Author Topic: eBay is trying to stop incandescent sales  (Read 8229 times)
veso266
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Re: eBay is trying to stop incandescent sales « Reply #30 on: June 23, 2025, 05:44:59 PM » Author: veso266
I think at this point let's be honest with ourselves incandescent is a dead technology that will never be revived again.
It's not longer practical to use energy wise and today's generation is no longer interested in outdated technology.
The manufacturers have invested to much in LEDs to the market and they're not about to revitalize old machines for incandescent bulbs which have probably been scrapped anyway.
Also look at the bigger picture the fixtures currently on the market can't handle incandescents so in order to bring the lamps back someone would have to start making fixtures again and that's not going to happen either.

But it's the same for all old technologies. Large commercial buildings have removed all of their fluorescents for massive energy savings and as far as homeowners are concerned fluorescents are the most hated light source there is. My brother who was an electrician for 21 years got so sick and tired of homeowners calling him and freaking out because they have fluorescent lights in their house. They would say eww it's so ugly 70s and filled with mercury. They flicker and give me a headache. He would get a headache listening to their complaints.

Now HID that's another subject altogether and a technology that's never coming back. It's to expensive for the manufacturers.

Not to sound so negative but the bottom line is the old technology hasn't been made for awhile and will never be made again and that's the bottom line.
We'll all have to accept the new lighting technology just like everything else like digital flat screen TVs and EV vehicles.

EV vehicles were once tried already: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle#1920s%E2%80%931950s:_Dark_age_of_electric_vehicles
and it didn't caught on, we will see what the future brings, I am certenatly not looking on straining our electrig grid even more with more of them, because that means electricity will get more expensive even for us that cannot legally drive (and how will they recycle all the batteries) also what kind of society is this, they try to force us not to use incondecent bulbs, cuz the use to much energy, but at the same time they are trying to push EVs which also use a lot of energy (ICE vehicles are much more energy efficient), u never know what future will bring

They still make incondecent lights, just not the higher wattages ones (at least not in Europe), because for reptiles and Lava Lamp and souch, the heat incondecent makes along light is beneficial, cuz u don't need an extra heater (infact there is no space for extra heater in Lava Lamp), so the only difference they would need to make is they would use thicker thungston for higher wattages bulbs

Also filament leds use the same bulb as incondecent, just the inside are string leds + resistor instead of thungston, look: https://www.assets.signify.com/is/image/Signify/SPBS1_LEDFILAM_PHL_0001

its the same, exept string leds instead of thungston

Also u never know what will be revived (they said the same for vinyl in the 90s, they said CDs are the future, who would listen to vinyl and want crackle)
They revitalized old machines for pressing vinyls and polaroid film, so it is possible if there is demand, and todays generation is kinda special (they are sick of companies taking away digital products they bought so they want physical things, they want dumbphones (fliphones, etc) (cuz they think they will use them less or somehing) and film cameras (not everyone, but I guess enough of them for companies to deliver), they want to listen to music on physical media, and I don't blame them, you own nothing in this day and age

Just remember the saying: everything old is new again

Also, incondecents are easier to make and recycle then LEDs are cuz its just glass, some brass and thungston

And just so u know, I use filament leds in the house, I only use 3 incondecent bulbs on phases where voltage drops below 190V in the winter, because everything else is a pain to look at cuz it flickers and I get a headache
« Last Edit: June 24, 2025, 03:54:58 AM by veso266 » Logged
beatoven
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Re: eBay is trying to stop incandescent sales « Reply #31 on: Today at 02:21:17 AM » Author: beatoven
Specialty stores here are still coasting on the old stock incandescents. You can literally walk to the specialty stores in Amsterdam or Den Haag and walk out with an entire backpack full of standard incandescents.
But clearly, people aren't really doing that a whole lot becuase the stocks still haven't depleted and we're more than 10 years after the ban of import and production of incandescents in the netherlands.

Alternatively, all thrift shops have bins full of both new and used lamps of all types. I sometimes see people dig up incandescents. Apparently those people really want them, but also they will just keep buying them there for €0,50 to €1 for as long as people keep bringing in NOS incandescents to the thrift shop. As for their motives - i have no clue if they really specifically look for incandescent light, or that they are completely ignorant about the differences and just buy them out of habit, or whether they need them for dim bulb limiters like i do.

It will take another decade or so (hell, maybe even more) to actually deplete existing stock, so only then super expensive new production won't face the competition from cheap, sunk cost/written off old stock.

Any peron caring about light quality today will likely sooner buy a 94 CRI led (the Ledvance thing i have is definitely good) than deal with the fact that modern fixtures are usually not designed for more than 25w of thermal energy, conciously buy older fixtures that still have heat resistant sockets etc.

Maybe in 50 years time, when stocks have properly dropped to the level of individual NOS lamps' prices rising to 50 euro a piece, that it will be possible to restart a small scale production system, like they're currently doing with bright emitter vacuum tubes: https://brimaruk.com/product/ediswan-type-r/ or like Dalimar is doing with brand new Nixie tubes.
But it will be a considerable amount of manual labor, and you'll be looking at cost closer to 50 euro than 5 euro per lamp.

Getting an automated production line up and running will be at least 2 million euro just to fix everything in the production line (just getting 'stiff' mechanisms, iffy limit switches and old computer control systems working again) and re-line the glass furnaces and stuff. Double or triple that if you have to strip out the tons of asbestos from legacy production facilities. Philips' glass furnaces are still around and have not been demolished yet. It wouldn't surprise me if that's becasue the furnaces are absolutely filled with asbestos and they're hoping the company's remains switch owners often enough for the national government to lose track and the cost for cleaning up the mess just goes to the tax payer...

More likely is that this will just happen in China, though even China doesn't seem to be bothered with producing incandescent lamps anymore. India maybe?

Interesting observation about the slow depletion of existing stocks. I actually think it will take longer, if vacuum tubes (valves) are any indicator. I built an amp that required a pair of tubes that were only produced for a short time in the 1940s, and only used in a handful of products. I expected finding some would be difficult and expensive, but to my surprise a quick eBay search yielded two NOS ones for $5 each. I suspect the same will apply to incandescents as, like tubes, hundreds of millions were made and will continue to be unearthed for decades to come. Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped the reissue of the popular types, which are still in demand and profitable to make.
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