subject: It's Lights Out For 100-watt Incandescent Bulbs [print this page] Three years ago, when Lorraine Sealock moved into a green-conscious apartment complex in Redlands, she set out to do her part by replacing 100-watt light bulbs throughout her new home.
Her husband came home with a case of "little swirly bulbs" from Home Depot and they screwed them into 21 sockets, from vanity lights in the bathroom to the light inside their new, energy-efficient refrigerator.
Not all of that savings is attributable to the compact fluorescent light bulbs, but she says she'll never go back to 100-watt incandescent bulbs.
As it turns out, she couldn't even if she wanted to.
Hundred-watt incandescent bulbs are fast disappearing, thanks to a little-noticed provision in a federal law passed four years ago. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires light bulbs to use at least 25 percent less energy. It starts with the 100-watt incandescent bulb and phases in 75-, 60 and 40-watt bulbs over a three-year period.
The bill was signed into law by former President George W. Bush . California, under the administration of its then-governor, environment guru Arnold Schwarzenegger, volunteered to go first: A ban on the manufacture of 100-watt bulbs took affect in California this year and goes into effect in the rest of the country in January.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy predicts the law will save consumers nearly $6 billion a year.
"These standards will save consumers money by saving them energy, similar to the way that increased efficiency standards for refrigerators, implemented beginning in the 1970s, are now saving Americans about $20 billion a year, or $150 per family," DOE spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler wrote in an email.
"Upgrading 15 inefficient incandescent bulbs in your home could save you about $50 a year," she wrote.
Critics of the law, including some Republicans and tea party leaders, contend it is an unwarranted intrusion in private business and forces cash-strapped consumers to spend more on light bulbs.
While 100-watt bulbs cost only about 60 cents apiece, comparable compact fluorescent bulbs and Halogen bulbs sell for about $3 -- and the most energy-efficient bulbs, light emitting diode, or LED, light bulbs sell for $30 to $70.
The American Lighting Association, whose members include manufacturers and retailers, said the up-front costs are more than offset by the energy savings and longer life of alternative bulbs.
A standard 100-watt bulb lasts about 1,000 hours, the association says, while a compact fluorescent bulb can last as much as eight times as long and an LED bulb 25 times as long.
Some compact fluorescents used as substitutes for 100-watt incandescent bulbs require as little as 26 watts of electricity and LEDs as little as 12.5 watts.
Joseph Higbee, communications director for the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, said trade groups support the new law because it recognizes advances in lighting technology unnoticed by the general public, which has been relying on a bulb design invented by Thomas Edison 132 years ago.
He said news media reports have led consumers to believe, in error, that all incandescent bulbs are banned.
According to the Department of Energy, the law requires only that light bulbs use less energy. It prohibits the manufacture and import of new 100-watt incandescent bulbs but does not prohibit stores from selling out their existing stock or consumers from using them.
Critics of the compact fluorescent bulbs focus on the potentially hazardous disposal or breakage of the bulbs, which contain mercury.
Mercury can cause birth defects and impair memory, cognitive thinking and neurological development, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA and the Department of Energy note that a compact fluorescent bulb contains only about 4 milligrams of mercury, less than 1/100th of the amount contained in older thermometers.
Some Republicans and tea party leaders have been trying to win repeal of the law, calling it an unwarranted intrusion on businesses and consumers.
The House of Representatives voted 233-193 in July for passage of a repeal bill called the Better Use of Light Bulb Act, introduced by Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton. It failed because procedural rules required two-thirds approval.
Jim Specht, a spokesman for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, said earlier this month that he expects a new bill to repeal the law to be introduced in the next few weeks.
Lewis' view is "the federal government should not be telling consumers what kind of products they should buy and certainly not be in the business of trying to influence the market in some sort of regulatory way," Specht said.
Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, defended the new law. He was one of 200 co-sponsors of the original bill.
"The new efficiency standard for incandescent light bulbs is good policy, plain and simple," he wrote in email forwarded by his news spokesman.
"No consumers will be forced to use one type of light bulb or another type," he wrote. "Republican attempts to paint this efficiency standard as an example of government over-reach are ludicrous, and intentionally misleading."
His spokesman, John Lowery, said repealing the law would be senseless since manufacturers have already stopped making 100-watt bulbs.
At Lamps Plus on Magnolia Avenue in Riverside, manager Dilip Kumar said he has enough 100-watt incandescent bulbs stored in a warehouse to last as long as nine months, barring a stampede of buyers.
He said he has installed fluorescent bulbs in half of the hundreds of fixtures in his store to save money.
"Certain fixtures would not look good with fluorescent bulbs," he said, "so we don't use them with those fixtures."
He said his customers are concerned about the new law and that he and his sales people take time to explain the difference between bulbs. The choices are even more baffling for consumers who buy them off the shelves in department stores where clerks are not available to help, he said.
"Because of the mercury and disposal of fluorescent bulbs, I see LED as the future," Kumar said. "It's pricey right now, but they last a lot longer. A lot of people don't like fluorescent bulbs. People want more warm tones."
The prices will come down, he predicted, as production increases.
New package labeling in the works and, in some cases on the shelves, will help consumers, said Higbee, the industry spokesman.
He said shoppers have been conditioned to buy bulbs based on wattage, which measures the amount of electricity needed to illuminate the bulb. They would be better served to buy bulbs based on lumens, a measurement of the light produced by the bulb.
In the end, he said, "we need to re-educate consumers."
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