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This is a major overreaction by the landlord.
A simple statement in the rental agreement requiring all light bulbs be present and accounted for, or else deducted from the deposit, would suffice.

The phaseout can be a real problem for chicken coops that rely on the bulb for heating.

There are also soffit board designs that rely on the heat of the light bulb to keep ice dam from bulding up in winter.

Carburetors were phased out too, there was some whining at first... but we moved on as a society. I'm sure we'll survive the light bulb change.

Not sure why they would be buying hordes of incandescents since CFLs are now in many cases actually cheaper.

Call it Crazy says

Not only that... Ever try to get a CFL to instantly light up in the cold weather like a incandescent does??

Depends on the CFL. Older ones- sure. They took FOREVER to warm up in the cold. On the other hand I bought a pack of CFLs for $5 and these were made to be used outdoors. They warm up almost instantly. Technology has gotten lot better on these. The spectrum is also a lot better whereas a few years ago CFLs put out a nasty blue-ish light. Now many are pretty close to mimicking the warmth of a regular light bulb.

I want to know what they will use in the fridge. CFL's pose mercury risk. LED's don't last long in the cold and damp environment.

FortWayne says

Carburetors were phased out too, there was some whining at first... but we moved on as a society. I'm sure we'll survive the light bulb change.

Not to mention with the advent of fuel injection people didn't have to spend forever fiddling with the air and gas adjustments. I have an old car with a carb and it can be VERY fussy.

Reality says

I want to know what they will use in the fridge. CFL's pose mercury risk. LED's don't last long in the cold and damp environment.

Where do you get that LED's don't last long in cold or damp environments? They've been used for years in stop lights, car lights, and outdoor lighting and hold up just fine. There isn't a lot to go wrong with an LED. Its a fully sealed diode. What can go bad are the capacitors and boards they are wired to, but that isn't the fault of the actual LED and more to do with the quality of the manufacture.

edvard2 says

Reality says

I want to know what they will use in the fridge. CFL's pose mercury risk. LED's don't last long in the cold and damp environment.

Where do you get that LED's don't last long in cold or damp environments? They've been used for years in stop lights, car lights, and outdoor lighting and hold up just fine. There isn't a lot to go wrong with an LED. Its a fully sealed diode. What can go bad are the capacitors and boards they are wired to, but that isn't the fault of the actual LED and more to do with the quality of the manufacture.

I have used several LED's in various different fridges over the years. They all fail within a year or two, with obviously light use as they only power on when the fridge doors are open.

I use them not to save electricity but to prevent top shelf food spoiling, as the girls tend to take for ever picking out food, especially in a fridge that they are not familiar with. The morning after breakfast is like their license to do full fridge inspection. It's not like I keep my sperm samples there. LOL.

Yeah but you don't need a carburator to see.

This might be a non issue for most.
But there are many people who can't read to the CFL lights, there are even more who are sensitive to the CFL flicker and it gives them migraines.

I can't see worth a damn using CFL lighting. Office style florescence yes, but that's because there's a light tube spaced every 4 feet hanging over head.
With the CFL we have 5 lamps in one room, and I still have to take it out side if I want to read my mail.

I have seen two CFL bulb go full Zenith and expel a 6 inch long flame out from the base of the bulb. This was when they first came out. But I will actually worry when I leave home and no one is there, wondering if I turned off all of the lights now. I will actually turn around to go check. Not because I am an energy Miser but because I don't want to come home to a smoking charred burnt out rubble heap.

FortWayne says

Carburetors were phased out too, there was some whining at first... but we moved on as a society. I'm sure we'll survive the light bulb change.

Carburetors were terrible. They were really never any good until the car was warmed up. One of the reasons my 1985 Escort was the GT model was to get fuel injection.

zzyzzx says

FortWayne says

Carburetors were phased out too, there was some whining at first... but we moved on as a society. I'm sure we'll survive the light bulb change.

Carburetors were terrible. They were really never any good until the car was warmed up. One of the reasons my 1985 Escort was the GT model was to get fuel injection.

Depends on the carb. The old SU carbs were dirt simple. I found them to work well as long as the original cork gaskets were replaced with modern ones, otherwise they tended to leak gas onto the hot engine - kind of a problem. Webers OTOH were over complicated and finicky. I could never get mine dialed in. The carb on out 1980s Toyotas worked great up to about 150k, then it was a simple matter of just buying a new one. Very easy to install.

