortunately, these scientists were caught, however, no punishment was imposed.
In order to promote the false religion of “global warming” aka “climate change”, NASA “scientists” purposely installed temperature sensors in city parking lots and roads contrary to good scientific principles and practices in order to “skew” the “global warming” results.
In a nutshell, today’s environmentalism IS communism like watermelon-green on the outside and red (communist) on the inside.
It is interesting to note that communist and third-world countries have the WORST environmental conditions on the planet. Instead of the USA and other developed countries spending billions to get rid of that last half-percent of pollution, it would behoove the communist countries to improve their conditions first. Here is a question for you environmentalists: Why is there a push for restrictive environmental regulations, but only on the developed first-world countries, and not the gross polluters such as India and China?
I suspect your figures re: battery prices are bogus. In any event, cost-effectiveness is for the CONSUMER to decide, not some arrant ASSHOLE, presuming to make that choice for others, like yourself.
And, as Eric pointed out, there’s no reliable evidence that the Montreal Protocols which banned R-12 have had any effect on atmospheric ozone at all. Indeed, the lesser efficiency of refrigeration equipment using either R-134 or cyclopentane (which is highly flammable and toxic) has likely had a worse environmental impact. Indeed, you are no “expert” on Freon or other refrigerants. However, I, with my education in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, and almost forty years of professional experience, might just be a tad more qualified to speak about R-12 et al. But I “speak” in the best manner possible, keeping a few carbuoys of the forbidden refrigerant on hand for “vintage” automotive AC systems, which, since no licensed shop can legally service them, I repair myself. When Freon is outlawed, only “outlaws” will have Freon…and enjoy the icicles hanging off the vents!
Finally, the question of mandating EVs, or what A/C system refrigerants, ought to come down to a simple question: Where do you find the AUTHORITY of the Federal Government to regulate ANY of those matters?
The hole in the ozone layer at the Earth’s poles is caused by charged particles coming in from the Sun (guided by the Earth’s magnetic field), not miniscule amounts of freon escaping from air conditioning units. I suppose you also believe the “peer reviewed” research showing that 0.05% of the constituent gases in the Earths atmosphere is causing “global warming?”
Essential Advice Regarding Your Right to Pay Cash
https://lawversuslegal.com/2023/02/26/essential-advice-about-your-right-to-pay-cash/
Having just bought a new Corolla, the YouTube bots are bombarding me with Toyota videos. This one touts their hydrogen engine that is going to “Destroy The Entire EV Industry.”
https://youtu.be/rTawvzH0MQ4
My opinion is that all they have to do is keep producing ICE and hybrid vehicles that people want, and watch the EV Industry implode on its own, but is hydrogen just another solution in search of a problem? Isn’t it much like the EV scam in that it will take some kind of energy to produce the hydrogen, and massive spending to build the refueling infrastructure?
Where are they gonna get the hydrogen?
Exactly, Doug. Actually, it’s not so much about where to get it (the video talks about how abundant it is) but how to make it available for use in vehicles. It’s sort of like providing breathable air for diving. Under normal circumstances, air is non-scarce, meaning that everybody can have as much as they want anytime, anywhere, at a cost of zero. But if you want it under the sea, somebody has to compress it and put it in a container. That can’t be done for free.
Abundant, yes, but not as free hydrogen (H2).
So, using hydrogen as fuel on this planet will always require “liberating” it from some compound of hydrogen, such as water, hydrocarbons, or metal hydrides. Which, as you said, is not free.
But, what are the choices? Given that GovCo basically intends to outlaw hydrocarbons as motor fuel.
Remember the Hindenburg!
The LZ-129 “Hindenburg” was SABOTAGED. The likely culprit was the predecessor to the Mossad.
I bought a new construction house a few years ago. There are 8 “long life” LED ceiling lights in the living room and kitchen. Five failed in the first couple of years. $20 a pop to replace.
I bought a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs as soon as they started alking about banning them.
I did the same thing, but to my dismay, I soon discovered that the vast majority of them were manufactured in Mexico and have a significantly shorter lifespan than what used to be made in the USA. They’re all junk so I also stocked up on candles, oil lamps, etc.
This my concern, you figure you’re set on a bulb supply only to find the quality is lousy. The bulbs require a vacuum inside to allow any kind of filament life. Poor vac = short life. So, do the bulbs have the proper vacuum and how long will that vacuum level last in storage? Also the filament attach points can fail, this has happened to me with auto brake light bulbs. Two weeks, failed light. The heat had relaxed the crimp and the filament just fell right off. They were Mexican made brake lamps.
It is my undestanding that they are filled with an inert gas and not a vacuum. Mine are working fine so far.
My better half and I are closely approaching the completion of our second-floor total remake. Part of that is the installation of a full bathroom.
One disappointment thus far–not to be ameliorated–is the relatively unavailability and outrageous expense of incandescent bulbs for the fixtures over our new bathroom’s vanity.
So, as we continue our sojourn through our eighth decade on Earth, we no longer have to negotiate a flight of stairs down and up in the middle of the night.
Instead, we must put up with the garish white/blue glare of LEDs for illumination during our nocturnal neccessities.
Trade-offs be damned! Along with the light nazis!
