2023 incandescent light bulb ban (United States)

Robin Phillips · June 23, 2023

Anyone know if this is going to affect tungsten bulbs?

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3932145-energy-dept-to-ban-sale-of-some-light-bulbs-heres-why/

Danner Gardner · June 26, 2023

I doubt tungsten bulbs for motion picture lights will be banned. Might be a different story for trying to get practical bulbs though.

Adrian Sierkowski · June 26, 2023

Already is hard to get practicals. I guard mine like Smaug currently.
Currently, we are ok on the professional globes, but as LED marches forward I could see that one day becoming an issue; though no time soon.

Granted Amazon isn't the be-all-end-all of bulb ordering, but if you try to buy and ship to California currently, this is what you get.

Aapo Lettinen · June 26, 2023

here the household incandescent bulbs were phased out years ago but it is still possible to special order certain types of bulbs if needed. Generally they are allowed to sell the "hammer bulbs" (extra durable ones with thick glass and more sturdy filament) and high temperature ones, and one can still order certain wattage normal bulbs at least from abroad. Both clear and frosted bulbs are still available in normal E27 used here.

I would imagine the ban working similarly in the States, the "hammer bulbs" and high temperature ones left alone because they are very hard to replace with leds and meant for special uses rather than normal household lighting. One should be able to get "hammer bulbs" with the same base than normal bulbs so that one could replace normal bulbs with them in practicals on film shoots.

One other thing is that on most parts of the World, companies are allowed to order and use different stuff than individuals and should be easy to get incandescent bulbs for your company when making movies. The bans and such tend to drive the prices up though so that would be a reason to stock them if needing lots of bulbs on shoots

Edited June 26, 2023 by aapo lettinen