MIT Scientists develop Incandescent Bulb More Efficient than LEDs

I'm not sure if you guys are serious. They still make Easy Bake Ovens. And LiteBrites.

How Hasbro Kept Me From Deconstructing Watergate With Mom and Dad and Led to a Life of Debauchery (Duke University Libraries)

PVW said:

 I imagine that like everyone else, he has an actual life outside of MOL.

Yes, there is that. Not to mention other worthwhile pursuits on Valentine's and Presidents Days. (See "Life of Debauchery," above.)

RobB said:

I'm not sure if you guys are serious. They still make Easy Bake Ovens. And LiteBrites.

This. They stopped making Easy Bake ovens that needed light bulbs and instead they now come with a heating element inside.  

RobB said:

I'm not sure if you guys are serious. They still make Easy Bake Ovens. And LiteBrites.

Not serious, but the difference between a LiteBrite and an Easy Bake sort of "illuminates" the light bulb issue in general.  Sorry for the pun.

A LiteBrite  just needs the light, and a more efficient bulb that puts out the same light doesn't affect how it works.  The old Easy Bake Ovens needed the heat from a light bulb - they won't work if light bulbs are more efficient and don't generate as much heat.  I don't know if the Easy Bake makers have worked out how to deal with the ultimate demise of the old light bulbs.

[Edited to add]  I saw the comment from Spontaneous after I wrote and posted this, so now I know.

I think the very existence of something that works like the Easy Bake Oven is a powerful argument about the wastefulness of incandescent bulbs.

Wasn't there a bit in one of the Young Ones episodes where they were warming their hands over a lightbulb? I may be remembering it wrong. I'll have to pull out the DVDs and get back to you on that. 

spontaneous said:

Wasn't there a bit in one of the Young Ones episodes where they were warming their hands over a lightbulb? I may be remembering it wrong. I'll have to pull out the DVDs and get back to you on that. 

The very fact that you have The Young Ones on DVD gives me a warm glow.

It's nice to see how many here have been worried sick about their good buddy terp!   It warms the heart!  Maybe not quite as nicely as an incandescent light bulb, but still it's nice to see. 

As some here may have been able to ascertain, I have no life.  So, it's not like I've been busy.  I'm pretty sure I'd have to leave my basement for that.  I've spent most of the last 48 hours in the fetal position.  I hate to admit this, but I have trouble typing when I'm in that position. 

Now onto the light bulbs.  While I would agree that the market is going to react to regulations.  I mean if it didn't, what precisely would be the point.  Some of these reactions will be positive. Some will be negative.  I'm not quite ready, as some here seem to be, to cheer the tactic of banning products. 

Are books banned in the hopes that better books will be written?  Have we gotten better narcotics through the drug war?  

A couple of points on the incandescent bulb ban.  This Energy Bill in 2007 did ban many of the bulbs in common use. If you support this action, not only are you supporting an act of Government, but you are supporting an act of Cronyism.  Phillips, who had developed an expensive LED bulb, lobbied heavily for this Energy bill.  Their interest was to create a market for their bulb that had a much higher price point than the incandescent mainstay. So, are we saying that we like the effects of freedom of speech only enjoyed by powerful wealthy interests?  

And people here may say "No harm no foul!  I'm happy.  I like the LED bulbs!  I live in my house and I don't like changing the bulbs.  I'm happy to pay more $$." I'll reply that you are not everybody. Many people rent, and are paying more $$ for light of a less quality and may not stay in that place to recoup the initial spend.   You were always free to pony up some extra $$ for the LED bulbs and enjoy the benefits.  That could and I'd argue should be a  personal decision based upon your own preferences. 

So, the military partnered(I'm assuming they funded) the MIT research to create a more energy efficient incandescent bulb.  I think that, in and of itself, is a good thing.  One wonders how much $$ was devoted to this.  One also wonders where else that $$ could have been applied.  What are the opportunity costs of doing this? 

If I were renting and I wanted to buy superior light light bulbs, perhaps I would go to Amazon, where there appears to be a wide variety of incandescent light bulbs for sale including those by Phillips, despite this horrendous ban everyone keeps talking about.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A228013%2Cn%3A322525011%2Cn%3A328865011%2Ck%3Alight+bulbs&keywords=light+bulbs&ie=UTF8&qid=1455646590&rnid=468240

Am I missing sometHing?

ridski said:

If I were renting and I wanted to buy superior light light bulbs, perhaps I would go to Amazon, where there appears to be a wide variety of incandescent light bulbs for sale including those by Phillips, despite this horrendous ban everyone keeps talking about.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A228013%2Cn%3A322525011%2Cn%3A328865011%2Ck%3Alight+bulbs&keywords=light+bulbs&ie=UTF8&qid=1455646590&rnid=468240

Am I missing sometHing?

When we moved here last year we managed to buy a light fixture ordered online from Lowe's that features an obnoxious 18 incandescent bulbs included with it! I didn't even have to order it under an assumed name and have it shipped to Canada where I'd pick it up with a fake passport. Just got it shipped to my door.

I suspect there's probably some sort of tax on incandesent light bulbs that make them more expensive, as most of what it out there is specialty lighting ('Edison bulbs') such as what our chandelier came with.