Look for low watt 2700 K (warm color) LEDs, that will help. Took me a bit but found round replacements that didn’t have a garish looking base and with the low K number were very close to the old incandescents.
Yes, you definitely have to pay attention to brightness and color temperature. I have a ceiling light in my office that is way too white and way too bright. I turn it on only when I’m hunting for something. It’s great for that.
There is an LED product called ” Sceene Switch” that I installed in our kitchen. It has 2 warmth settings and 2 brightness settings that you access by flipping the light switch quickly to change the output. I like nice and warm. My wife likes the glaring blue hue. It is a nice compromise. They aren’t exactly cheap, but have been going strong for 8 years. And I didn’t have to mess with a dimmer switch install.
Thx to all commenters to my comment. Lotsa helpful suggestions. Saved me some googling.
Speaking of bulb life:
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/there-is-a-light-that-never-goes-out/
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy
The NYTimes has an article today about EVs:
“Inside a secretive government laboratory, behind a tall fence and armed guards, a team of engineers has been dissecting the innards of the newest all-electric vehicles with a singular goal: Rewrite tailpipe pollution rules to speed up the nation’s transition to electric cars.”
They aren’t even hiding it.
Krista,
What are they rewriting tailpipe pollution rules to, EMF emission rules? Oh wait, they won’t do that. Instead they’ll say “We need to speed up the transition to all electric cars”. Right, like they needed to “Speed up development of COVID jabs.” I suppose next it will be “We need to speed up the transition to universal consumption of bugs & lab grown meat!”, “We need to speed up the transition to CBDCs!”, etc.
“As early as next week, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose ambitious greenhouse gas emission standards for cars that are so stringent, they’re designed to ensure that at least half the new vehicles sold in the United States are all-electric by 2030, up from just 5.8 percent today. And the rules could put the nation on track to end sales of new gasoline-powered cars as soon as 2035.
The Biden administration wants to use the E.P.A.’s authority to regulate pollution from tailpipes to set a standard so demanding, it would compel automakers to eventually produce only electric vehicles.”
That’s about as much detail as they give about the new standards. Most of the article talks about how many jobs will be lost b/c EVs take less labor to produce and how new EV plants are often built in right-to-work states and how that hurts unions.
I distinctly recall standing in line, briefly, at Detroit Edison customer service centers to trade burned out incandescent bulbs for new, even trade, in the 70s.
Wow, I remember that too!
LED lights have their uses. Yes, they are efficient and can be obnoxiously bright, even using low wattage. I, frankly, HATE the ones they’re putting on new cars. They are insanely, unnecessarily bright, and oncoming traffic has become increasingly blinding in the past decade.
If you need lights THAT bright to see while driving, you’re fucking blind and shouldn’t be driving.
Also, the light from LEDs, whether in the artificial moonlight variety, or sold as “warm”, and hence appear yellowish, is still dissatisfying to the human eye. The light emitted is a bouquet of line spectra, not the pleasant continuous spectra emitted by classic lightbulbs and their blackbody radiation.
Even using solar electricity, wherein people have touted the benefits of LED lights for saving energy, I’ve found their use unnecessary, which it is if you have the proper system and the proper batteries such as I have.
As an aside, my GF left the damn space heater on all day by accident, which my system actually handled with ease as it was a sunny day, haha.
European countries have banned incandescent bulbs for some time now.
Bulb manufacturers have gotten around the ban by redefining and renaming them as “heaters”.
You can still buy them in Europe
Look for the same thing here…
Liked!
who can be against getting some heat, given the last winter we HAD!
Here you go:
250 Watt Infrared Heat Lamp Light Bulb
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/lavex-janitorial-250-watt-infrared-heat-lamp-light-bulb/566250R40CL.html
Notice the rated lifetime of 6,000 hr, which is 6X rated life of a typical incandescent light bulb.
Robert Kennedy has decided to run for El Jefe (Presidente)…. His reason
” If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power </b) that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. "
That 'merger' is called fascism/Nazism. The USA IS the 4th Reich. Which is why the US Crime Syndicate is funneling billions in cash and weapons to their Nazi buddies in Ukraine.
It nice to hear someone of his caliber call this what it is rather than the bleating of most calling it communism. Though fascism and communism have the same end goals (bad business for us) they differ in methodology getting their.
At my late age I stand in awe of Americans that have no clue,,, of anything really. Just millions of,,, 'yes sir, no sir three bags full sir' NPCs.
His own wife (a hollywooder) and sister disapproves of his run as does the demorat party along with most republicants and forever Trumpers. When you are drawing that much fire you know you are over the target.
Does he have a chance? Doubt it as we no longer have a fair and square electoral system and he is not promising a check.
Sorry for the bold…. forgot to turn it off…..
‘His own wife (a hollywooder) and sister disapproves of his run’ — ken
Take a look at this photo of Kennedy’s wife Cheryl Hines:
https://tinyurl.com/25v3mv8x
You don’t need no PhD in Anthropology to recognize that this creature is not of our species.
Pretty sure that if you peeled back its synthetic epidermis, you’d reveal a titanium substructure embedded with wires and chips.
Who stole Christmas???
Your a mean one, Mr. Grinch….
