557

EU has already done some of this and as of this coming August (previously announced as September but pushed) they will be banning most fluorescent tubes. We’ve done similar here in the US with many incandescent standard bulbs…can only find decorative and appliance bulbs now, plus a few types of watt-limited service bulbs. The bans (as far as I know) are on manufacturing but sales will continue until old stock is sold through and of course ownership/use isn’t policed (again…as far as I know). This gives a long sunset period for transitions. I got alarmed a little while ago because of the changes/scarcity of some common T8 fluorescent tubes in regular retail outlets, googled and saw the ban, wondered how on earth our office building should go about dealing with this in 8 months (omg…$$:money_mouth_face:, and then figured out it was only EU at this time. We’ll follow suit eventually I’m sure, but in the mean time as global manufacturers stop making some of these products, the price shoots up considerably. T8 tubes are already nearly twice the price they were just two years ago…between that and the energy savings of LED, it can sure prod people to change more quickly. The phosphors for T-type tubes are already much better than they were not too many years ago, so lumens and cri are pretty good, and they’re long lived as are the ballasts these days……shopping around I’m a little unimpressed with what I’ve been seeing from commercial LED solutions (and if you want to hunt down high cri, the cost is kinda ridiculous, esp knowing what the actual costs are…robbery based on marketing alone).

I heard from an industry fellow that even when EU plants stop manufacturing what’s left of incandescent and fluorescent products, Mexico may continue and it’s very likely that China or India would pick up the slack, so they’ll probably still be available somehow.