eLightBulbs Lighting Blog > Don't Count Incandescent Light Bulbs Out Yet

I've read plenty of recent blogs expressing ire at the incandescent ban.  The ban doesn't bother me personally, but there are certainly plenty who are bothered by it.  Good news for them; there is a move by politicians on Capitol Hill to overturn the 2007 legislation requiring all 100-watt incandescent light bulbs to be almost 30-percent more energy efficient by 2012.

The legislation imposes hefty fees upon manufacturers who continue to make traditional incandescent light bulbs, and so most manufacturers have ceased all production of said lamps.  The alternatives, LED and CFL, are much more expensive than incandescents, but last far longer.  You may pay 60-cents for an incandescent and $3.40 for a CFL, but you'll replace that incandescent 6 to 10 times before you replace the CFL.  Add in the energy savings and it's easy to see that incandescents have a higher overall cost than CFLs.

Still, there are a lot of people unable to see this benefit (or it's not significant enough), and so there are people pulling for the legislation to be overturned.  One Senator in particular, Rand Paul (R-KY) says it's "insulting" for the government to tell consumers what light bulbs they can buy.

He says "You restrict my purchases.  You don't care about my choices.   You don't care about the consumer frankly.  You raise the cost of all the items with all your rules, all your notions, that you know what's best for me."  If there are enough people with his mindset, the legislation certainly stands a chance of being overturned.  Then again, President Obama has praised companies that are developing more environmentally friendly lighting technology and he might block an overturn attempt.

The main thing to take away from this is that the ban is not actually a bad thing.  I haven't used incandescent light bulbs in over 6 years.  I also haven't had to purchase a light bulb in 6 years (the CFLs I bought so long ago are still running perfectly).  The compact fluorescent light bulbs available now are probably ever better and more reliable than the ones I'm currently using.  Add in the fact that LEDs continue to be improved upon and a ban on incandescent light bulbs doesn't seem so bad after all.