Whatever happens, he’ll probably be the most genuine person in the race by far.
Hi BaDnOn,
RFK Jr had a statement about his presidential campaign on Twitter that nails what’s been going on in this country the past few years. It seems unlikely that Joe Biden or even Donald Trump will speak out against stuff that SHOULD be spoken out against, such as the fact that governments around the world, including the U.S. government, violated civil liberties at the height of COVID hysteria, the war machine getting increasingly wealthy at the expense of Americans, the fact that so many of the government agencies are captured agencies, etc. However, the Democrat Party and the media aren’t too happy with him running, and some Democrats are even accusing him of being an “Undercover Republican”, while the media are running hit pieces against him calling him things like a “Quack Anti-vaxxer”, so I think the media and the Democrat Party are afraid of him.
John B,
Hell, if he were to somehow win a nomination, it might be the first time I’ll vote for a democrat President. Hell, it would be the first time I voted for either of the two major parties…
BaDnOn,
I might vote for him if he becomes the D nominee for President, which would be the first time I ever voted for a DEMOCRAT candidate for President. I’d also like to see him debating Joe Biden in the primary debates on various issues that SHOULD be talked about, like corporations getting into bed with government, endless wars over the past 20+ years, and the blatant attempts to force Americans to take an experimental mRNA jab that has proven NOT to be what it was sold as to the masses. However, my suspicion is that the Democrat Party will rig their own primaries to make sure he DOESN’T win like what they did to Bernie Sanders in 2016, or they’ll just try to scare D voters into not voting for him by calling him a “Quack antivaxxer” or “Undercover Republican”.
Yes, John, a RFK Jr. win would need a miracle. They’ll smear him to no end, and since he’s attacking the mask/vax/saaaaafety cult, which is central to the Dem base these days, I predict he’ll have no chance.
BUT!.. A debate in which he was able to speak the truth about these choice issues would be absolutely capital. We CAN hope for that!
You need to look back further than a few years. The guy may have some points on masks/vaxx but he’s been a watermelon on environmentalism forever. Some of the anti-corporation stuff in the following link might appeal to some heads on here now but in the context of the time frame it was written, it wouldn’t have.
https://reason.com/2014/10/01/activist-robert-kennedy-jr-denies-he-wan/
BaDnOn,
That is a Democrat debate I would watch. I did read that RFK Jr got enough supporters and donations to file the paperwork necessary to seek the D nomination for President, so there could even be DEMOCRAT voters who want no part of what Joe Biden, his regime, and the modern Democrat Party advocate, as well as REPUBLICAN voters who’ve gotten sick of Trump’s continued advocating of the “Miracle COVID vaccines” and want an alternative.
As for who the Republican Party might nominate for President, after Trump’s sham indictment, he may well get the R nomination again. I was personally hoping for someone else, as Trump did some questionable things when he was President and bragged endlessly about those COVID jabs, plus Trump has baggage from his 4 years as President, and is almost as old as Joe Biden.
His Uncle “Jack” would be considered a far-right “MAGA” Republican these days. That’s how bad things have gotten.
I’d vote for RFK just to find out what these psychopaths have been doing to our skies with all the chemtrails – or whatever they are
Krista,
Wouldn’t that be something, if it turned out that what these psychopaths have been putting in the skies was what was “Destroying the environment” instead of what we’ve been told ad nauseum for years that eating meat and driving an automobile was “Destroying the environment”. And let’s look at what role if any glyphosate, the main ingredient in the popular weed killer ROUNDUP, has had in environmental destruction.
The one thing I know for sure is that they don’t care about the environment. Their “climate” agenda is all about imposing centralized control.
Krista,
You nailed it. However, there are people who’ve fallen for the HEAVY propaganda about climate change and actually think that giving MORE money & power to government and driving an EV will somehow “Saaaaaaaaaaaaave the planet.” Why, there was even a group of high school students in Ashland, Oregon last month who marched out of school when it was in session to essentially demand “Climate action now!”
Alien slug “Joe Biden” lines up the kill shot for liquid-fueled vehicles:
‘The Biden administration is reportedly days from proposing the toughest-ever U.S. limits on emissions from cars, SUVs and pickup trucks, but will likely stop short of a ban on gas-powered vehicles and a mandate to buy electric.
‘The proposed standards on cars and light trucks is set to be announced Wednesday in Detroit, according to a report Thursday from Bloomberg News, which cited unnamed officials familiar with the regulation proposals.
‘The proposal is expected to govern tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxide and other pollution from vehicles manufactured for model years 2027 through 2032.’
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/biden-team-on-track-for-toughest-ever-limits-on-auto-pollution-report-38b0a9db
Deeeeeeeetroit has shrunk from 1,850,000 people in 1950 to 632,000 today.
Now the malicious maggots and termites of the US fedgov are taking their depopulation pogrom nationwide.
Fuck them and everything they stand for. I’d fly my American flag upside down, but I threw it away in disgust.
Great article Eric.
I too invested in a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs – several hundred to be precise. They cost about $0.15 each when I bought them in 2012 (after learning about he upcoming ban).
There are several reasons I prefer incandescent bulbs:
Color temperature as previously mentioned in warmer than most LEDs.
