Have you stocked up on 100-watt A-19 bulbs? Looks like time is running out.
I just bought a couple of 48 count cases to use in my basement workshop and shed lights. That should probably last me for a few more years anyway.

I don't know anyone that uses 100 watt incandescents, except old people who put them in all their light fixtures and cook the sockets and wiring. (Not insinuating you're old!) Whenever I find this I usually scold them and tell them to use only 60's from now on. We have removed those old square recessed lights with 100W lamps in them and found charred building insulation on top of them.

Myself I have fluourescents in the garage and shop and mostly in the house too except for the cans. I am trying out some LED A-19s in the kitchen pendants. Even my drop light is fluourescent.

I did however consider a 100 or 150 cord hung over my workbench for heat in the winter!

100 Watters are still very common around here. They are used in walk in freezers and coolers as well as being standard issue for crawl space, attic and basement keyless fixtures in old and new homes. I use them with the caged vapor tight fixtures in my shop because of all the sawdust and also in my storage shed because they are in close proximity to the pipe rack and subject to impact. I do also have fluorescents over the bench and main work areas.
I’ve tried the coil type CFL’s and they don’t work well in these locations because of colder temps in the winter. Even at 40-degrees, the regular 4-foot fluorescent tubes are dim until they warm up and come up to full brightness. The incandescent lights come on immediately regardless of temperature and provide good light in the mean time. You probably don’t have this type of problem in Arizona.

I have eight 150 watt bulbs in my garage, but I only turn them on in the winter. It's a lot of heat.

I read an article some time ago about incandescent bulbs being sold in Europe as heaters. Buy a bunch of bulbs and re-label the boxes. Apparently, you'll make a lot of money selling incandescent heaters.

Actually they tried marketing incandescent bulbs as heaters in order to circumvent the EU-wide import and production ban. As far as I know they didn't succeed and a large shipment was confiscated by the customs.

However, the ban only applies to general purpose bulbs, all others (including any rough service bulbs) are exempt. Most hardware/DIY stores still have at least a small shelf with 100W rough service bulbs. They're quite expensive though, general purpose ones were around 50 cents each or even less, rough service are around 3 Euro apiece. About a week before the ban I went to a DIY store and bought at least 2 cases (I think 50 bulbs) of each wattage pearl bulbs (pearl were banned immediately, clear ones were allowed to survive for a little longer - the official reasoning was that CFLs with exposed filaments as a direct replacement for clear bulbs weren't invented at that point...).

I am migrating to CFLs where they will work for me but I still have a number of A-19s in places that use dimmers. My real work lights are all 4' fluorescent tube. (shop, garage, kitchen)
I am still using a lot of 15w sign bulbs and there is no CFL replacement for that. They never seem to burn out so it isn't really a problem.

Big problem up here in Canada is the CFL's don't come to full brightness in the winter.

I came home from work at 5am this morning and at -20C I could have had more light with my BBQ lighter than with the coiled CFL I am trying over the back door. I have a couple of different brands to try and see if one is better outside than the others in the cold.

LED lights work great at -20. I have five outside and they've been there for a couple years.

During the winter when snow and ice accumulates on the outside light fixtures and flood lights, do the LED’s actually generate enough heat to melt it off like incandescent bulbs do?
They had this problem with LED traffic lights and the solution was to add small heating elements to the lights.

I just found that the colour rendering on CFL bulbs is off.

I am trying a new CFL bulb in the bedroom starting yesterday afternoon, and now I find that while my socks match in the bedroom they are two different shades of blue in natural lite.

I either have to match socks in the kitchen or try a different brand of CFL so see if the colours match after I get dressed.

That is one of the biggest problems with this technology. They can select phosphors for particular light bands and you can select LEDs for just about any single color but you don't get the range of colors that you get off of a glowing wire.
That is particularly when you start dimming them and get the softer yellows and reds mixed in.
Maybe they will start coming out with "kitchen and bathroom" phosphors in the curly lights (they probably already do) but expect them to cost more. I am still not sure how you soften the light on a LED.

I heard that some manufacturers mix in red LEDs with the white ones in those big corn cobs in order to get decent warm white light. Haven't seen one for real though... all I've seen so far cast a dim bluish or greenish light, worse than any CFL.

A "white" LED is always going to have red green and blue chips in it. The question is at what balance it is there. They still end up being perceived as monochromatic across the entire current curve, unlike an incandescent that goes from yellow to white with a lot of colors in the range.
It is the difference between white noise and pure white.

I suppose they could make the light less pure if they dithered the drive to each chip and gave the resulting light more dynamic range.

I've noticed on many store shelves, that the "energy efficient" type of incandescents (i.e., 58W instead of 60) are taking place of the standard type, although the difference is negligible. Looks like someone's found a loophole. You could also give the encapsulated halogen lamps a try.

As long as you're skilled at shopping on the Internet, I'm sure you will be able to find the old style incandescents for many years to come, so long as China keeps cranking them out for the online market.

In England this spring an electrical wholesaler told me that the ban on incandescents only applies to domestic dwellings, ie they will continue to be available for business use in the UK. I'm going over next week for my annual Christmas Pudding and Mince Pies fix. Might stock up on a few- for the shop of course, mustn't upset the EU thought-police!

