See the light

Let's talk about lightbulbs.

Recently, in yet another absolutely pointless, against all common sense, initiative, the Trump Administration, in its mission to be as unbelievably dickish as possible, announced it was rolling back the Bush Administration's lightbulb efficiency standards. This is probably because reactionary conservatives think giving up their 19th century technology for a livable planet is gay and an assault on their freedom. It's also probably because Trump thinks Obama was responsible. (President Obama did implement and enhance the regulations.)

We are now years away from the early days of "more efficient lightbulbs" represented by compact florescents, those curly-cue bulbs that originally took a couple of seconds to come on and had a weakish yellow light. The current, best available bulb is LED and can be bought everywhere. Manufacturers switched over to LED production years ago, so there isn't even a real market for traditional icandescents any more.

Every bulb in my house is an LED. Many of them are HUE color-changing bulbs or cheaper Chinese equivalents (found on Amazon) which allow me to change the color of rooms at will, which is a lot of fun. With a wifi connection to my Amazon Echos, I can change the color, or more mundanely, just turn the lights on and off, by voice throughout my house or remotely by using my phone.

I imagine most people who read this blog have already switched to LED bulbs. But in case you haven't, let's compare.


 - The incandescent bulb emits a LOT of heat (you know if you ever tried to change one that just blew out). LED bulbs remain cool to the touch. The loss of bulb heat also means your home is cooler in the summer.

 - Incandescent bulbs are made of glass and often shatter when dropped. LED bulbs are typically made of plastic. I dropped one in my garage this morning and it didn't break.

 - Incandescent bulbs last at best two years. An LED bulb lasts anywhere from 13-23 years.  Imagine not having to change a light bulb for 13 or more years.

- LED bulbs are available in every size and configuration. They can even replace long florescent tubes.

 - Functionally, there are no advantages to incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs can match any light color emitted by incandescent bulbs (soft to cool white) and more. LED also allows for color changing bulbs. LED bulbs come on instantly and most are fully dimmable. They also are made to look like traditional light bulbs, not the curly-cues.

 - LED bulbs are CHEAPER. Their cost has dropped to less than $2 a bulb and you make up for the difference in electricity costs. In a single year, the cost to operate a 60W bulb is around $11. To run the equivalent LED bulb, the annual cost is $1.83. This means that you save $9 minus the cost of the LED bulb the first year you install it. You then save $9 a year afterwards, and that's not even including the cost of replacing all those incandescents that would burn out.

From http://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_incandescent.htm

 - LED bulbs reduce your electricity bill, and therefore reduce your carbon footprint, and therefore help fight climate change.

In short, LEDs are cheaper, safer, cooler, longer-lasting, less polluting, more versatile, and more efficient.

Like many people, you may be sitting on a bunch of old replacement bulbs that you haven't used yet. You want to move to LEDs, but you've decided to wait for all your incandescent light bulbs to burn out to replace them. DON'T WAIT. You're wasting money every day you're running those old, inefficient bulbs. Throw the old bulbs in the trash.

If you've already replaced all your bulbs, then congratulations and welcome to the 21st century.

Also, fuck you Trump and your regressive, moron Administration.