They have much better dimming capabilities than LEDs (and very little to no flicker)
Color Rendering Index (CRI) is perfect. Same as natural sunlight. This means colors are shown with same vibrancy and saturation as natural sunlight. If you are ever selling your home – switch out your LEDs bulbs for incandescent. There will be more “life,” better looking colors (better saturation), and more “sparkle.” Your house will just look better.
As a few commenters have stated, incandescent are technically 100% efficient during the heating season, since heat that is given off by the bulb is used to heat the dwelling – which is being heated by other means anyway. I live in Michigan – which has a heating season about 8 months of the year.
Also – this is most important: Several doctors have written about how our eyes require near infrared light spectrum for best health. The near infrared spectrum is what causes the heat in an incandescent bulb. LED bulbs do not give off much of anything in the near infrared spectrum (if they did – they would fail the “efficiency” requirements) Is a really a coincidence that before “high efficiency” lighting became commonplace, we had never really heard about “Age Related Macular Degeneration” or other vision issues?
Edison invented the incandescent light bulb, his company became General Electric, which just recently stopped making light bulbs.
2020 USNews: “For the first time in its nearly 130-year history, General Electric will stop making light bulbs, a product that has been synonymous with the brand since it was co-founded by Thomas Edison, the inventor of the modern lightbulb, in the late 19th century.”
Why did this happen? China. The USA imports cheap stuff from China and it drove the US manufacturers out of business. Nixon did it, China went from nothing to superpower, which is now allied with Russia. Where is this going? Tonight Jeff Rense interviewed a guy who says he knows, 2025 the kick the agenda into high gear to depopulate the planet down to 500 million.
open this: Download Hour 3 – Damien Dumar – Publisher Of The Last Harvest
https://grizzom.blogspot.com/2023/04/jeff-rense-radio-show-20230406.html
The Last Harvest: A Secret History of Lucifera, Aliens, The Illuminati & the Fate of Humanity Paperback – January 23, 2023
Reptilians –> Grey Aliens –> elites –> governments –> depopulation –> you and I –> f-cked
People are harder to kill than lizards. Hang in there and continue the battle.
The Chinese aren’t our enemies. Like everyone else on earth, if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone. The problem is, we sanction everyone and rattle our sabers. We threaten countries like China. And, again, like anyone would, China may one day respond to our threats.
Re Light Bulbs. I knew it was bullshit when it first came out. I invested in a lifetime supply for me of incandescent bulbs. I have cases of 100 watt and 60 watt bulbs. Enough for me. Wish I had done the same with Freon, I am doing it with Oil and petroleum products. Also ammo. Lots of ammo not so many guns just a couple shotguns, a .22 and of course a AR in 7.56. You can only fire one at a time.
Hi Ugg
You might wish to add a good handgun to your collection. Both the glock 19 (9mm) and the glock 29 (10mm) come to mind. The 29 is a subcompact so its easy for CCW. But it also has quite the recoil. Shotguns, rifles and handguns have different use cases. Its best to cover as many as possible.
I’d get something bigger than a 9MM, not near enough stopping power for me.
I did with respect to R-12.
Remember government cheese? 5 pound blocks of “aged” cheddar that was sitting in the governement’s strategic cheese reserve. My grandparents were elegible for it so grandma took advantage. She said it was far more cheese than they’d ever use in a year, but she lived through the depression so it didn’t go to waste.
The market makes products cheaper over time so everyone can afford them. The government makes products more expensive so fewer people can afford them, then steals from others to give a handout to the people who can no longer afford to pay. If a few people who don’t need the handout happen to get the handout too… well, that’s OK.
Now Wally World’s gonna build EV chargers at thousands of its stores.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/06/walmart-ev-charging-network-plans.html
Seems like a customer demographic mismatch to me but I’m sure WMT is getting some huge payout from Uncle. Imagine the EV swells sitting for an extra hour or three in a 50-100k vehicle in a Wally World parking lot?
From link:
“Easy access to on-the-go charging is a game-changer for drivers who have been hesitant to purchase an EV for concerns they won’t be able to find a charger in a clean, bright and safe location when needed,” Vishal Kapadia, senior vice president of energy transformation, said in a statement.
—-
Hahahaha! Vishal should spend some time in one of those lots. The one near me is an open air drug market that makes the bar in Star Wars seem like Romper Room.
Eric,
I’d meant to comment on refrigerants too, because I just replaced my HVAC system during summer, 2021. In part, I did it because my old system was on its last legs; its better days were long behind it. Also, I changed the system because the old R-22 Freon, which my old system used, was becoming increasingly costly-assuming you could find it at all. Because of the “public/private partnership” banning the old stuff, a bottle of R-22 cost $800-$1,000 back then. So, I had the new system installed, and I like it very much. They told me it should last 25 years, which should be longer than I have left on this Earth.
For grins and giggles though, I did some research on refrigerants, both R-22 and R-410a, which my system uses. Guess what? Even though R-410a was phased in about a decade ago, the gov’t is mandating that refrigerants be changed again! Why? Because, even though R-410a (and its car counterpart, R-134a) were better for the environment, they weren’t quite good enough; they still promoted too much “climate change”. They didn’t call it that (I can’t remember the official parlance now), but that’s what it amounted to.