Looks like you'll be able to waste a few extra watts for the forseeable future:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...scent-light-bulb-ban/#.TuuoEWUvwEc.email

Yes, the moriturium on the ban is hidden within a 1200+ page pile of legislation. I guess, if ya want something passed, ya attach it to something that is a 'shoe-in'.

I have to wonder if the bulb mfgs are going to restore production??

I for one, was glad to hear about this. I’ll bet two seconds after the legislation containing the moratorium was signed the lobbyist were on the phone trying to get it undone.
I’m not sure if actual manufacturing production ever really stopped, but no matter. Companies like Feit will likely continue to supply an almost unlimited amount of reasonably priced 100-Watt bulbs even if all the US manufacturers attempt to cease production as a way of forcing their hand.

The only thing this did was remove funding for enforcement, the ban is still here, just no funds to make em comply.

Well, I guess if that’s all they can do for the moment, it’s better than nothing. Whatever it takes to derail belligerent government meddling.
I’ve been using the curly CFL bulbs all through the rest of my house for several years now and have been quite happy with them and the quality of light, but IMO, we just don’t need the government telling us we can’t use less expensive, full-wattage A-19 bulbs in locations that they are a better design for, like an unheated basement, garage, storage shed, crawl space or attic where colder temperatures are common and outside lights exposed to snow and ice accumulation during the cold winter months.

As always, late again. However I was just reading in a trade magazine. I think it was a Sept. issue that said that the gov. is not getting rid of incandescent bulbs, but that the are just requiring them to be more efficient. You can still make them, but they have to use less wattage and give off more lumens. ( I believe that is what the article said.) I kept the issue, so I can always go back and find it.

yes the halogen bulb will still be around

Yes, I was aware of that, but when I'm buying bulbs for a specific purpose I want the full-wattage 100W not 90W ES bulbs or 52W ES instead of 60W. Also the A-19 and A-21 120V rough service bulbs are supposedly exempt, but they are an already overpriced bad joke and really do not last at all. I find it is much better and more cost effective to go with standard 100W 130V A19 bulbs. The light output is lower at 120V, but the bulbs can last a very long time in the caged string lights, even when they get bumped around while energized. If someone else wants to spend the money to buy LED, CFL or Halogen temp job lighting or bulbs just to have them get destroyed, I say good for them.
3-Way bulbs are also exempt for now, but they will eventually be addressed by this stupidity and are also already overpriced for how poorly they are constructed and how short of a life span they have. I already switched years ago from the 50/100/150W to 30/70/100W A-21 bulbs and I’m not willing to go any lower than 100W at the upper setting.

First it was the temperature that affected them... pay the price for a decent CFL - IE Panasonic, which are rated for running in cold temperature.

Second, it was "colour rendering"... there is nothing wrong with the CRI of a CFL... the colour temperature of the CFL will affect how different colours look under the light... 27/2700K is similar to incandescent.. 35/3500 - close to halogen.. 41/4100K - cool white.

Incandescent lamps are not going to go away. The wattages changed and were lowered slightly to get around the legislation

You know, the other day I was in BJ’s, which a big warehouse grocery chain around here is, and they didn’t have a single package of 100-Watt bulbs anywhere on the shelves, just the new CFL stuff.

Home Depot is closing them out too. They were selling 100w bulbs dirt cheap.

Costco has about 1/2 an aisle full of LED bulbs, no incandescents, one variety of CFL.

Blister pack LED (3) at 2.5 watts, for lamps, wall brackets, etc., non-dimable. Some 1 pack PAR/R replacements, and a 2 or 3 pack of G-20-ish globes.

Maybe you can still order them from a local electrical supply house?

This is going to be one of those things that as long as they have them, you can buy them. They are not making any more. High volume people like HD are just trying to close out the inventory.

The good news, at least for me anyway, is that HD supply is going to continue carrying the standard Phillips 120V/100W/A19, which are being made in Mexico and the Phillips 120V/100W/A19/LL Long Life bulbs that are being made in China as well as the Feit Value Light brand standard 120V/100W/A19 and clear 120V/100W/A19 which are also being made in China. They also currently have the Sylvania 120V/100W/A19, which are being made in the USA and the Decade brand Long Life 120V/100W/A19, which are being made in China, so at least one of my regular suppliers has no qualms about continuing to stock several brands of them, even if it later ends up being only the imported stuff. The 130V/100W/A19 are still available from these same manufactures, so thankfully no problems getting those. Now that I know this, I really couldn't care less what the local supply houses or Big Box stores in my area do.

KJay,

I was also thinking about a 100 watt rough service bulb, maybe the supply houses would carry them. I don't know if the big box stores carry rough service bulbs.

Well, I do know of at least a couple of supply houses around here that normally stock the 100W rough service bulbs, but not sure about the big box stores. As I understand it though, the rough service bulbs weren’t included in the original legislation anyway.

The big boxes and most auto parts stores carry rough service bulbs but I am not sure about 100s. Most drop lights call for a max of 60w. They get plenty hot enough.

Yeah, I stopped using those 120V drop lights years ago, ever since the 18V cordless snake lights and fluorescent work lights came out. Those things were dangerous, especially the ones with open bulb and the spun reflector. I can remember at least a few times back when I was an apprentice when the hot bulb shattered because of thermal shock from getting water dribbled on it and you would end up with exposed energized electrodes from the bulb base sticking out. GFCI protection probably could have come in handy in those situations, but I don’t think it was as prevalent back then as it is today.