I admit to hoarding 100-watt incandescent light bulbs for some time now. I get them at Meijer’s for $1.23 per bulb, and I pay about twice as much for the beautiful GE Reveal bulb. My basement root cellar, which is earmarked for food, has become the unfortunate landing spot for this pile of soon-to-be contraband, so I am building a special corner storage area for these types of non-food reserve items. So clearly, I am not ecstatic about the government’s attack on human comfort with its upcoming ban on one of civilization’s stellar inventions.
Reading this article (“LED Bulbs Hit 100 Watts as Federal Ban Looms”) is a bit like waking up to a slapstick comedy playing backwards. There is no alternative to the 100-watt incandescent bulb. Compact fluorescents contain toxic mercury vapor (but they save us energy!) and the bulbs with large watts are too big for most existing fixtures. OLEDs have not yet been successfully produced for the mass market, and LEDs are not affordable for the masses at …… $50? Here’s one on Amazon for $59.99. But of course, this is not about saving energy or improving lives, or even improving technology. It is about politicians and lifelong bureaucrats socially engineering society on a grand scale through the use of arbitrary decrees that are promoted by profit-seeking special interests and human-hating environmentalist groups that deplore lights that allow you to see, detergent that cleans stuff, appliances that work, and toilets that actually flush human waste out of the house. Here is a revealing snippet from the article (bold emphasis mine):
To stimulate LED development, the federal government has instituted a $10 million “L Prize” for an energy-efficient replacement for the 60-watt bulb. Philips is so far the only entrant in testing, and Eftekhar expects the company to win it soon. But Lighting Sciences Group plans its own entry, which it will demonstrate at the trade show.
The 60-watt bulbs are a mere $40. I especially like this paragraph from the article.
However, LED prices are coming down quickly. The DoE expects a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb to cost $10 by 2015, putting them within striking range of the price of a compact fluorescent bulb.
In four years a bulb that costs $1 right now will be at the always low price of $10, and that is “coming down quickly”? Get started on your run on bulbs.
