In August 2023, the Biden administration finalized a ban on incandescent bulbs. As of the end of 2023, selling these bulbs in the United States became illegal, with fines as high as $542 per bulb.
The goal of the ban was to increase the energy efficiency of America’s light bulbs by effectively forcing people to switch to LEDs or fluorescents.
Although there are benefits to LED bulbs, many consumers were not happy with the ban. Some consumers dislike the often low-quality light produced by cheap LED bulbs, and the bulbs often fail far sooner than advertised, creating a major waste problem.
Now, some consumers have found a clever hack that allows them to buy brand-new, incandescent bulbs entirely legally.
Read on to learn about the loophole, and how to use it yourself if you choose to.
The Legal Loophole
This clever loophole relies on the specifics of how the law banning incandescent bulbs is written.
Technically, the law doesn’t actually ban incandescent bulbs. Rather, it bans any bulb that fails to meet stringent efficiency standards.
However, the law does have some carve-outs for certain types of lower-efficiency bulbs. Insect lamps, plant grow lamps, and heat lamps for reptiles–among other specialty incandescent bulbs–are exempted from the efficiency requirements.
Another type of bulb that happens to be exempt is rough service bulbs. According to Bulbs.com, these are specialized incandescent bulbs that are designed specifically for use in challenging environments.
Mark Baker of the Soft Lights Foundation told us, “People are buying rough service bulbs which are not restricted.”
Bypassing the Ban (With Better Bulbs)
Unlike traditional incandescent bulbs, they have thicker wire in the bulb and more reinforcement around the base. In short, they’re just better made than traditional incandescents and often flimsy LEDs.
The same tactics of including a thick base and a thicker wire filament are what allowed the so-called Centennial Bulb in Livermore, California, to burn for over 120 years.
It turns out that building bulbs better results in a better lifespan.
Consumers have often turned to rough service bulbs for special applications, like light bulbs in garage door openers or light bulbs installed near equipment.
Because they’re exempted from the ban, however, consumers are now buying up these perfectly legal incandescent bulbs and using them throughout their homes.
Advantages and Drawbacks
Rough service incandescents tend to be more expensive than traditional incandescent bulbs. They’re also hard to find in local stores, but are readily accessible through online retailers like Amazon.
Because they’re less efficient, they can also cost more to operate from an electricity standpoint. That said, because LED bulbs often fail much sooner than advertised and are more expensive in many cases than even rough service bulbs, the difference may ultimately be insignificant.
In addition to the traditional warm light of an incandescent bulb, rough service bulbs have other advantages.
- Because they’re built stronger, they have a longer lifespan–up to 10,000 hours
- They can generally be throw away in your home trash, unlike old LEDs, which are e-waste
The biggest advantage of these bulbs is that they are entirely legal to use. Technically, we could all have been using rough service bulbs in our homes’ general fixtures all along.
We probably would’ve saved a lot of waste because of their longer lifespan!
How to Try Rough Service Bulbs
If you want to try out some rough-service incandescent bulbs in your own home, you can easily find them on Amazon. I recommend going for a well-known brand like Philips, which has been making these bulbs for decades.
Here are two types I’ve personally tested:
As an alternative, check out LED bulbs from Feit Electric. They’re a family-owned company, and their bulbs have lasted a long time and performed very well for me.
For many consumers, choice is important. The bulb ban stings partly because it takes away consumer choice.
Rough service incandescents add a bit of that choice back into the equation. It’s no surprise that consumers are turning to these bulbs when they feel they absolutely must have incandescent light.
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Keep in mind that each incandescent bulb that you use makes a contribution to global warming, while each incandescent bulb that you replace with an LED does the opposite.
Yes, cheap LED lamps often fail prematurely, but there are plenty of high-quality LED lamps on the market such as those from FEIT and Phillips that will more than pay for themselves in the money you will save on your electric bill.