DoE new Energy legislation changes this July and Halogen Theatrical lamps- are they affected?

DELO72

Well-Known Member
Short answer: "No."

I was approached a few times at USITT last month by people panicking after hearing from someone else that new DoE rules would make halogen lamps obsolete. That person had heard it from someone else, who had heard it from someone else, etc. --- you know the drill and how theatre rumors work. So I took some time to research it (since at the time I wasn't aware there were new regulations coming active in July of 2023). You can do the same if you are really, really bored. -- https://www.regulations.gov/document/EERE-2021-BT-STD-0012-0022

The short takeaway is that this legislation, like all the ones before it, are about GSL types (General Service Lamps). These are the lamps you typically find at a Home Depot, Lowes, Graingers, Walmart, etc., etc., that are used in residential or office settings. The vast majority of the lamps used in the Entertainment world (and also the Medical, Airfield, Semi-conductor, UV/Life Sciences, Rapid Thermal Processing, Solar Simulation, Cinema Projection, etc.) are all considered Special Purpose Lamps and are exempt for a variety of reasons such as their use, their base type, their light output, and many other factors. So everyone please sit back, take a deep breath, take a slow swig from your preferred glass of whiskey/whisky, smile, and go back to happily using your beloved 65Q Fresnel or 26 Deg. Source Four ERS without worry. The sky is not falling.

Thank you. Please drive through.

-Mark
 
This is typical with many/most such government regulations. Congress passes a 5000 word law containing all kinds of amendments that have nothing to do with the intent of the law, then turns it over to one or more departments and agencies full of bureaucrats who spend the next 6 months writing 500,000 (or maybe it's 5,000,000) words of regulations and exceptions. Meanwhile the media summarizes the thing in 20 words and sensationalizes it to sell papers. If you wanna know the real scoop, google the law & read the whole thing. (Try not to yawn too mcch.)
 
When the legislation here was pushed through there were exemptions for "special use" lamps, which ought to have covered all the theatrical lamps, then it was found that the exemptions were largely based on things like base type, and there had been some omissions, so they were swiftly redrafted. So in theory we can still get any lamp we need, but in practice some lamps are already becoming scarce and prices are escalating, and some of course fall down the cracks - the lamps used in birdies (MR16 or GU10) are, of course, also domestic lamps. They are impossible to find in incandescent form - because they are considered a domestic lamp, it's illegal to manufacture and introduce new stock into the supply chain. Fortunately, the DIY sheds missed a trick and many of them started selling off their "obsolete" stock at a discount, so I cleared he shelves of one of our DIY places. Likewise the linear fittings used in Cyc fixtures are "domestic", and for a while we thought they would go the same way. However, those have an exemption because all the LED equivalents are a bit pony and simply don't work.

I'm just about to try to source some discharge lamps for some Martin Mac fixtures we have. They're out of stock at many distributors and on long lead times at some others. I'm bracing myself for the price quotes.

Sourcing lamps for practicals is a problem, of course. You don't always want something like a bedside lamp running at full brightness, so a small 25-40W lamp on a dimmer was perfect. But now the lamps are LED and don't dim.
 
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All of which is just another example of government trying to solve a problem by creating more bureaucracy and regulation which just costs us all more and interferes with getting our jobs done.
 
All of which is just another example of government trying to solve a problem by creating more bureaucracy and regulation which just costs us all more and interferes with getting our jobs done.
It shows that our use case represents a tiny fraction of power consumed by illumination, and that regulations (and supporting statute laws) are written without our use case in mind. Same thing happens in other niche use communities like recreational vehicle/motor home owners and various emission control/environmental regulation.

At issue with creating exemptions is that, upon publication, will spawn all sorts of exemption claims that render understanding, enforcement, and use all chaotic.
 
All of which is just another example of government trying to solve a problem by creating more bureaucracy and regulation which just costs us all more and interferes with getting our jobs done.
If I were to take this on a tangent, it would be about single use plastic bag being banned. Which just encouraged the plastic bag manufacturers to make the bags heavy duty enough to call "reusable", but in the consumer's eye, it's still single use.
So we're now using and disposing of more plastic than before.
 
