Start Hording Lightbulbs – Big Profits Ahead
June 29th, 2009 by Skip McGrath
President Obama held a news conference today where he announced regulations that will soon eliminate the traditional incandescent light bulb. Consumers and businesses will be forced to use the new compact fluorescent bulbs. The regulations will phase in over time but they are now official.
I don’t know about you, but those bulbs will only work in a few places in my house. I don’t mind using them to save energy and money but they don’t really seem to do that. It turns out that they use a lot more energy in the manufacturing process, and use more materials to package them safely. This offsets the long-term energy savings. And they don’t really save money because the cost is so high that it takes years to offset the cost with savings. Also, they don’t fit in most of our lamps, so I would have to toss those and purchase new lamps –no energy or cost savings there either. But it may be a profit opportunity….
I predict that there will be a grey market (or possibly even a black market) in traditional light bulbs. One economist from George Mason University predicts the prices for incandescent light bulbs will double or triple over the next 5 years. That is a pretty good return on investment.
For my part, we have a long-term storage locker and I plan to buy a case of light bulbs every time I visit Costco and stick them in storage for the future. At my age a few cases of bulbs will give me a lift-time supply. And, any that I don’t use, I can probably sell at a profit. Heck –I may be able to make up the losses in my IRA.
I think they are going to issue regulations outlawing double-ply toilet paper next month, so you may want to start stocking up on that too.
“I think they are going to issue regulations outlawing double-ply toilet paper next month, so you may want to start stocking up on that too”
Hey you folks catching our daft EU bureaucracy disease…
see http://ceolas.net/#li22x
Otherwise, regarding the light bulbs….
Yes, ban consumers from buying what they want and applaud the savings!
Edison’s simple safe light bulb is bought 19 times out of 20 in the USA.
The popularity is the reason to ban it: After all, that’s why the savings are supposed to be so great, no reason to ban what people don’t want.
Think about it!
The fact is that efficiency regulation on a product sacrifices performance, construction, appearance and price features, and does not necessarily give the savings suggested anyway.
Like you say, the energy use in manufacture of CFLs, their usage problems, and other factors affecting the actual savings ( http://ceolas.net/#li13x )
About saving energy =
Does society need to save energy? No, no shortage of electric energy sources…
About what Obama also said, “saving lots of emissions banning bulbs” =
Does your light bulb actually give out any gases, like seems to happen at the White House?
Since power stations might not give out any gases either, bans are unfair on emission-free energy households being able to use what they want, now or in the future, and emissions can be dealt with directly – as is planned anyway – by using new cleaner coal or renewable (or nuclear) energy.
Why a ban is wrong:
For a long list, with references, why a ban on ordinary light bulbs is wrong, see:
http://ceolas.net/#li1x onwards
Don’t forget this about the new bulbs. They contain mercury. Bad for land fills, bad for the environment, bad for humans.
Did you ever see the instructions on the box they come in. If you break one it says you should leave the room for 10 minutes so the mercury can dissapate!!! Plus other clean up instructions.
Oh yea, we need that.
Yes Bob,
and it’s even stricter EPA instructions now,
what to do if an “energy saving” light breaks,
after the Maine state testing proved fears to be more than well-founded
( http://www.ceolas.net/#li19x )