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Comment by njarboe | Hacker News Reader

The US has banned[1] the (previously) standard low temperature (~2500k) incandescent light bulbs that have a black body radiation profile. Lots of low frequency. I really prefer these at night and could not find replacements. Eventually someone suggested that the key words are "rugged service". That and "incandescent light bulb" will get you many options on amazon, ebay, etc. Not sure if I need to stock up on these or if they will continue to be available into the future.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_incandescent_ligh...

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There are plenty of LEDs available with a 2700K color temperature. It helps to buy ones with 90+ CRI, although few (even the good ones) actually advertise their CRI on the label. Last time I bought bulbs, Home Depot was selling 80 and 90 CRI bulbs under the same freaking model number; it's like the WRT54G all over again.

Granted, it's not a true black body spectrum because the infrared part is missing, but that's why they use less energy.

It is too bad that manufactures are not required to put a spectral analysis graph on the packaging of these non-blackbody light sources. Not sure how they even calculate a temperature rating when the blue and red frequencies are the highest with yellow and green quite low.

Or even 2200k. These don't have a listed CRI, but they have none of the harshness that can come with low-CRI bulbs. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S8U2HP0

> The US has banned[1] the (previously) standard low temperature (~2500k) incandescent light bulbs

Not true. They established minimum efficiency rules. Old 60W bulbs can meet the rules but 100W cannot. You can still buy 60W incandescent bulbs everywhere.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Lighting-Light-Bulbs-Incandescen...

Those 60 watt bulbs are about a dollar a bulb or more. Before the new rules, you used to be able to buy them for about a fourth of that cost.

If a 60 watt bulb lasts 1000 hours at $0.10/kWh, that's $6 even if the bulb was free. So quadrupling the price has negligible effect on its total cost ($6.25 vs $7.00).

> you used to be able to buy them for about a fourth of that cost.

The skeptic in me assumes they are taking advantage of the misconception and luring in people wanting incandescent bulbs before they run out.

The skeptic in you would be pleased to know those "post-ban" bulbs fail much faster, and live about a quarter of the time.

As much as I tried to avoid all of these new ugly light bulbs (never met a florescent that looked right, and it took me a long time to find an acceptable LED), I eventually just got rid of all incandescents and got CREE warm whites.

You realize these bulbs are more efficient because they are a higher temperature. That is, more blue.

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