POPULAR MECHANICS: Is The Light Bulb Ban A Bright Idea? “On January 1, 2012, new laws hit the books that will effectively ban 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. In the coming years, 75-, 60-, and 40-watt bulbs will be goners, too. In this investigation, PM takes you inside the years-long effort to build a better bulb. Plus, we put light bulbs—incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs—through our own brand of rigorous testing to sort fact from fiction with some hard data.” Plus this on CFLs: “Today, the gap between expectation and experience still exists in the world of CFLs. Studies by the Program for the Evaluation and Analysis of Residential Lighting (PEARL) trade group have shown that CFLs don’t always live up to manufacturers’ claims, particularly in life span.” That’s certainly been my experience. I started out a fan, but in my hosue they’re not lasting noticeably longer than incandescents.

Just remember, there’s still time to stock up!