Today is the day! The US Government has banned the manufacture and sale of most major incandescent light bulbs including A19, BR30, and PAR30 bulbs as well as flame, globe, tubular, and a few other special shapes. For now, night lights, plant grow bulbs, appliance bulbs, heat lamps, black lights, colored bulbs, and Christmas lights are not banned, but knowing the US Government, the question is WHEN they'll be outlawed vs IF!...

I just learned that the following bulb styles are NOT being banned:

- Appliance lamps (such as refrigerator lights)

- Heat lamps, plant lights and bug lamps

- Colored lights and black lights

- Reflector lamps

- Chandelier bulbs, Christmas lights and decorative bulbs of 40 watts or less

- Globe bulbs and tubular bulbs


Plus this entire list: https://www.bulbs.com/learning/phaseoutexemptions.aspx

This is more or less a ban on the COMMON household bulb; the A19/A21, E26-based incandescent. There’s a ton of misinformation going around online.


I’m really quite surprised!

There are still a number of exemptions, but that list is outdated.  Here's an excerpt from this document, which I believe is current.

General Service Incandescent Lamps (which must meet the 45 lm/W standard):

A standard incandescent or halogen type lamp that is intended for general
service applications; has a medium screw base; has a lumen range of not less than 310
lumens and not more than 2,600 lumens or, in the case of a modified spectrum lamp, not
less than 232 lumens and not more than 1,950 lumens; and is capable of being operated at
a voltage range at least partially within 110 and 130 volts; however, this definition does
not apply to the following incandescent lamps: an appliance lamp; a black light lamp; a
bug lamp; a colored lamp; a G shape lamp with a diameter of 5 inches or more as defined
in ANSI C79.1–2002; an infrared lamp; a left-hand thread lamp; a marine lamp; a marine
signal service lamp; a mine service lamp; a plant light lamp; an R20 short lamp; a sign
service lamp; a silver bowl lamp; a showcase lamp; and a traffic signal lamp.

Well, RIP BR30, candelabra, and PAR30…

GE introduced new 33W 300 lumen flame tip and globe lamps.  So there are a few new choices that remain exempt but are a bit brighter than the 25W options.

What they will probably do (they did this in Europe as well) to continue selling incandescent lamps, is they will market them as signalling bulbs for traffic lights, because it said in the document that bulbs for signalling and traffic signals are exempt, even if they meet all the criteria for general service lamps.

Ye gods will you lot stop worrying..! All that has been banned, as far as I can tell, is putting new incandescents onto the market. This means what it says, lamps that are already on retailers' shelves or in wholesalers' warehouses are already on the market and can continue to be sold until stocks are exhausted. This will take a long time, as most people don't want them any more.

I suppose a lot of the big retailers will dump their stocks, but small independents will still have lamps available for the foreseeable future. There certainly seem to be no end of them on eBay over here, anyway.

 I agree !  I highly doubt any small retailer would just voluntarily discard stock they paid for with no recourse for getting their money back !

 As for taking long to sell , my local Home Repo still has a decent amount of 150 & 200w incandescents on the shelf , all with a VERY thick coating of dust on them !! Honestly , I don't think they'll sell them all in the next 20 years !

Ye gods will you lot stop worrying..! All that has been banned, as far as I can tell, is putting new incandescents onto the market. This means what it says, lamps that are already on retailers' shelves or in wholesalers' warehouses are already on the market and can continue to be sold until stocks are exhausted.

That last part is not true, and I can say that first hand, since the day after the ban went into effect, I was at my local Home Depot and decided to grab the last pack of incandescent bulbs there (out of principle more or less), but when I went to check out (using self check out), I was effectively told that I was not allowed to buy those lamps then and there, and rather, got to watch as an employee took them, presumably to dispose of them.

And while second-hand sales are (as far as I am aware) not prohibited, I wouldn't be surprised if some thrift stores stop accepting/selling such lamps just to "be on the safe side".

Well that's crap. Don't they want to make money and sell their existing stock 

It does sound typical of a big box store, but I doubt small independent retailers would dispose of valuable stock like that. Does the LAW there say that they HAVE to, or was it just their decision

High Intensity,

I visited my local ReStore yesterday. There was an INFLUX of incandescent lamps; mainly Osram-Sylvanias and Philips. They don’t care, clearly.

Pretty sure it's in the law that retailers can face fines around $532 per illegal bulb sold or something along those lines.

@obsessedstreetlight24: that's good to hear with your restore, though mine OTOH seems to have ditched all of their incandescent stock, as up until recently, they had a lot of incandescent and halogen flood lamps, but those were all gone as of recent.

Well that's crap/crazy or any other suitable word you care to think of. Even if they're already on the shelves, so in stock..? Who is going to compensate them for stock that can't be sold..? Here, retailers were allowed to sell what they still had in stock. I wouldn't be happy if I were a small business in that situation 

in Canada 2024 Jan there is a BAN on Mercury lamps and that covers MANUFACTURE and IMPORT NOT sales of BUT 2 years later (I believe) there is a end of sales
but the USA BAN is on SALES OF LAMPS so in stock items are NOT illegal to sell I hope "used" stores are NOT covered and an amount of NOS lamps end up in the "used" market and NOT landfill but Home REPO and Bunnings will likely landfill them to be safe (legally)

Just so you remember, the NON-HALOGEN A19 incandescent lamps in the USA designed for the 40W, 60W, 75W, and 100W ratings have already been banned in phases between 2012 and 2014. The 2023 ban affecting incandescent lamps in the USA mainly covers the halogen retrofit A19 lamps designed to replace the already-banned 40W, 60W, 75W, and 100W A19 incandescent lamps along with other incandescent lamps commonly used in household general lighting applications and decorative applications such as reflector lamps, globe shaped lamps, and candle lamps.