Ah, but there’s more! The newer refrigerants replacing both R-134a and R-410a are more methane based! That’s right; they have methane in them. Now, last time I checked, methane is a flammable substance. How on Earth is THAT safe? What happens if your system springs a leak, and it does so in the wrong place and at the wrong time? What then?
Ah, but there’s still more, now that I think about it! What do AOC and her fellow lefty lunatics always carp about? It’s methane emissions, right? Oh no, cow farts are dooming the atmosphere! They’re making the Earth hotter! Now, either I’m missing something, or this business of cow farts isn’t really about cow farts (i.e. the reduction of methane emissions). If this business about cow farts were legit, then WHY are we being forced to change to a methane based refrigerant, hmmm? Something doesn’t pass the “smell test” here…
Oh, and something else I just remembered about the old refrigerants was this: Freon was originally developed to replace the early, dangerous refrigerants that used ammonia! That’s right; the original refrigerants used ammonia. When early refrigerators leaked, people were injured and killed-for obvious reasons, as ammonia is dangerous. IOW, Freon was originally developed because it was safer than the old ammonia refrigerants. With that in mind, WHY are we now changing to methane, which is more dangerous to humans than Freon ever was? Can anyone explain that to me?
That sets up the next grift 10 years.
Oh that’s exactly it, however here in WA the grift is already up and running, a whole system inside WA EPA to deal with the eeevvill HFCs. Here in Eastern WA are the fruit storage facilities that now have to deal with this nonsense along with the local supermarket, the reporting requirements are unbelievable. Another Gov driven escalator for food costs.
https://ecology.wa.gov/Air-Climate/Reducing-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions/Hydrofluorocarbons
Hi Mark,
Wait until the new HVAC tech comes out to make a repair on someone’s new R-454B unit and the side wall that the condensing unit sits up against explodes….changing out an evaporator coil should be fun. If I was the homeowner I would leave for the day.
FYI: Pay attention to what is being put into all new household refrigerators and chest freezers. Talk about boom. Everybody was wondering why so many food factories were catching fire last year…propane and butane will do that.
RG,
I looked up that refrigerant, and it’s classified as “mildly flammable”. It’s flammable enough that a flammable gas detector has to be installed along with it! WTF?
Marky,
Although ammonia is dangerous, humans can smell it in minute concentrations (>5 ppm), so even a tiny leak will be easily noticed. A catastrophic escape could be dangerous, yes but I’ve never heard of one from an ammonia-based refrigeration appliance.
And there are many everywhere, still. They exist in the form of propane-powered refrigerators, such as the one about 10 feet from me.
Now, the newer chloroflourocarbon refrigerants are safer, yes, being more-or-less chemically inert under normal conditions. But I’m not worried about my ‘fridge. 😉
Hi MarkyMark
The explanation is quite simple, if one understands the agenda of those ultimately behind this madness. Its both anti human and anti prosperity.
These people view humanity as a whole as a waste of resources, and a danger to their Vision™ of how the World Should Be. This has been going on for centuries. Start with the Malthusians and follow the time line up to the present day. This will give you some insights into what we are dealing with.
https://reason.com/2023/04/06/the-club-of-romes-new-malthusianism-lite-report/
cold storage warehouses (20-40 degrees below 0 type) still use ammonia.
Ammonia is somewhat hazardous to work with; but that hazard can be mitigated. Ammonia-based refrigeration was simply not scalable to most homes, apartments, and automobiles, and certainly not refrigerators and/or freezers. For large-scale industrial and commercial buildings, it’s still more efficient than R-12 could have hoped to be, but any HVAC or refrigerated process for those applications would require a lot more maintenance anyway.
It’s far more than a matter of personal comfort, although effective refrigeration is what made Arizona, Texas, Florida, and most of the South habitable. Else Phoenix would have stayed about 125,000 hardy souls. Modern refrigeration enables so many things we take for granted, so why do these control freaks want to screw with it? And where does the US Constitution grant the Federal Government powers to do so? Please show me.
My former employer spent millions replacing perfectly fine HVAC systems with units that use the latest and greatest refrigerant. The systems are 4-5 times larger than the old ones and seem to run twice as much. There wasn’t a budget to re-engineer the ductwork to fix a few long term issues so we still had the same old problems when they went offline. I’m sure there were tax benefits or outright handouts from O’Biden to “clean up” the pollution or it wouldn’t have happened.
The way I see it, if AOC is so worried about car farts harming the environment, maybe she should affix a bag over her butt, and show the way by example. Just sayin’…..
Eric,
It’s funny you wrote this, as I recently replaced, then re-replaced, my kitchen light bulbs. My kitchen’s light fixture takes three, 50W mini floodlights. One of the old halogen floods died, so I went to the local, independent hardware store for a replacement. The old man didn’t have halogen mini floods like I needed, but he had a set of LED mini floods.
I had a bright idea (or so I thought!), and I bought the whole set instead of an individual bulb. After all, the LED floods would use 90% less energy and last long enough that I might never have to change them again. I brought the bulbs home, and I installed all the LED mini floodlight bulbs.
