A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California's groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.Thomas Edison would be spinning in his grave you say? Not entirely. There are good reasons to switch from incandescents to compact fluorescent or LED technologies.
The "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act" would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
Power savings is a powerful reason. The compact fluorescent bulbs run on a fraction of the power of incandescents, which waste much of the electricity used in the form of heat. Fluorescent translate more of the power to light - though the light created is far from pleasing. There's that annoying yellow/amber hue. Instapundit knows what I'm talking about (and may have found a winning CF bulb in the process). However, the power savings will be substantial as more users switch to the fluorescents.
Cost is a major factor here - the new bulbs cost several times the old bulbs. That might be a turnoff for some, who would rather have the cheaper bulbs, even if the costs are higher once you factor in energy costs.
We bought an eight-pack in Costco and have been replacing burned out incandescents with compact fluorescent as we go along. What we've lost in terms of white light has been made up with a noticable cost savings of maybe $3-5 per month. Those savings will increase over time as the remaining lights are switched to compact fluorescents.
Still, why should these costs, essentially an unfunded mandate, be imposed on California residents by the state legislature? Also, it would appear that the marketplace is moving ahead of the California legislator's plans, as Wal Mart is looking to shift the marketplace to compact fluorescents and the manufacturers themselves are phasing out the production of incandescents in favor of other technologies.
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