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Dec 20, 2023

New incandescent light bulb ban takes effect

Meteorologist and Reporter A new light bulb ban takes effect across the country today. A new incandescent bulb ban takes effect across the country. It's not an effort to turn off the lights, but

Meteorologist and Reporter

A new light bulb ban takes effect across the country today.

A new incandescent bulb ban takes effect across the country.

It's not an effort to turn off the lights, but instead an effort to make our future more energy efficient.

Incandescent bulbs have been used for more than a 100 years, but create light by heating up a filament inside the bulb.

It takes a lot of energy to create that light, for example 60 or 100 watts for a typical household bulb.

Now the federal government is prohibiting most incandescent bulbs because LED bulbs can be just as bright, but use a lot less energy.

"Where we could use a 100 watt bulb in a hotel room we can now use 6.8 watt LED bulb. That is a 90% energy savings, which is an amazing thing for the environment," said Derik Delmonico, Co-Owner of The Light Bulb Source.

Honolulu County has been busy switching over to LED fixtures over the past few years. That includes upgrading 53,000 street lights to LEDs, which use 50-60% less electricity.

"Ultimately, you are using less energy and that equates to less carbon pollution. That is what we are after. It also means savings," stated Ben Sullivan, with Honolulu's Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency.

While LEDs used to cost much more, the price is now comparable to incandescent bulbs.

LEDs are not only more energy efficient, that can last a lot longer.

"We are seeing a light bulb that used to last 1000 hours, now last 50,000-100,000 hours at 90% energy savings," added Delmonico.

So the hope is that people will not only save on their electricity bills, but also save money in the long run by switching to LED bulbs.

Under the federal ban, manufacturers have to stop making them, but Delmonico says stores will still be able to sell their incandescent stock, "We still have die hard people who want to use their incandescent bulbs. They like the color, or temperature and we do have them available for them."

But as new technology evolves, those and other types of lightning could also become obsolete as well.

"Eventually most or all of the incandescent bulbs will be banned, most of the fluorescent bulbs will also probably be banned," added Delmonico.

"When it is something simple, that doesn't hurt anyone, or have a negative impact like an incandescent ban - perhaps there should be more of those decisions to move us forward," stated Sullivan.

While most indoor incandescent bulbs fall under the ban, there are some that are still allowed to be made and sold , including flood lights, plant lights, and black lights.

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Meteorologist and Reporter