Incandescent users went into a panic several years ago as fluorescent household bulbs were coming on strong and bought loads of old school incandescent bulbs mainly because they did not like the harsher white light of the new bulbs and they were not easily dimmable. The latest Phillips 60 watt equivalent bulbs are available on sale for $ 2.50 each ($5 - 2 pack on 50% off sale, these sales happen about every 60 days ) . The light is warm and virtually indistinguishable from incandescent for household use. The LED bulbs use 1/10th energy of an incandescent and last more than 10 times as long and are more rugged to boot. I use them all over the house and they are fantastic!
How do the incandescent hoarders regard their strategic purchase now?
Anyways, unless they stocked a warehouse I doubt now that “several” years later LEDs have become reasonably priced is going to make many people regret it. It’s not like they can’t still use them or cost them all that much money.
I doubt they feel like idiot - as I suspect many of them are into the whole - “I don’t want the govt to tell me what to do” and “oh the mercury is going to kill me”.
I like being able to dim my lights down to a very small level - which isn’t possible with the brands of dim able bulbs and/or the dimmers I use. To say nothing about the lack of change of color temperature (which annoys me to no end - any place I like to dim has CFLs/LEDs that change color temperature - which is more expensive)
So I don’t feel like an idiot for my small hoard, but I always suspected that LED/CFL would eventually be as cheap (and they pretty much are cheaper if you include life of the bulb & electricity).
I suspect some were horrified by the awful colors when they first came out and some don’t realize they are close to the same quality of light as incandescent now a days.
All LED lights have a lower CRI than all incandescents. If you have money to burn, incandescents really do provide superior quality lighting.
Moreover, I’d argue that there are cases where hoarding incandescents could be a rational decision, where the money saved in the short term (from the lower cost of purchase) could be invested in something with a higher rate of return than home lighting.
Quite the contrary. My hoard was strategically sized to tide me over until LED bulbs became reasonably priced. I’d say I timed it just about perfectly.
There’s no simple answer, because many states have rebate or subsidy programs for which some bulbs qualify and some don’t. There is also a fairly large quality gradient, depending on light quality (CRI), dimmability and incoming fancy features like “dim-to-red” which more closely emulates the way incandescent bulbs work. (Many people, myself included, hate a very low light level of “white” light. It just looks wrong even though it’s technically superior to the way incandescent bulbs generate light.)
So you can get a middlin’-quality, mostly-dimmable, subsidized 100W-equivalent bulb for $5 or so, or a current SOTA bulb (better color, fully dimmable, no subsidy) for as much as $25. The curve is flattening fast, though, and in a year it will generally be only good-quality bulbs with good color and good dimming in that under-$10 range. There will likely be a remaining curve for “premium” bulbs for a few years.
An incandescent bulb can take up to 0.25 seconds to come to full intensity. So when you hit your brakes, the driver behind you gets your signal 0.25 seconds later.
A quarter second doesn’t sound like much. But at 65 MPH, you’ll cover 24 feet during that quarter second. Which is significant.
I’ve been through the arguments and the conclusion - not just amateur but in the industry and even DOT and NHTSA - is that the small difference in on time is negligible. I believe some makers use circuitry to emulate the short on curve of incandescent bulbs - 10% because it looks luxe and 90% because there’s a suspicion that the instant-on is jarring and annoying, provoking unnecessary irritation.
FWIW, the simulated on curve is shorter than for real incandescents, preserving the best of both technologies. Look closely at cars you know to have LED tail lights and you’ll see that some are instant and some have a slight curve. Automakers don’t do these things without a reason.
I know that I find that sudden, sharp-edged on/off the visual equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard.
No, because I hate LEDs as much as I hate compact fluorescents. (Although I’m not a hoarder because I knew I could still buy halogen bulbs- I hoped they’d go down in price after the ban, but so far they haven’t, as of now it’s a wash for the cost of the bulb vs the energy savings. ) Cree’s new bulb at least looks like an incandescent in most fixtures, but the color rendering isn’t as good and dimming performance is horrid.
There’s one general group who were concerned, though not freaking out, (and thus often stocked up) that I think is reasonable – historic houses/historic house museums. In particular, homes which had had incandescent lights during the historically significant period. It’s the equivalent of trying to keep the house as close to “stock” as possible and not look jarringly out of place.
Although if it’s a house that was never wired for electricity during its use, LED lights aren’t that radical a change as electricity is from candles or gas lamps. But as time goes on, it’s expected that you’ll need to figure out ways to adapt.
There is no barrier to small production of standard bulbs in every shape, size and configuration back to Edison, any more than there is a barrier to making classic tires. (You can buy concours-grade tires for anything back to a Model T or earlier, by the way.)
If you read the reviews of these bulbs there is some question of quality on several fronts. These LED bulbs are not energy star compliant (due to manufacturers predicted life of the LED), not dimable, and are seen as not having a inadequate heat sink. Other things like color or color rendering not as good (but passable) and even that they emit noise. The fairly high star ratings these bulbs seem to get appear to be because they are cheap. So it doesn’t seem like we are there yet.
I just (giggle value) looked up “Dimable” CFL/LED:
Well, if you have This dimmer (no, of course your old dimmer control won’t work), you can use these models, but not those, and certainly not the cheap stuff.
BUT: if you have That model dimmer, here is the list you can try.
I bought a couple of cases of PAR20 60 Watt 20 years ago. I still ahve a dimmer or two in the electrical supply box.
When you can buy a dimmer and know your bulb - even the cheap-ass ones will work, I’ll endorse them