$50 Light Bulbs to go on sale next year

by Peter Svensson

NEW YORK – Two leading makers of lighting products are showcasing LED bulbs that are bright enough to replace energy-guzzling 100-watt light bulbs set to disappear from stores in January.

Their demonstrations at the LightFair trade show in Philadelphia this week mean that brighter LED bulbs will likely go on sale next year, but after a government ban takes effect.

The new bulbs will also be expensive — about $50 each — so the development may not prevent consumers from hoarding traditional bulbs.

The technology in traditional "incandescent" bulbs is more than a century old. Such bulbs waste most of the electricity that feeds them, turning it into heat. The 100-watt bulb, in particular, produces so much heat that it's used in Hasbro's Easy-Bake Oven.

To encourage energy efficiency, Congress passed a law in 2007 mandating that bulbs producing 100 watts worth of light meet certain efficiency goals, starting in 2012. Conventional light bulbs don't meet those goals, so the law will prohibit making or importing them. The same rule will start apply to remaining bulbs 40 watts and above in 2014. Since January, California has already banned stores from restocking 100-watt incandescent bulbs.

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Trash collectors won’t pick up energy-saving bulbs

by George Arbuthnott

Councils across the UK are refusing to pick up low-energy lightbulbs from homes as they contain toxic mercury, which gives off poisonous vapours.

But confused consumers are putting the new bulbs – classed as hazardous waste – in their dustbins when they burn out, potentially putting the safety of thousands of binmen at risk.

Previously, the public disposed of traditional lightbulbs, used in Britain for 120 years, in a domestic bin.

However, they are being phased out under a European Union ruling and are being replaced with energy-saving bulbs, many of which contain mercury.

Tiny LED holiday bulbs contain lead, arsenic

by Wendy Koch

Small holiday LED bulbs, marketed as eco-friendly alternatives to traditional light bulbs, contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, reports a study released Thursday.

The low-intensity red LEDs (light emitting diodes) in Christmas lighting strands had up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, and while the white bulbs had less lead than the colored ones, they had high levels of nickel, according to a team of researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Davis.

"I didn't expect this full range of chemicals to leach out," said study co-author Oladele Ogunseitan, chairman, of UC Irvine's Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention. He said the research, published in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, is the first to examine LEDs for toxic chemicals.

Ogunseitan told Green House that consumers are not at risk unless the bulbs break. In that event, he advises users to sweep up the pieces with a special broom while wearing gloves and a mask. He says the tiny red LEDs are "hazardous waste" and shouldn't be tossed in the trash.

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USA Today: Banning Incandescent Light Bulbs is Freedom

by Henry Payne

In a leap of Orwellian logic, USA Today — America's second-largest newspaper — argues in its lead editorial Tuesday that banning the incandescent light bulb is a victory for free markets.

"The best way for government to boost energy efficiency isn't to micromanage by picking winners and losers, a job better suited to free-market innovation. It is to set a reasonable standard — miles per gallon or light per watt, for example — and let the market sort it out," spins the editorial in support of picking winners and losers. "That's what Congress did in 2007" in banning the bulb.

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Banning is choice. Regulation is freedom.

One wonders if USA Today's editors would tolerate this doublethink if applied to their own industry. Were Congress to ban newspapers in order to force them onto the more "planet-friendly" Internet, would USA Today swallow this as free market economics?

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Mark Steyn on how Big Government solves fictitious problems

by The Right Scoop

Steyn had a little fun today explaining the Government of Maine’s instructions on what to do if you break one of the new CFL lightbulbs in your house. Through all of this he’s making the larger point that none of this bureaucratic nonsense is necessary if you use a normal incandescent light bulb, which of course they are trying to ban.

Rep. Fred Upton Vows to End His Own Incandescent Bulb Ban

by Amanda Carey

Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan – the man running against Texas Rep. Joe Barton to be Chairman of the Energy and Commerce committee in the next Congress – has reversed his position on CFL light bulbs. The move is significant not only because Upton wants to be chairman of one of the House’s most powerful committees, but also because he championed the incandescent bulb ban and switch to CFLs just three short years ago.

Now, Upton says that if he becomes chair of the Energy Committee, he will help undo the law he was instrumental in getting passed. He even went a step further by admitting Congress can make mistakes – a candid admission that symbolizes Upton may be trying to solidify his conservative credentials with the incoming class of “Tea Party” Republicans.

“The last thing we wanted to do was infringe upon personal liberties — and this has been a good lesson that Congress does not always know best,” Upton said in a statement.

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German 'heatball' trick outwits EU light bulb ban

by Reuters

Berlin: A German entrepreneur is bypassing a European Union ban on light bulbs of more than 60 watts by marketing his own brand as mini heaters.

Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs - by producing them in China, importing them as "small heating devices" and selling them as "heatballs".

To improve energy efficiency, the EU has banned the sale of bulbs of over 60 watts - to the annoyance of the mechanical engineer from the western city of Essen.

Rotthaeuser studied EU legislation and realised that because the inefficient old bulbs produce more warmth than light - he calculated heat makes up 95 percent of their output, and light just 5 percent - they could be sold legally as heaters.

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GE Closes Last Light Bulb Plant, Jobs Sent to China

by Kenneth Artz

General Electric has closed its last major factory making incandescent light bulbs in the United States, a victim of a 2007 law banning sale of the light bulbs by 2014. Environmental activist groups promised the restrictions would create green jobs, but workers at GE’s Winchester, Virginia plant are finding the law is merely creating red jobs overseas in China.

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Save the Light Bulb!

Europe's light-bulb socialism

Beginning today, it is a crime to manufacture or ship for sale a traditional 75-watt incandescent light bulb in the European Union. Autocrats in Brussels last year declared war on Edison's greatest invention with a ban on 100-watt lamps. Homes throughout the Old World will continue to dim until incandescent lighting of all types is snuffed out in 2012 - the same year the United States is scheduled to begin a phaseout schedule mirroring the European plan.

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