/rant CFLs = Head hurts while reading, and a buzzing that will drive me to a comcast like hammering of any one who won't sell me a proper lightbulb /rant

don't you have to worry about mecury if you break a compact flourescent?

There are still some cons, and incandescents should not be outlawed entirely.

One con is that CFL's cannot be used in high heat or cold environments, such as the bulb in your fridge, the bulb in your oven, most outdoor lighting, etc.

There are other problems too, such as toxic materials and so on that should really be considered. I also think the natural market flow of lowering prices for CFL's means that they will be adopted without needing a law.

CFLs are not the complete answer, and banning them, even in 2012, is premature. I will be stocking up on incandecsents!

@Serenefengshui: They're banning incandescents, not CFLs.

What the hell are low budget photographers supposed to use?

This is dumb. First the NFL, now my dining-room chandelier.

Boy, this congress is really attacking the issues.

This just sucks. Time to go buy a pallet of GE Reveal bulbs so I can actually have a bright house and not be tinted yellow. And yes Ive tried at least 6 different brands of CFL and ALL of them had a yellow tint and the ones rated at the equivalent of 100W incandescent bulb are nowhere near as bright as a 100W incandescent. Im so sick and tired of all the hippies growing up and getting into government telling me what I can and cannot do with my own money just to "save the world" that I wont be a part of in 50 years. Whatever happened to freedom in the USA

"...warm glowing warming glow" huh?

@avwuff:
Bingo. The previous owners of our house had a CFL for the porch light and over the summer it worked fine. Now that the temps are regularly in the teens, the bulb just doesn't work as well as an incandescent.

This isn't something that should have been legislated. Let the market hash this one out.

@scampy: Yeah man why should I have to make a sacrifice for a future generation, I'll be dead by then! Screw them, I've got mine.

I would hate to be so sensitive to environmental light that CFLs would give me awful headaches, like all those people who come out of the woodwork every time the subject of CFLs comes up. Life must be terrible for those people -- they can't go to work, since every office I've been at has used older-design fluorescent tubes that would give one the same headaches one would get from CFLs, nor can they go to shops because fluorescent lights are also used there. Big box stores are the worst -- everyone can easily hear the humming of the light fixtures.

I guess I'd pretty much have to live outside.

@clevershark: florescent lights hum? I guess that's an advantage of destroying my hearing at rock concerts, I've never noticed.
However, I think the smart thing to do with this law isn't to ban a incandescent lites, but to ban any light fixture that's less efficient than a CFL. That way if somebody invents a more efficient incandescent, that can be sold instead.

... In other news from 2015, buying an incandescent light bulb means you're supporting terrorism. Because only terrorists will use regular lightbulbs. Just like they're the only ones who sell illegal drugs...

@scampy: Try the ones at Home Depot. Either daylight or bright. the daylights actually tint towards the blue end, and are pretty sweet. I use a 100watt equivalent in the magnifying lamp attached to my sewing machine table. Damn that thing is bright.

I haven't RTFL (read the f'ing legislation) so I'm curious as to if/how it addresses live theater and other similar venues. Stage lights these days are typically halogen bulbs in the range of 500 to 1200 watts. There currently isn't a suitable alternative to those incandescent bulbs. Do they get a pass or did our congresscritters act before thinking and royally screw them all over?

@GitEmSteveDave:

Ill give them a try and see if I can tolerate them.

and @Angiol:

Sacrifice should never be mandatory that is why it's called sacrifice. You voluntarily give up something in order to help someone else. FYI I dont believe any of the end of the world if we dont do this rhetoric so therefore I dont feel the need to sacrifice. Over the last 10 million years we have had ice ages, extinction of almost all life on the planet during dinosaurs and temperatures fluctuated well before the was ANY technology on the earth and it will ocntinue to do that no matter what we do

I replaced the bulbs in one room with CFLs as a test. It's been 3 months and I still wonder why the light is so dim every time I flick the switch. The CFL bulbs do eventually brighten, but I'm reminded every time that they aren't incandescent. I've got them in the basement but I won't put them in any other room. I don't see how anyone can use them as reading or task lighting.

The photo is awesome in it's freakiness.

I'm also not seeing why it was necessary to legislate this. Are the more efficient bulbs not as popular as I thought?

