there’s not really a whole lot that can “go wrong”.

That’s the Nicene Creed of Jinxology.

Personally, I’d recommend taking them to your local recycling center (unless you’re one of those recycling haters).  Many of the stores that sell CFLs will also take used ones back.

Not a bad idea.

One thing I do NOT recommend under any circumstances is that opponents of the ban lightly pack used CFL’s and then mail them to the local offices of legislators who voted for it.

Firstly, I send you to this link from PhysOrg, where a researcher came up with a way of both improving incandescent efficiency to CFL levels, but also simultaneously found a way to improve their spectrum.
http://www.physorg.com/news162821951.html

Then there is the new halogen-cfl hybrid bulb by GE. It looks like a normal lightbulb, uses a halogen to turn bright immediately, and turns the halogen off when the CFL bulb reaches maximum brightness.
http://inhabitat.com/ge-unveils-hybrid-halogen-cfl-light-bulbs-for-2011/

There are also these great ESL bulbs (I have one on pre-order). They look to have an improved spectrum over LED and CFL, they are cheap, and they are dimmable. The technology also has a nice side-effect of taking about a second to reach max brightness, so they sort of fade on instead of abruptly and instantly turning on.
http://www.vu1corporation.com/

Philips has recently come out with their A19 AmbientLED bulb which appears to be the first 60W equivalent LED bulb. It’s dimmable, omni-directional, and looks the same as an incandescent.
http://www.led-resource.com/2011/06/philips-ambientled-a19-12-5w-led-bulb-review/

And Cree has produced a proof-of-concept LED bulb called the TrueWhite that is just as good, if not better, than the Philips.
http://www.truewhitelight.com/#/content/pages/light.html

And also with the energy crisis in Japan, we have the best electronics companies in the world pumping money into energy-efficient lighting like there’s no tomorrow.

In the EU such bulbs are banned – as in “banned”: it is even illegal for a private individual to bring one into any EU country in a suitcase, such is their terrifying ability to raise sea-levels and stoke warming around the world.

Unthinking headlines that assume USA=Generality reinforces the USA stereotype of seeing the rest of the world as an amusing potpourri of pictureque happenings that basically don’t matter, as opposed to a set equally valid lifestyles and beliefs – and bans. Not what I expect from happy mutants.

And hey – no more anonymous comments?  Right . . . got to keep a track of us. And the advice given by your chosen partner? “Your browser has to accept cookies from all domains”!

And little by little the golden age of the internet crumbles and it becomes just another tool of registration and control. Boing Boing joins the pack – “Get along there with the rest of the sheep you readers!”

All the CFLs in my house are less than six months old, because that’s about how long they last.  I’m switching back to 100W incandescents (which haven’t been banned in the UK) because they give out more light and take less power *once you take into account the hideous power factor effects that CFLs have*.

Unfortunately for me, they’re up high and in difficult to open light shades… oh and they’re in the bathroom and kitchen, the two rooms in the house you actually want to be able to see clearly if you wake up in the middle of the night needing to use either of them. 

I probably should borrow a ladder from someone… and a car to carry it I suppose.

It also makes me laugh that people are now arguing that a halogen is a type of incandescent bulb so incandescents aren’t banned. True but completely disingenuous. Incandescent bulbs as currently defined in the vernacular means an Edison bulb with a tungsten filament filled with an inert gas. The halogen bulb works with a distinctively different chemical reaction and has been rightly considered a different type of bulb. It sure sounds like “Edison bulbs with tungsten filaments in an inert gas without a halogen that has been commonly referred to as an incandescent even though the classification of incandescent is more expansive than that and everyone knows to what you are referring unless they are being an obtuse dick” are being banned to me.

1) In Japan, because of the quake, LEDs are everywhere. They are really pushing them. There are more LED lights on sale than CFLs at this point.

2) They are much colder than CFLs so if nothing else I want them because they’ll keep my already hot apartment that much cooler.