When I turned them on, I was like YUCK! The light was harsh; it’s a jolting, icy blue, not the warm color of the old halogen floods I’d used previously. Since my local Home Depot didn’t have enough bulbs (2 rather than the 3 needed for my fixture), I ordered a pack the old halogen mini floods on Amazon. They arrived a few days ago, and I wasted no time replacing them. I then ordered two more four packs, which will allow me to change out all the fixture’s bulbs four times.
I don’t care of the old halogen mini floods don’t last as long, nor do I care if I have to replace them more often. I don’t care if they use more energy, either. What I LOVE is the light they produce! The light is warm and inviting, not harsh and jolting like the LEDs are. I’m glad I went back to them; I’m glad I went back to the old style bulbs. I put the LED mini floods away just in case though; with the way things are breaking down these days, you never know. But, for at least the next few years anyway, I’ll have warm light in my kitchen, and I like that… 🙂
You need to pay attention to the color temperature spec for LEDs, just as with fluorescents.
From what you said, I am guessing the LEDs you bought were probably ~5000K, which is, indeed, a harsh light. Chances are, you could find LEDs of comparable output with a color temperature of ~3000K, or possibly less, which would be a much warmer light.
If I were you, I would take the LEDs back to the place where I bought them, explain the situation, and request either a) a lower color temperature LED, or b) my money back.
Normally, I’d do that. HOWEVER! One, I used the bulbs for at least a week, so they’re used; I don’t reckon it would be right to ask for a refund. If I’d used ’em for a few minutes, that’s one thing; using them for a week or so, that’s used. Two, it’s from one of the last two independently owned hardware stores in my area, so I like to help him out whenever I can. At one time, there were 17 or so independently owned hardware stores in my area; they’ve since been driven out by the Big Boxes. The guy I go to is one of the remaining two hanging on. I’ll just keep the LED mini floods as an emergency backup.
Thanks for the info on color temp, though. I have other LED bulbs and fixtures in my house, and they look all right, particularly the overhead fixtures. I was wondering how and why their lighting wasn’t as harsh. I knew that there had to be an explanation for it, and you gave it to me. Thank you!
‘Chances are, you could find LEDs of comparable output with a color temperature of ~3000K, or possibly less, which would be a much warmer light.’ — Adi Heidler
In December I ordered a 3,000K LED bathroom vanity fixture to replace a rather stodgy looking old incandescent fixture.
The new fixture is stylish … but the transition from 2,700K tungsten bulbs to cooler 3,000K LEDs was immediately jarring.
Solution: bought some 1/8 CTO (Color Temperature Orange) photographic light gel sheet, placed it over the LEDs, et voila — a warm, ~2,700K glow to highlight my rippled physique.
Could take it down to ~2,400K (candlelight) with another layer of 1/8 CTO gel. But I’ll save that until it’s endorsed by a lady friend.
Q: What did communists use before candles?
A: Light Bulbs
I’m sensitive to light flicker, and we went through many years of “improved” light bulbs like CFL’s and early LED’s, all of which flickered and gave me big headaches, only incandescent bulbs worked (though I can see these flicker as well if they’re dimmed).
Finally, there are fantastic LED’s available! Low power usage, good quality light, but high price. I saw some in person in a Nevada store and decided to buy some for my home in CA. So, when I get home, I go to order them online, and WTF – they can’t ship to Commiefornia:
https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/why-cant-these-light-bulbs-ship-to-california-an-overview-of-california-energy-commissions-title-20
Turns out, that CA has put in power standards that high quality LED’s, which use a phosphor to make broad-spectrum, flicker free light, can’t meet.
They’re coming for your LED’s too.
Hi, OL,
How does that song go? “You’d better shop around.”
These days, that very often means online, because online retailers are likely to carry a much wider selection than you are likely to find at your local Home Depot or other DIY/Big Box/Retail Hardware stores.
I recently replaced a 2 x 40W fluorescent fixture in my bathroom with (4) 12 W, 4000K LEDs, which I bought online, and had no trouble getting shipped to ZIP Code 92882. Cost was $28.36 for (4) bulbs, including tax and shipping, from 1000 bulbs. Bulbs are instant on, no flicker, light output is somewhat higher than the fluorescent tubes, bright but not garish, just right for a bathroom, while using 48W vs. 80.
The cost of the new wiring, boxes and fixtures (4 standard medium base sockets with 6″ milk white globes) was insignificant, requiring mainly my time. Piece of cake, IOW. 🙂
The price of LEDs has come down dramatically, while the available choices in light output have become more numerous. That means more flexibility for the same light socket. So, if
I wanted more light in my bathroom, it would be simple to swap out the 12W (75W incandescent replacement) bulbs for 100W replacement, which I guess would be 16W LEDs, as well as select either a higher or a lower color temperature to suit.
Oh, I do shop around. I actually wired my whole house with 24 VDC so I use LED strip lights wherever they make sense – much nicer light than LED bulbs, but I also have a bunch of those. Low power usage is important here as my grid is out a lot and my solar battery only lasts so long 🙂
Understanding the dangers of LEDs.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/10/joseph-mercola/beware-eye-destroying-lightbulbs/
>high price
Not necessarily. Price of LEDs has declined significantly as they have become more common.