SoftShell says

This is a major overreaction by the landlord.

A simple statement in the rental agreement requiring all light bulbs be present and accounted for, or else deducted from the deposit, would suffice.

Even this won't be necessary: if landlord does all the steps he's legally obliged to do (pre-walk-through, list of deficiencies to be corrected, move-out inspection, etc.) he should be fine. Buying truckloads of lamps to solve a problem of him not following the law is just idiotic.

Is a landlord required to provide the unit with light bulbs installed?

Could he charge a move in "light bulb fee" to cover the cost?

edvard2 says

Not to mention with the advent of fuel injection people didn't have to spend forever fiddling with the air and gas adjustments. I have an old car with a carb and it can be VERY fussy.

Gotta learn to tune it right. No big deal. If it's fussy, it needs to be rebuilt. The thing that causes trouble today is the grade of gasoline for sale.

edvard2 says

Not sure why they would be buying hordes of incandescents since CFLs are now in many cases actually cheaper.

Because CFLs are shitty-looking and blanche the color from your expensive oil paintings.

edvard2 says

FortWayne says

Carburetors were phased out too, there was some whining at first... but we moved on as a society. I'm sure we'll survive the light bulb change.

Not to mention with the advent of fuel injection people didn't have to spend forever fiddling with the air and gas adjustments. I have an old car with a carb and it can be VERY fussy.

I remember at first I bought several spare carburetors just in case they would be hard to get. Still have one laying around in the garage now. I do miss how easy it was to work on those, modern vehicles are much more complicated. I bet only a handful of people in the world can actually work on a Tesla.

Reality says

I want to know what they will use in the fridge. CFL's pose mercury risk. LED's don't last long in the cold and damp environment.

CREE bulbs sold at HD have 10 year warranty. And not the "send it back in the original package" BS, but "bring it back to HD and we'll replace it no question asked" type of warranty.

Just picked up a very nice Cree full spectrum 60w replacement LED bulb on sale at HD for $9.97- very nice quality!

There are tons of chinese bulbs on Ebay; these are pretty good for the price. 3 out of 30 have failed over time, two of which were on 24/7. The energy savings is great.

As for chicken brooders and ice dam preventers, that is a case where the light bulb is DOING A SPECIFIC JOB. It's like a diesel dually pickup pulling a fifth wheel trailer- nobody begrudges this. It is the same truck used as a single driver city commuter most or all of its life that is an abuse of resources, and when millions of people do it anyway, that is when restrictive laws get passed.

I'll never forget picking up some CFLs 10 years ago at Home Depot. All the while, this annoying woman was browbeating the clerk over why CFLs cost so much more than incandescents. Every explanation of lifetime cost of ownership was rebutted with, "But these are so much cheaper!" I love being able to have every light in the house on (if I need) for less electricity than 2 incandescent bulbs. I've also changed out all the bulbs at various friend/girlfriends houses. Any complaints or critiques were replaced by amazement and gratitude next time the electricity bill arrived.
Incandescent bulbs are basically room heaters with a minor by-product of light.

I don't know how I'm going to get my easy bake oven to work without incandescent bulbs.

Reality says

I have used several LED's in various different fridges over the years. They all fail within a year or two, with obviously light use as they only power on when the fridge doors are open.

They must've solved this problem by now, because all new fridges I saw in the store have LED lights as standard equipment.

I've used CFL's for years. Less heart and less electricity.

jvolstad says

I've used CFL's for years. Less heart and less electricity.

The side benefit of CFL/LED is that they allow you to have much higher light output from a fixture rated for only 25, 40 or 60W. 100W equivalent CFL consumes only 23W and 150W equivalent - about 40W. This was my primary reason to switch when CFLs were still very expensive.

donjumpsuit says

... CFL's ...

So much headache trying to figure out how to dispose of those things ....

In Cali any hardware store that sells them has to take them back for recycling. HD has a special bin near the entrance. In small mom-and-pop ACE stores you'll have to bring them to the register.

Straw Man says

In small mom-and-pop ACE stores you'll have to bring them to the register.

Huh! Has to?

My ACE store doesn't accept the dead bulbs, tells you to take them elsewhere.

Vicente says

Straw Man says

In small mom-and-pop ACE stores you'll have to bring them to the register.

Huh! Has to?

This was my impression. I could be wrong though. Maybe it differs by county.

jvolstad says

Less heart and less electricity.

That's how I felt about my last old lady.