Yes, yes, it’s only currently banning certain particularly inefficient and powerful incandescent bulbs. Yes, it’s only like banning particularly fuel inefficient cars. Specifically, it’s like banning particularly inefficient cars, with a planned ratcheting of the standard that means that in a decade’s time all cars will be banned. (Dodgy analogy? I didn’t start it. ;)

You know what? Call it a ban, I don’t care. It’s a good idea. Using incandescent bulbs is basically irrational – in a homo economicus free market hardly anyone would buy them. Energy inefficiency leads to pointless pollution. Energy consumption is costly and necessary, but inefficiency just means Deepwater Horizons and Fukushimas in vain. Since energy is such a big input into the economy, inefficiency is a real problem.

When someone does something that’s irrational and harmful to themselves and (especially to) others around them, with no real upside, I see no problem in banning it. Just have the guts to call it that. Anything else is mealy-mouthed political reframing.

The anecdotes first. I have a few ‘cheapo’ CFL lamps in use and they do take some time to warm up even in the summer. Especially the vanity lamps in the bathroom, not only that but they start off pink, purple and green (three lamps) and take about a minute to turn white and reach full brightness. Next up is a situation that seems to be more useful, the regular cheapos I have used because I didn’t have anything else at the time seem to last a good long time. Haven’t burned one in three years in this relatively new (to me) residence. I also have incandescents that haven’t blown yet which were original to the house. So basically YMMV. Or I seem to have stable surge-free electrical supply which is surprising given the state of the system in this place, man does it need an update. Continuing, a friend of mine has had the same CFL light on his porch longer than ten years. It’s a really old-school clunky looking beast and it’s been outside all this time in extremes of cold and hot. So that sort of tells me that the first run was built a lot more robust that the current ones. Now, I’ve lost my porch light about once a year, and it didn’t matter what type it was. So I don’t really know what is up with that. Save for the fact that the two CFLs were newish. I have had a table lamp burn a CFL bulb on me but that was a ground fault issue. So aside from the ones in the bathroom I have had little problem with the things.

Scientifically, using CFLs not intended for dimming is definitely not recommended. My father experienced a small electrical fire with them. Not the bulb but the dimmer. Not really sure what was the cause there but I am really glad I was there for the event. The switch just smoked for some reason. Whatever the case, it was not cool. I replaced the dimmer with a regular switch and all is fine now. Furthermore, the environmental impact of these units seems less to me. For the rare occasion that one breaks one of these things it is a significant fraction of the amount of mercury from a full 4′ tube. On that note, people used to chop them up in something like a woodchipper to dispose of them. They don’t do this now as it’s known to be a health hazard. Still though the tiny little CFL is nowhere near the volume of a 4′ tube. And not only that they are a good deal more resilient.

FWIW, I think they are more beneficial overall given the significant reduction in energy use. But there are still those elements out there that will say anything to get people riled up against regulations. It’s really not about efficiency, it’s about perceived control and that is the real trouble. At least the trouble ‘republicans’ have with the issue of CFLs and such.

I do find it funny, though, that the Party of free market principles is busy passing legislation that attempts to disrupt the very principles that they claim to support so dearly! 

“Fluorescent lights are more expensive to buy, and their operating life is more affected by the number of times they are switched on and off, relative to incandescent lights.”
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/lighting_daylighting/index.cfm/mytopic=12280

I am very interested in your statement about not mixing lamp sources in fixtures.  If a lamp uses 120 volts, it uses 120 volts, regardless of source, LED, CFL, cold cathode, incandescent, halogen.  I make a living mixing sources in fixtures and yet somehow I and the fixtures I spec are all still very much non-historical.

Whistle a happy tune and toss the things in a dumpster.

Incandescent aren’t being banned. They are being required to have higher efficiencies; in incandescents this usually means filling the bulb with nitrogen or argon. 

Your 70 watt, totally normal light bulb now produces the same amount of light as a 100 watt. Go to the store and buy a totally normal incandescent light bulb, and it just costs less money to use. What’s not to like?

It’s going to be a little crazy out there with new lower-wattage halogens replacing incandescents and most of the media coverage I have seen is not helpful in any way.

Your theatre lamp collection probably has less to do with voltage and more likely with someone touching the glass lamp envelope itself and letting skin oils disrupt the thermal dispersion (ie, all the heat stays where the oil is and isn’t evenly distributed). In a standard theatrical dimmer the voltage isn’t going above the rated 120 (or 277, depending).