The newest generation of CFL's don't flicker and there are new models out that are very close to natural light (a la Reveal). LED's will begin to be affordable in a few years [Arguably, they are now, but the ROI is 5-10 years].

As to the environmental issues:

1) The mercury that they contain is nothing compared to the amount released by burning coal and other fossil fuels from increased electricity usage.

2) Fox News and a few others are trying to introduce FUD into the bulbs. You don't have to call Haz-Mat if a bulb breaks. That was a completely staged event. If a bulb breaks, don't immediately drop to the ground and inhale heavily (duh). Let the place air out a bit. Sweep up the glass, put it in a ziplock, grocery bag, etc. and put in trash. If you're paranoid. Take out the garbage right away and mop the floor. Note, if you've ever owned one of those bulbs, you know the glass is much thicker than a traditional bulb.

I have to assume there is a exception for special purpose lighting (studio lighting, stage lighting, etc.). It will probably just require standard socket bulbs to be efficient.

I swear by CFLs. I had a big apartment a few years ago with a few friends, and some other friends of ours lived in an identical unit a few doors down. I put CFLs all through the apartment, and from that change alone our electric bill was half what the other guys paid. I'm talking half as in $150/mo vs $300/mo. I'm sure there were probably other factors at stake, but I've been a convert ever since.

I've also seen the problems they've had in the past several years... long 'brightening up' times, horrible yellow light, etc. A lot of the bulbs out there, especially the cheap ones or the particularly big ones, seem to still have some of these, but there are a few good ones out there.

Personally, I use the Sylvania 60-watt equivalents all over my apartment now, found 'em on sale in 4-packs for really cheap. They're actually brighter and whiter than the 60-watt incandescents I replaced, some of which were new, it only takes a few seconds for them to hit full brightness (they snap on at probably 75-85% brightness).

More than anything, make sure to check the color temperature of the lights... a lot of the ones sold in stores are 2800K, which tends to give you that nasty yellow light. The Sylvania's I mentioned run at 3200 or 3500K, which is much "whiter" light, whiter than a lot of incandescents. They "daylight" bulbs run at ~4300K, which looks too blue to me, but some people like 'em... good way to make your doorstep stand out if anything.

@milw123: The dim to bright can be a benefit, I use these in my bedroom and bathroom and they seem to light up the room gently for my barely opened eyes. I've noticed that this effect is better or worse depending on the ambient temperature and brand of the bulb. My house is full of these, and my electric bill is about %15 cheaper since I started using them.

@rasbach: Sorry, 15%

I'll just pay an extra 15% on my energy bill, thank you very much. At least then I won't have to listen to the damn humming from CFLs.

Link to the bill? Consumerist? NYT? Anyone?

Did they explain what we're supposed to do for our fridge, our oven, our turtle tank, grow lights for violets, chicken incubators, etc?

Am I the only person who read the following: "Congress has not specifically outlawed incandescent bulbs, only inefficient ones." ?

I don't mind the one in my living room. I tried putting one in my bathroom, and with the acoustics, the hum drove me nuts. Also, I can get incandescent bulbs in smaller sizes - such as small enough to fit in the fixture that came with my apartment. The CFLs are nice, but they're bigger than regular bulbs to start with. So what about small lamps/fixtures?

I hate it when they don't think things through...

@nequam: Yes. Apparently you are.

The only thing that I really got from the article is that GE has some good lobbyists on The Hill.

@clevershark: You can't hear the hum over a crowd's background noise in a big box store, you halfwit.

The ones I tried played havoc with my IR remote controls. I couldn't use them in the living room.

As much as I am all for energy efficiency, the CFLs I have in my office really don't cut it and I end up having to supplement them with an incandescent... which is a shame because incandescent bulbs are so wasteful. Maybe I'll check out the Homo Depot ones mentioned above.

As for Congress, well... government, especially this one, is mostly incapable of making sound decisions--which IMO reflects the general populace these days. It's sad to see so many people willfully trashing the future for their convenience today.

Grrr. I'm split by the allure of less engergy consumption and annoyed by the prospects of having to use CFL's to light models and stilllifes to paint. Granted there is always natural light-which always is changing and is so fickle to work with, and the closer to daylight 6500K CFL's and Halogen bulbs as well.

But there is just something about that incandescent "glow" that I know I'm gonna miss someday.

Don't worry - ALL the CFL's are made in China. They'll be recalled LONG before 2012.