Random search @ Amazon yields the following:
Option 1 (incandescent)
GE Lighting A19 72W 1270 lumens @ 3000K
$7.41/4 bulbs = $1.85/bulb
Expected lifetime: 1000 hrs.*
Option 2 (LED)
Sylvania A19 12W 1100 lumens @ 3500K
$2.09/bulb
Expected lifetime: 11,000 hrs. (claimed)
So, if the advertised bulb lifetimes are correct (even close), you would need to buy 11 of the incandescent 75W to last as long as one LED.
Capital cost:
1 LED bulb @ $2.09
11 incandescent bulbs @ $1.85 = $20.35
Electricity used:
(12W)(11,000 hr.) = 132,000 W-hr = 132Kwh
(72W)(11,000 hr.) = 792,000 W-hr = 792 Kwh
Cost to change light bulb (opportunity cost of your time)
10 bulb changes @ 15 minutes/bulb change = 2.5 hrs.
Cost it out:
Where I live (Riverside County, CA), SoCal Edison charges residential customers $0.31/Kwh for “Tier 1” (lowest cost) usage.
I value my time at a modest $50/hr for these purposes.
A higher billing rate would apply for professional services.
Assuming Tier 1 electrical rate, the added cost for electricity for 75W incandescent bulbs over the (asserted) 11, 000 hour life of a single LED bulb would be:
(792-132)($0.31) = (660)($0.31) = $204.60
Capital cost difference = $20.35 – $1.85 = $18.50
Neglecting the opportunity cost, the added cost of using incandescents would be:
$204.60 + $18.50 = $223.00
Including the opportunity cost of your time spent changing bulbs, @ $50/hr,
O.C. = (11 bulbs )(15 min/bulb)($50/hr) = (2.75)($50) = $137.50
If you are using these bulbs in an outdoor lighting application, powered on from dusk to dawn via photocell, then usage is at least 10 hr./day.
(11,000 hrs)/(10hr/day) = 1100 days = 3 yrs.
Discounting your time, the added cost per bulb location for using incandescents would be:
$233/3 yr = $77.67/bulb location/yr = $6.47mo.
Personally, I have 7 bulbs @ exterior locations which fit the above usage profile, so the net savings to me for swapping incandescents would be: (7)( $6.47) = $45.31/mo
for these bulbs alone.
YMMV, depending how long he bulbs are lit, and how much you pay for electricity.
Please feel free to check my arithmetic, or to challenge my assumptions. Fiat lux (let there be light). 🙂
—————–
*As to *why* incandescent bulbs have such a short lifetime, that is another story, which in fact involves an actual conspiracy among bulb manufacturers.
Check it out: 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9xmn228HM0
Thanks for the link. Their bulbs have really good reviews and the specs look good, so I just ordered a couple to try. If you ‘must’ use LED it seems like they’re one of the few companies doing it the right way.
I’ve found the box store house brand LED bulbs to be less than impressive. Weird color rendering, short life span. The Phillips HUE bulbs certainly have their fan club, but I could give a sh*t about controlling them with an app, when the switch on the wall works fine.
It amazes me how spending $50k on an electric widget saves money. If I don’t spend the $50k to begin with, I have saved the whole shebang. Same with many products that consumers waste money on.
Eric,
That image at the top of your post creates the perfect opportunity for a meme……the caption should go something like “One of these is a light bulb. The other is a dim bulb!” Lol.
Nobody wants to be in the dark, a light bulb beats a candle all day long.
Light emitting diodes, LED bulbs, are not dim-able. They do last for months on end, use very little electricity. Wi-fi led bulbs are dim-able, though. Many pages of light bulbs at big box store websites. Whole new world of lighting out there.
Light is always at ludicrous speed, the universe you see is light gone plaid.
Incandescent bulbs do dim when you have a dimmer switch. Don’t need a special wi-fi bulb to get what you want.
Incandescent bulbs add heat to the room during winter months, use them then. For indoor lighting in the home, incandescent is the first choice.
A four-pack of GE incandescent bulbs is eight dollars, you still buy them.
LED work lights are a big help, the filaments are killer. Have one that is a head lamp, then your hands are free.
Going to have to stock up on some incandescent bulbs, they’re not everywhere these days.
Had enough of the obscene war over in Ukraine or do you need some more analysis and propaganda? How much more can you take?
Iceland is on its fifth day of Icelandic cod fishing season, so buy the fresh stuff, it’s always good.
“Incandescent bulbs add heat to the room during winter months”
And a much warmer light, which makes you feel a couple of degrees warmer than you are. Much like fire.
When I was a kid, I remember my mom stopping at the hardware store to get FREE incandescent light bulbs. The electric company had a program where you brought in your bill stub to a participating retailer. They had some formula for what you could get, and she could end up with a grocery sized bag of light bulbs, no additional cash out of pocket needed.
Liberty-wise, of course, all of these bans/mandates are horrible. But I don’t mind the light bulb thing as much as I do the increasingly destructive regulation of appliances. Washers are so bad that it won’t be long before you’re better off beating your clothes on rocks down by the creek.
When our daughter was small, 20-some years ago, Big Bird was already scolding kids for letting the water run while they brushed their teeth. As far as I know, water is not destroyed when it goes down the drain. It might be dirty, but it always gets purified again in the never-ending cycle of evaporation and precipitation.
