First, They Came For the 100 Watt Light Bulbs...

[billroper]

After the first of the year, 40 and 60 watt incandescent light bulbs will no longer be available. Now, I've converted a great many of the fixtures in our house to CFL bulbs, but CFL bulbs don't really like to be in places where they are frequently switched on and off, like our bathroom vanities. And we have a number of 3-way lamps where it's hard to find a 3-way CFL that will fit the existing harp, let alone an LED lamp that can deliver a 150 watt equivalent of light for reading.

There's also the question of whether a CFL or LED bulb in the fixture in the studio will produce electrical noise that will affect mixing. Apparently, some do.

So I've ordered a stupid number of 40 watt vanity bulbs and 150 watt 3-way bulbs in the hope that they will last long enough for some reasonable replacements to come on the market. And I picked up a bunch of 60 watt bulbs for use in the studio. The other 60 watt bulbs in the basement can be replaced with CFLs.

And we'll see how it goes.

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

You think that's bad? One of my friends in fandom gets migraines and seizures from fluorescents!

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have problems with fluorescents, they don't quite give me headaches - at least not directly, but make me physically and emotionally tense and uncomfortable. I've been planning to switch to led for now but am hoping higher wattage as well as more options come along soon. I thought about buying a bunch of incandescents myself but ended up not making the plunge. I guess we'll see what happens.... :)

[madfilkentist]

I stockpiled incandescent bulbs last year, so I'm well supplied. (No 150's, sorry.) CFLs are a kludge, but I've replaced a few with LED bulbs and I'm very happy with them. At $15 a shot they aren't exactly cheap, till you think of amortizing the cost over their lifetime. I can't say anything about electrical noise issues.

There should, perhaps, be a new ritual every time you change the batteries in the smoke detector: loosen and tighten all the LED bulbs in the house. Otherwise, when you need to replace them in 20 years, you may discover their bases have oxidized to their sockets.

[chasophonic.livejournal.com]

Cfls don't do well in cold. We tried one at our front door for a while. Come winter it took forever to brighten up. When there is a knock at the door on a cold, dark night, you want to be able to determine friend or stranger right away. I switched back to a 100W incandescent and stockpiled a bunch for the future.

Most everywhere else we use CFLs. We do have a 3-way daylight one where Bonnie crafts in the evening. It's nice.

[mdlbear]

The best and least expensive LED bulbs I've found are the Cree bulbs that Home Depot sells -- I picked up a batch of 40W-equivalent bulbs at $5 on sale; they're normally $10. They recently came out with daylight bulbs; the originals have a spectrum more like incandescents.

lightbulb fun

[jdonat.livejournal.com]

according to some stuff I just found.. 3 way bulbs are exempt from the 2007 law limiting incadescent light bulbs.

Re: lightbulb fun

[billroper]

That's encouraging, because 3-way bulbs are damnably hard to replace with alternatives.

I have a stack of them coming anyway. :)