A Popular Christmas Decoration Has Been Banned in WA

This Christmas season, a decades-old favorite decoration - became banned and isn't for sale in stores anymore.

The reason for the incandescent light bulb ban (effective August 1st, 2023) is that they’re not energy efficient.

Neil degrasse Tyson weighed in on these outdated relics of the past:

“Not that anybody asked, but do you ever wonder why the old lightbulbs get hot and the new LED lightbulbs don’t?

In the old lightbulbs - 90% of the energy you were paying for - 90% of the wattage -  was coming out in a band of light that you could not see.

It’s completely useless to you.

And what band was that? Infrared. 

We detect infrared as warmth and in the extreme as something very hot and that can burn you.

So what LEDs do - is take all the energy you need and want a lightbulb and put it all in the visible part of the spectrum.

Well, if that’s what it’s doing it doesn’t need 60 Watts or 100 watts to do it - it only needs 3 watts, 5 watts at most, 10 watts because all that energy is going into visible light. 

Welcome to the present. Welcome to the future.” - Neil degrasse Tyson

LED lightbulbs are more popular because they last longer - meaning, you don't have to change them as often.

Your wallet and your local PUD appreciate the fact that LED bulbs keep energy costs as low as possible.

If you still have incandescent Christmas lights - don't worry about throwing them away. You’ll just replace the old relics with up-to-date bulbs from the present. Bulbs from the future.

For more information, click here.

INFO: ABC News, Neil degrasse Tyson