Our new dishwasher, which we only bought because the old one died and I couldn’t get repair parts, runs over three hours to do one load. Since it’s using electricity the entire time, how the hell is that more efficient?
I guess one is supposed to pretend it is more effecient. Kind of like the one and a half gallon toilets that take two flushes for one job. It is up there with the “water saver “washer I used at a friends house. It swished the clothes around, and took them for a Sunday stroll, so I am not sure how it got the clothes clean. Also, it took a good, hour and a half to “wash” them, compared to my old washer, which (on cold cycle) takes six minutes to wash, and then there’s just the rinse (a short cycle) and spin, so half hour tops for the entire cycle. There is no way in hell that “water saver” washer saved any energy, much less adequately washed the clothes. And now, the Feds are dictating the washers use even less water than they are now. Someone stop this meri-go-round, I want off!
The purpose of government is for those in power to plunder those who are not.
Government has been the primary tool to prevent free market forces from having its effects. This has gone on since before the British East India Company, where monopolies are granted by the state at gunpoint. This happens today in the world of localized television, cable and fiber optic “franchises.”
The a/c refrigerant trick happens about every 20 years, which is coincidentally the same duration of patents that large chemical companies have on particular refrigerant formulations. Just try to get your pre-2018 home a/c system charged right now. The old refrigerant is going for about $150 per pound or more, which inevitably “nudges” you into replacing the whole damn system for the newer (but slightly less expensive) refrigerant. Greta for them, bad for us (as well as environment, which they claim to care for so much).
“Great for them. . ” I didn’t mean to say Greta, but perhaps it was a Freudian slip.
Hi ML,
Blame the Carrier Corporation…they love reinventing refrigerant every few decades. My heat pump is well over 20+ years old. I am thankful I am married to a man that can get parts cheap and repair almost anything. The new refrigerant for HVAC units is beginning this year, R-454B. It is absolute crap. Trying to convert old R-22 systems or R410A systems over to it has been a nightmare. It does not convert easily and requires the change out of filter driers/expansion valves, etc.
I don’t how the government can expect families and businesses (who can have tens or even hundreds of HVAC units) to pay several thousand to millions of dollars to purchase new systems. It is absolutely ridiculous. The units don’t work better, they don’t cooler quicker, or are even that much more efficient. The only business this helps is Carrier and the liberals in government believing they are making some type of difference….they aren’t.
RG:
Your response made me chuckle and think of James Bond when he was strapped to a table with a laser about to cut him in half. He desperately asked Goldfinger: “Do you expect me to talk?” to which Goldfinger said: “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx9z99YJ_7s
RG TO GOVERNMENT: “Do you expect us to be able to afford these new inefficient a/c units that you’re forcing us to buy?”
GOVERNMENT: “No, Ms. Raider Girl, I expect you to be plundered.”
Time to go “retro”…as in pitchforks and TORCHES.
Every time the government does anything, the results are detrimental to the common man. About say….20 years ago, GE had a production facility in Winchester, Va that manufactured incandescent light bulbs that paid employees over $30 something an hour. Ever since the decree went out to ban them, the plant was shut down, good paying jobs went away and now any light bulbs made now are made overseas (guess where?) and not here. Now they want to ban gas stoves and make washing machines “more efficient” by using less water. When the government says “unwashed & starving” masses, they literally mean it!
Here’s something that the government all but banned at the height of the COVID “pandemic”…..Inexpensive drugs, such as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, that have been around for decades but proved to be effective treatments for the ‘Rona. There are doctors out there who’ve said that had such drugs not been so heavily restricted by government diktats, LOTS of lives could have been saved. But such drugs didn’t make BIG BUCKS for Big Pharma, and it’s become quite obvious the past few years they have tremendous influence over politicians and the government public health bureaucracies, who’ve told everyone that a brand new vaccine would be the CURE for the pandemic until it became too obvious that was complete bull crap. However, in 2021, the Biden Thing, along with authoritarian governors, tried to force millions of Americans to take the COVID jabs under threat of loss of job if they refused.
With the Biden Thing’s blatant attempts to ban various things in favor of “substitutes” that are complete garbage or WORSE than what they’re trying to ban, what’s next? Banning meat consumption and forcing consumption of bugs or lab grown meat to make Klaus Schwab & Bill Gates happy? Banning the use of CASH in order to obtain their dream of CBDC? Banning home ownership to satisfy the WEF’s dream of Megalopolises and forcing the masses into stack and pack housing? Or perhaps even banning wood stoves & fireplaces in favor of heat pumps and electric fireplaces? There seems to be no limit these days to what the government would LOVE to BAN & foist on the public as a replacement.
There is one, and only one advantage to non incandescent bulbs that I can find. Can lights, for example. You can put a bulb with 100 watts of output into a fixture that is rated at 60 watts. Because they don’t make near as much heat.
I think you left out a couple of items that bear mention.
Florescent bulbs, which were the first incandescent replacement, which were an environmental and safety disaster. Which of course EVs are as well.
The fact that DuPont lobbied for the banning of Freon just as their patent on it was running out. I have no idea how Freon was supposed to get to the Ozone layer, since it’s heavier than air.