When I first heard it I thought it was a joke. Some quick searching revealed it to be fact - I wasn't aware this was happening but it's true, as of January 1st the manufacture and sale of 100 watt light bulbs is not legal in the state of California. Supposedly there is a new 72 watt bulb that is just as bright that we are now forced to use, but god forbid we make our own choice on the matter. I guess a federal ban already passed and will be enacted in the next few years.

If it is in fact 'just as bright' then what reason is there to complain? You could always run an illegal bulb smuggling ring.

If you complain about this, you have way too much time on your hands. They are light bulbs. Seriously.

Home Depot had a sale last week - I bought seventy-five 100W bulbs for $12.

I hate CFLs - they suck. They don't put out nearly as much light as incandescents. The few that do put out bright light emit this ugly, sterile, greenish-white light.

I'm pretty sure Canada has had this since forever, I like the new lights they feel more natural.

I choose bulbs by color temperature because watts are so mainstream.

I don't care what the situation is, I don't like a state making choices for me. In fact I find it downright infuriating. While the new 72 watt light bulbs they advertise as being "just as bright" (whatever) aren't CFLs, I also hate CFLs. Steven is right, they downright suck and I will drag my feet for as long as I can on them. I wish I had known about this, I would have gone and stocked up.

At least I can still use two 50 watt bulbs. Or better yet - two 75 watt bulbs! Take that.

Well Dash, when you accidentally break one of your new green mercury light bulbs make sure you open a window, leave the room for a half hour, put on some rubber gloves, use a piece of card board or tape to clean up glass shrapnel and don't use your vacuum cleaner.

Dude it's part of a federal environmental act.

BLAME THE FEDS BRAH

100W bulbs are banned because they're inefficient. Are we going to ban the DMV and Medicaid too?

Energy saving bulbs are so cheap here that it's ridiculous, ie 3 for £0.30 from the local supermarket. My main objection is that they don't work properly with my dimmer switches

Leave it to California. Not that I particularly care, because who uses 100 watt incandescent light bulbs? I wish they could just figure out how to get LEDs to do this job for us effectively (I do love LEDs).

They do make LED light bulbs

Yeah but last I checked they weren't very good. Efficient and overall money-saving, yeah, sure, but none of them seemed particularly viable as actual lights. The look of the bulbs themselves, the color, etc. Maybe there's been some advances since I last looked into them, it's been a while.

When you operate your own power infrastructure, waste all the energy you want. Until then, I think it's fair for the state to save power.

he's mad because it ruined his evil plan to overthrow the government by wasting all their energy on inefficient lightbulbs.

They are ****ing light bulbs, get over yourself and buy some energy-saving 13 watt ones! Sheesh

They came first for the 100 watts,
and I didn't speak up because I didn't use 100 watts.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one could see well enough to help.

Totally agree that CFLs suck. They say they last longer but ours always burn out within a year. We've gone back to regular bulbs for most things. I found some cheap cfl instant-on ones that are not as bad but I'm guessing they're only going to last 1/4 the time they're advertised to anyway.

Most of our power here comes from hydroelectric so if I don't use it it will just go to waste!

The power company is privately owned here. In fact, it's a co-op. So I do own it myself. So what right does the state have to tell me what kind of lightbulbs to use?

Besides which, CFLs suck balls. I'm supposed to pack them in cardboard and styrofoam and take them to the dump? Seriously? Oh, no, wait, the local landfill won't even take them - they don't want to deal with the disposal of the mercury either. So instead everyone just dumps them in the trash with everything else.

Meanwhile, chucking incandescent bulbs in an empty parking lot is safe and fun.

40 watt bulbs for life!

This apathy is startling.



The state can save all the power it wants by installing these bulbs in it's buildings or whatever. Outside of that, I buy my power from a private entity and it's none of the state's business what I do with it.

Ah, 40 watt, eh? It's like Buckingham Palace in here!

Am I the only one who has seen Mystery Team?

It's understandable that you think so, but you're wrong.

Buuuuuuuuuuuulbs, got your buuuuuuuuuulbs heeeeeeeeeeere

$20 a pop

lol california

This is a result of idiots thinking that a resource can be effectively conserved via. legislation when it has a low price.

I think you guys are buying ****ty CFLs. The ones I use don't flicker, come on quickly, last for years and put out soft yellow light. They're available in a variety of color temperatures.

With that many neutrality and factual accuracy notices, I'm surprised you tried to use that as evidence. Most of Southern California gets it's electricty from SoCal Ed or San Diego Gas and Electric (Sempra).

I have one like this too but I've had it for years, some of the newer bulbs I've seen are crap.

sooo, what are all you CFL haters gonna do when the price of tungsten skyrockets? Cause regular lightbulbs have been the biggest user of tungsten, and I dont think that many, if any at all have had their tungsten filaments recycled.

I've bought cheap and expensive in varying colors/sizes from various stores and have yet to find one that lasts more than a year. Actually, the one in my garage which was here when I moved in in 2006 is still working but all the ones I've bought suck.

You joke, but the old "for every ton of CO2 you don't produce, I'm going to produce two!" mindset is alive and well in a scary number of people. Some folks just have it in their heads that they need to crusade against the hippies by being as environmentally-unfriendly as possible, or something. It's sad, really.

Anyway as far as lights go, I prefer the colour put out by a decent CFL over most incandescents (some halogens are pretty nice though). It's a cooler, cleaner colour, I find. Though certainly this is a matter of opinion. I honestly don't use artificial light that often - at least from dedicated bulbs, as the light from a computer monitor is artificial as well. I realize this is a lot different for people with full-time jobs who might not have the luxury of getting at least a couple hours of useful sunlight a day.

Re: CFLs failing within a year instead of working for the promised >5, does everyone know you aren't supposed to hang them upside-down? If you put them in a regular ceiling light fixture you're already dramatically shortening the lifespan.

Re: LED bulbs being crappy too, well, all I can say is don't base your experience on Christmas lights. They're still manufactured with hair-thin wires that break more often than not; the LEDs themselves almost always last for years of constant use. MTBF is like 100,000 hours or something insane like that.

So to be environmentally friendly I'm supposed to tear out, throw away, and then replace every ceiling fixture in my house!?

I'd do my whole house in natural gas lighting if I could. How awesome would that be?

No dude, return to our natural roots and only be active during daylight hours, using artificial light only as a meager supplement to window light.

Also your clothes should be made by hand and condoms of sheep skin (it's more effective than man made materials

The final step in your evolution is using only chopsticks.

In Texas, we get to have 200w bulbs.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure what happened to the power levels above 100W, and I have a few questions/concerns.

Namely,

1. Will I start seeing 99W or 101W light bulbs? I would think that lawmakers have learned by now how to avoid these loopholes, but I wouldn't be surprised.

2. I think they have 125W and they certainly have 150W. Don't think I won't buy one if I'm serious about needing light.

fixed.