That chandelier does run really hot, if you turn the dimmer on the circuit up all the way it's as hot as 18 classic Easy-Bake Ovens!

incandescent bulbs were not banned.  the regulation was introduced that required bulbs to meet an efficiency threshold.  Old incandescents could not meet the threshold but presumably this new MIT bulb will.  So incandescents of that type can be sold and presumably will be sold if they can be mass produced.

@terp, the article you quoted demonstrably has its facts wrong. How about some acknowledgement of this?

tom said:

I think the very existence of something that works like the Easy Bake Oven is a powerful argument about the wastefulness of incandescent bulbs.

It's also a powerful condemnation of nostalgia and aesthetics.  One could employ the same line of thinking to the "advantage" of e-books, but I'd give up a hardback for a Kindle only under direct threat of mortal harm.

ctrzaska said:

tom said:

I think the very existence of something that works like the Easy Bake Oven is a powerful argument about the wastefulness of incandescent bulbs.

It's also a powerful condemnation of nostalgia and aesthetics.  One could employ the same line of thinking to the "advantage" of e-books, but I'd give up a hardback for a Kindle only under direct threat of mortal harm.

The e-books lose. There's not that much waste in a printed book, when you consider their better utility (e-books don't compare in terms of usability, and you don't need electricity), portabiity (how does an e-book hold up after a day on the beach or on a long flight?), durability and transferability (there's no secondary market for used e-books). 

Plus e-books are a rip-off for authors.

tom said:

ctrzaska said:

tom said:

I think the very existence of something that works like the Easy Bake Oven is a powerful argument about the wastefulness of incandescent bulbs.

It's also a powerful condemnation of nostalgia and aesthetics.  One could employ the same line of thinking to the "advantage" of e-books, but I'd give up a hardback for a Kindle only under direct threat of mortal harm.

The e-books lose. There's not that much waste in a printed book, when you consider their better utility (e-books don't compare in terms of usability, and you don't need electricity), portabiity (how does an e-book hold up after a day on the beach or on a long flight?), durability and transferability (there's no secondary market for used e-books). 

Plus e-books are a rip-off for authors.

Um, I charge my Kindle about once every 3-4 weeks with normal use.  They have very long battery life. I understand your other arguments but the battery one doesn't hold water.

I think there are advantages to both. For one thing I don't have the entire 40+ volume set of Discworld novels cluttering my bookshelves. Books are discarded all the time. What percentage of printed books get resold or passed on?

I'm genuinely curious about the compensation difference between a printed book and an ebook for the author. Why do you say ebooks are a ripoff for authors?

Wait, now we're railing on about ebooks?

I've been reading ebooks since back in the days when you had to get pirated scanned versions to read on my Palm IIIxe. It's been a LOOOOOONG time since I've read a real book. Ebooks were so liberating that I used to not read books, and now I read quite often.

I've had a Kindle since the original 'snowspeeder' model and I've upgraded twice. It's great. Even though I can read on a phone or an iPad, the Kindle Paperwhite screen wins hands down. And I can read in the dark, a regular book can't do that.

I can't throw it in the ocean or put it through a woodchipper, but you can't do that with a normal book. And as long as my flight arrives in one piece it's no worse than a normal book, it however is smaller, lighter, lights up and happens to be more than one book.

The only strike against it is for the 'user comfort' area where it's just too different, but those sort of things are really a personal problem. If you weren't used to 'real' books already you'd have a hard time deciding that printed matter was better.

(Caveat: I'm just talking about printed words on a page kind of books. Coffee table books, and even comic books are a whole different matter!)

So you don't even need a lightbulb to read it. Win-win!

I guess if you can't bake something using a product's excess radiation it's a no-go on MOL!

On these cold winter days, I'm upset that my laptop now only keeps me a bit warm, instead of threatening to give my legs third degree burns. Why must they make our electronics so increasingly efficient?

All things being equal I'd rather read a paper book.  However, I rarely read a paper book because I like to read on my commute. It's easier to use my tablet for that.  

I'd like to have the freedom to choose whatever medium on which I like to read.  

https://youtu.be/yv7eLQmfdXw

terp said:

All things being equal I'd rather read a paper book.  However, I rarely read a paper book because I like to read on my commute. It's easier to use my tablet for that.  

I'd like to have the freedom to choose whatever medium on which I like to read.  

So, say I wanted to read the side of a stick of dynamite on my commute - freedom right?

I don't have a Kindle actually, I use the Kindle app on my tablet. And I've had some bad experiences with it, most memorably a trans-Atlantic flight during which it insisted it wasn't configured for off-line use and wouldn't open any of the books I'd downloaded. WTF? I never get that with a printed book. I do use it still for throw-aways like pulpy sci-fi, travel guides and other sorts of things that I would read once and forget.

One other things, the higher resolution of ink-on-paper is much better for images and graphics.

RobB said:

terp said:

All things being equal I'd rather read a paper book.  However, I rarely read a paper book because I like to read on my commute. It's easier to use my tablet for that.  

I'd like to have the freedom to choose whatever medium on which I like to read.  

So, say I wanted to read the side of a stick of dynamite on my commute - freedom right?

What a truly odd question.

I can't think of a better way to follow a truly odd comment.