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We’re Shipping our Incandescent Bulbs to California
Packed up the bulbs and moved to Californ ...
Gone are a huge batch of sentimental Ultimate Frisbee tournament T-shirts and memorabilia. Gone is a vintage record-player console that worked fine and looked cool. Gone is my 30-year-old shot-glass collection.
We’re moving to a smaller place, and we’re in a hurry, so we just had to purge.
But one thing we didn’t toss? Our hoard of incandescent light bulbs.
We amassed a few dozen bulbs of the “outlawed” lights before the federal ban, part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, went into effect this year.
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I believe you can still pick up the bulbs in Minnesota, where I live currently, but definitely not in my new home state of California, which implemented the ban even before the January 1, 2012 deadline.
As a bonus, while clearing out our storage area, we found some more contraband: about two dozen bulbs that we’ll add to the “move” pile.
I joked in 2009 that a massive black market for incandescents would emerge, thanks to government intervention in the bulb market. Let’s test that theory. Do I hear
In the meantime, I think I’ll get me an old Easy Bake Oven!
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8 Comments (displayed in order by date/time)
Where do you get that thing about cost? I paid about 25 cents each for 100-watt bulbs. I don’t see any standard 100-watt halogen bulbs, but that’s only a quick Google search.
The 72-watt bulbs appear to be about $3 each. We weren’t sure, either, if our 10-year-old lighting control system would work with halogens (it would have been easy enough to ask) nor if higher-wattage bulbs would be available in the near future.
Are there 200-watt bulbs, which is the stash we found in storage? Most of our other bulbs are 100 to 150 watt.
Anyway, you are certainly right that I hate the government meddling in affairs such as light bulbs, so yeah, this is more of a statement to that effect.
Appreciate your insights as always, Tom! The point is moot. Incandescents are gone.
Where do you get that thing about cost? I paid about 25 cents each for 100-watt bulbs. I don’t see any standard 100-watt halogen bulbs, but that’s only a quick Google search.
The 72-watt bulbs appear to be about $3 each. We weren’t sure, either, if our 10-year-old lighting control system would work with halogens (it would have been easy enough to ask) nor if higher-wattage bulbs would be available in the near future.
Are there 200-watt bulbs, which is the stash we found in storage? Most of our other bulbs are 100 to 150 watt.
Anyway, you are certainly right that I hate the government meddling in affairs such as light bulbs, so yeah, this is more of a statement to that effect.
Appreciate your insights as always, Tom! The point is moot. Incandescents are gone.
Julie,
Toss a turntable???? Throw out the t-shirts???? How could you!?!? Buy LED when you get to California and then forget about ever changing a lightbulb. Keep the memories. You will need the brighter bluer light in your old age while looking at all your old stuff !! 
I was appalled when I saw the turntable in the dumpster. I think I shed a tear, in fact.
Of course when we exhaust our incandescents we’ll go with new-fangled bulbs, but I don’t need brighter blues when my hair is already heading that direction ...
At this rate, you and Duane might have trouble “fitting in” with Californians. Energy-consciousness is considered cool there. Plus, just wait until you get your first water and electricity bills.
Jason, that is the least of my “coolness” problems.
I’ll tell you what I was told when I moved to the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia: Welcome to California. Now go home.
It’s insane to me that you you refer to LED as “new fangled” and that you’re hanging on to your turntable. Come on - you make you living in an industry driven by new technology. I haven’t had an incandescent lamp in my house in at least 2 years. Turntable? Hell, I haven’t had a DVD player in 2+ years. My last last tape deck? Can’t even remember.
Why is it okay that you’re emotionally attached to this stuff? Let it go. It’s stuff.
Force yourself to adapt. Go to your local hardware store (don’t go to a big chain… for the love of all that is holy) and start replacing every inc. with LED. You’ll experiment, you’ll find what you like and don’t like. Settle on something and then make the investment. You can’t possibly be a geek and still have a device that is, at best, 10% efficient and be happy about it!
You and your electricity bill will thank me later.
Next up: tankless water heater…
... and rations of suntan oil…. for when CA breaks off and floats out into the ocean and becomes a tropical island…
Seriously?
You can purchase 72watt halogen lamps all day long. The have the same output as the incandescents, better color, same dimming capability, etc.
Cost not much more than the incandescent lamps. Manufacturers have been making these incandescent “looking” lamps for years yet they are more efficient and have better light quality.
Surprised that you bought into the Federal Outlawing of incandescent lamps and hoarded them?
Seriously!