Incandescent light bulbs, a relic of the past

[Ryland]

I was recently looking at a web site that sells LED's and instead of giving specs for them, color temp and lumin output they compared them to Incandescent light bulbs of varying wattages, granted I grew up with solar panels, wind power, I now own two electric cars, and am the type of person reads owners manuals and who wants to know how many lumins my light bulb is.
Looking back20 years ago when my parent bought first screw in florescent bulb remember it gave off a greenish light, was not exactly compact and I'm pretty sure that they spent as much on that CFL as I did on my first screw in LED (1 watt, 35 lumins) when screw in LED's first came to market.
Now I've bought many CFL's and a handful of LED's over the years but I'm almost 30 years old I realize I've never bought a "standard" light bulb and most likely never will.

[NeilBlanchard]

It is a good problem to have: to decide what kind of light bulbs to use.

[nemo]

Good problem to have "to be almost 30". Probably never had a rotary dial phone either.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by nemo

Good problem to have "to be almost 30". Probably never had a rotary dial phone either.

We had a Rotary dial phone for many years, I also have one friend who was still on a party line up until shortly before they got internet.
Of course we also lived for years with a hand pump on the well and I've spent almost a third of my life without in door plumbing and a few years later before we had hot running water.
I enjoy living in the future tho with the modern things like cell phones that replace alot more then a phone, a lap top that fits in my cargo pants pocket, solid state lighting, video projectors that can sit in the palm of your hand, I don't even use the CD player in my car, all my music is on a micro thumb drive that plugs in to the USB port on the radio, but don't worry, I still know how to handle LP's and how to clean a tape player, but I choose these devices because they also use a fraction of the energy that their older counterparts used.

It just reminds me of the people who get their first electric car and talk about how their kids might never learn to drive a gas car.

[Frank Lee]

I like incandescents for certain applications and opposing their phase-out is the one, singular thing that loony toons Bachmann did correctly.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I like incandescents for certain applications and opposing their phase-out is the one, singular thing that loony toons Bachmann did correctly.

I have a box of old ones that are still good, I agree, they do have their place, I used a handful of them in my attic as they will only be used a few minutes every few years while checking for roof leaks and I have one on a motion sensor switch in my garage that comes on for 5 minutes every time you go in to put a bike away.
I'm sure the handful of used incandescent bulbs I already have will last me decades.

[smokeyj]

incancesdents remain a good solution for light that don't get a lot of action. They are instant on and at full output right away. You have to decide if you are more interested in energy efficiency or money efficiency. If money is the motivator than lightly used lamps will most properly be incandescent.

[JasonG]

If all the incandescents are gone, how will we keep our pump housess from freezing up in the winter ?

(For you city folks, a 40W bulb gets left on all winter in a thing that looks like a dog house with no door that covers the pump for our well water. It doan't come from a pipe in the street like yours. )

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by JasonG

If all the incandescents are gone, how will we keep our pump housess from freezing up in the winter ?

Heat tape, which doesn't waste 5% of the electricity as light :-) With a thermostat so that it only comes on when needed.

Oh, and as a matter of fact, I still have a rotary dial phone, mounted on the kitchen wall. Inherited from the previous owner of the house. And when the power was out for about 4 hours a couple of months ago, it still worked.

[NeilBlanchard]

It is about 2.3% for light with a 40W incandescent...