When the legislation here was pushed through there were exemptions for "special use" lamps, which ought to have covered all the theatrical lamps, then it was found that the exemptions were largely based on things like base type, and there had been some omissions, so they were swiftly redrafted. So in theory we can still get any lamp we need, but in practice some lamps are already becoming scarce and prices are escalating, and some of course fall down the cracks - the lamps used in birdies (MR16 or GU10) are, of course, also domestic lamps. They are impossible to find in incandescent form - because they are considered a domestic lamp, it's illegal to manufacture and introduce new stock into the supply chain. Fortunately, the DIY sheds missed a trick and many of them started selling off their "obsolete" stock at a discount, so I cleared he shelves of one of our DIY places. Likewise the linear fittings used in Cyc fixtures are "domestic", and for a while we thought they would go the same way. However, those have an exemption because all the LED equivalents are a bit pony and simply don't work.

I'm just about to try to source some discharge lamps for some Martin Mac fixtures we have. They're out of stock at many distributors and on long lead times at some others. I'm bracing myself for the price quotes.

Sourcing lamps for practicals is a problem, of course. You don't always want something like a bedside lamp running at full brightness, so a small 25-40W lamp on a dimmer was perfect. But now the lamps are LED and don't dim.

Something weird I'm seeing now is wax warmers with halogen MR16s. But they're MR16s without the UV filter, which might position them as "special use". Not sure.
 
If I were to take this on a tangent, it would be about single use plastic bag being banned. Which just encouraged the plastic bag manufacturers to make the bags heavy duty enough to call "reusable", but in the consumer's eye, it's still single use.
So we're now using and disposing of more plastic than before.
That's an example of "gaming the exceptions" that I mentioned a couple replies up.
 
And in the file of creative work-arounds, there’s this classic example, The HEATBALL
 
This is typical with many/most such government regulations. Congress passes a 5000 word law containing all kinds of amendments that have nothing to do with the intent of the law, then turns it over to one or more departments and agencies full of bureaucrats who spend the next 6 months writing 500,000 (or maybe it's 5,000,000) words of regulations and exceptions. Meanwhile the media summarizes the thing in 20 words and sensationalizes it to sell papers. If you wanna know the real scoop, google the law & read the whole thing. (Try not to yawn too mcch.)
Actually, most legislations are written by the special interest groups themselves... your Congresscritters does not sit at a desk penning legislation.
 
When the legislation here was pushed through there were exemptions for "special use" lamps, which ought to have covered all the theatrical lamps, then it was found that the exemptions were largely based on things like base type, and there had been some omissions, so they were swiftly redrafted. So in theory we can still get any lamp we need, but in practice some lamps are already becoming scarce and prices are escalating, and some of course fall down the cracks - the lamps used in birdies (MR16 or GU10) are, of course, also domestic lamps. They are impossible to find in incandescent form - because they are considered a domestic lamp, it's illegal to manufacture and introduce new stock into the supply chain. Fortunately, the DIY sheds missed a trick and many of them started selling off their "obsolete" stock at a discount, so I cleared he shelves of one of our DIY places. Likewise the linear fittings used in Cyc fixtures are "domestic", and for a while we thought they would go the same way. However, those have an exemption because all the LED equivalents are a bit pony and simply don't work.

I'm just about to try to source some discharge lamps for some Martin Mac fixtures we have. They're out of stock at many distributors and on long lead times at some others. I'm bracing myself for the price quotes.

Sourcing lamps for practicals is a problem, of course. You don't always want something like a bedside lamp running at full brightness, so a small 25-40W lamp on a dimmer was perfect. But now the lamps are LED and don't dim.

well... PART of the reason lamps are becoming scare is because you all have switched to LED fixtures. IF you stop buying lamps (or buy a lot less), they becomes scarce. You reap what you sow. You want HPLs to stay around forever? BUY MORE OF THEM.

:)
 

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