Anyone else have any recommendations on which bulbs provide the best, most natural light? I might do a test run on my bathroom bulbs to see how they look.

That's strange, I have never noticed a hum from my CFL's in my apartment, and every single bulb with the exception of a desk lamp (it's halogen) has one.

I have had the issue with the bulbs taking a while to warm up to full light, but that seems to only happen with the Ikea branded bulbs, I'll probably switch to another brand when these burn out, but it's more likely I'll move out of this apartment before that happens.

We had one of the early CFL bulbs and it was horrible.

The newer ones are much better. We have them in the recessed lighting in our house, outdoor light fixtures and garage. You can get ones made to be used outdoors. Ours have worked in hot summers and single digit cold winter nights.

What we found got the best results were to buy the best brand name ones you can find. Get the ones that have some sort of bulb over the coil like the regular light bulb would look like.

We did get some small ones for a fixture that took chandelier bulbs and the CFL ones were longer than the normal oblong bulbs and won't fit in the fixture.

Probably ought to put Easy-Bake Ovens out of business. Won't somebody please think of the children?!?

(Yes, I'm only kidding.)

Alright.

I will switch to CFLs the day that the dimmable ones work like a regular bulb (right now they suck) and the day that they look good in a clear light fixture.

Until then,

a) Stock up on the good old Edison bulbs (especially for your decorative fixtures,

b) vote these a$$holes out of office. It is NOT the governments place to mandate this.

What's the point? I'm paying for my electricity, why can't I use it however I choose? I have some CFLs in my house, but they're not good for chandeliers, outside lights, oven lights, refrigerator lights or any fixture with a visible bulb.

If Congress is really concerned about heavy users of energy, it should allow power plants to use clean coal instead of scrubbers. Power plants burning clean (i.e. western) coal without scrubbers pollute less than power plants with scrubbers burning dirty (i.e. eastern) coal. Since a scrubber uses a huge portion of a power plant's output to clean its emissions, this one modest switch would have a huge savings in power consumption and actually lower costs.

[The scrubber rule is there to prop up the "dirty" coal industry in Robert Byrd's West Virginia.]

Also, Philips full-range dimmable halogen energy efficient bulb as well... but I haven't seen any in the stores yet:

[www.nam.lighting.philips.com]

This may be an answer to those left-leaning tree-hugging environmentalists who still like romantic dimmed light.

*shudder*

Congress has not specifically outlawed incandescent bulbs, only inefficient ones.

Well, in California, it's soon going to be illegal to exhale, what with the legislature working to reduce CO2 emissions.

Why does big daddy government feel the need to outlaw incandescents. CFLs will naturally take over as they become superior to incandescents and I imagine incandescents will still have niches to fill for the foreseeable future. Market forces will drive people to CFLs without a mandate, this is just a way for congress to pat itself on the back and give its members something to campaign on next election cycle while eating away at our liberties.

I wish these bulb manufacturers would put more effort into making LED bulbs.

I have florescent lights in most of my fixtures, I have found they don't last much longer than the regular filament bulbs. I don't blame the bulbs but the power company, they don't call it Florida Flicker and Flash for no reason.

Even though I am not getting full benefit from the bulbs I still use them because I can put a "100" watt bulb in place of the 60 watt bulbs the fixtures require.

@IphtashuFitz:
"I haven't RTFL (read the f'ing legislation) so I'm curious as to if/how it addresses live theater and other similar venues. Stage lights these days are typically halogen bulbs in the range of 500 to 1200 watts. There currently isn't a suitable alternative to those incandescent bulbs. Do they get a pass or did our congresscritters act before thinking and royally screw them all over?"

I was wondering this too. However, theatre lights (ones used for Fresnels and what-not) aren't typically sold in retail stores, so hopefully they won't be affected.

My boyfriend had issue with CFL's because he can't find any that work on his outside light dimmers.

I have CFLs everywhere and I like them. As with a lot of products, you get what you pay for regarding color temperature, humming and "warm up" times. Personally, I like them and I put them everywhere. The only exception is for dimmable lamps. Unfortunately, the dimmable CFLs are just too expensive.

@squikysquiken:

Yeah, the only non-CFL bulbs in my place are the four dimmable vanity lights in my bathroom. It's funny though, every other bulb in my apartment combined uses about the same power as those bathroom bulbs alone.