These Lights Are Now Banned From Sale in the US
As of August 1, 2023, incandescent light bulbs are effectively banned from sale and manufacture in the United States – basically.
A government initiative launched in 2007 during the George W. Bush administration culminated in new regulations requiring a minimum energy efficiency standard of 45 lumens per watt for light bulbs sold in the US. Incandescent lamps cannot meet this requirement; the average incandescent lamp emits about 14 lumens per watt; LED lamps, on the other hand, have a light output of 75-110 lumens per watt .
What types of lamps are now banned?
From now on, almost any ordinary light bulb that can be screwed into a socket will be LED or fluorescent. Incandescent lamps will not be sold legally. However, it’s not illegal to buy or use them, so if you find a hardware store unloading old stock of incandescent bulbs, that’s their problem, not yours.
Should old light bulbs be thrown away?
No. You can keep using your old bulbs until they burn out. Incandescent light bulbs are still legal for possession and use, but not for sale or manufacture. However, according to the US Energy Information Administration, about half of households in the US have already switched to this technology.
Which incandescent light bulbs will remain legal?
There are many special purpose incandescent light bulbs that will remain legal to buy, sell and manufacture, including:
- Instrument lamps
- Black light lamps
- beetle lamps
- Plant lamps
- colored lights
- General Purpose Fluorescent Lamps
- Chandelier lamps
- Lamps with wedge base or prefocus base
- Lamps with left-hand thread
A complete list of approved lamps can be found in the US Department of Energy presentation .
Are fluorescent lights also banned?
Fluorescent light bulbs are perfectly legal to buy, own, and manufacture in the US—for now. The Department of Energy recently proposed a rule that requires an efficiency level of more than 120 lumens per watt for most conventional lamps , which would put fluorescent lamps at 45-100 lumens per watt per unit. But whether and when this will come into force is unknown.
Are LED bulbs better than incandescent bulbs?
Regardless of how you feel about government regulations meant to force you to switch to more efficient lighting, this is really good for you.
You can argue about the aesthetics of old-school light bulbs versus LEDs, but that’s about it. Less than 5% of the energy consumed by a conventional incandescent lamp is converted into light. The rest goes to heat. LEDs are a mirror image: 95% light, only 5% heat. LED lamps last much longer than incandescent lamps: 20,000–30,000 hours per lamp (about 20 years) compared to about 1000 hours for an incandescent lamp.
While the upfront cost of LED bulbs is higher than incandescent bulbs, the higher efficiency and longer life more than make up for it: The average family is estimated to save $215 a year by switching to LED – that’s $4,300 over 20 years.
So if you don’t need to warm up your monitor terrarium, you can’t part with your vintage Easy-Bake oven , or you just love changing light bulbs, LEDs are a much better choice.