Last night I decided to buy a new lamp for my bedroom. I went to one of the major chain discount stores, and found a “incandescent torchiere with reading lamp”. I intended to use compact fluorescent bulbs rather than incandescents, and assumed that the reference to incandescents on the labeling served to distinguish it from the halogen torchieres. The label further indicated:

This lighting fixture complies with the US Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products. LAMPS MUST TOTAL NO MORE THAN 190 WATTS. TORCHIERE IS NON_COMPLIANT IF IT IS ABLE TO DRAW MORE THAN 190 WATTS.

That didn’t sound problematic; after all, I was only planning to use one 42 watt CF for the main lamp, and one 26 watt CF for the reading lamp. Last I checked, 68 watts was no more than 190 watts.

I took it home and assembled it. There was a plastic box in the line cord with a button or knob; at first I thought it might be a dimmer, which would be unfortunate as normal CFs won’t work with dimmers. However, upon reading the brief instruction sheet, I found that the box is designed to sense the power drawn by the fixture, and shut it off if 190 watts is exceeded.

Unfortunately when I plugged it in, I discovered that the CFs would light momentarily, then the limiter would trip. Pressing the reset button on the limiter would simply cause the same thing to happen again. Incandescent bulbs are nearly 100% resistive loads, so they don’t have much inrush current. A CF, on the other hand, draws a surge current at initial powerup, then reduced current once it is operating. I believe it is this initial surge that is tripping the limiter.

A bit of searching uncovered the cause of this problem: Congress in their infinite wisdom passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public law 109-058), which provides in 42 U.S.C. 6295(x):

(x) TORCHIERES.—A torchiere manufactured on or after
January 1, 2006—
‘‘(1) shall consume not more than 190 watts of power;
and
‘‘(2) shall not be capable of operating with lamps that
total more than 190 watts.

Despite the package label, this is not part of the Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products program. The Department of Energy promulgated regulations to enforce the law, and has information on their Appliances & Commercial Equipment Standards page.

Although there are several ways for lamp manufacturers to comply, using an electronic limiter appears to be very common. This is more expensive than a fuse, but perhaps the manufacturers view it has causing fewer product returns or support calls. However, the end result is that the lamp as provided can only be used with incandescent bulbs, and not with energy-saving CF bulbs. And we have to pay extra for the privilege (those limiters cost money, raising the price of the lamp), and pay again in taxes to support the DoE’s compliance monitoring and enforcement.

I unplugged the lamp, cut the line cord to remove the limiter, and put on a new line plug. Now it works fine.  But had I not been inclined to modify the lamp, my response would have been to install one each 100W and 60W incandescent bulbs, thus using more than 2.3 times as much energy.  I expect most people that buy one of these lamps will not want to modify them, so the effect of the legislation will be to increase energy usage.

Since U.S. Representative Joe Barton (R, TX) introduced this legislation, I propose that anyone that encounters this problem and removess a limiter from a torchiere lamp in order to save energy by using CF bulbs should send the limiter to him with our compliments.  Maybe he can find a use for the limiters around his own home or office.  The address of his Washington office is

The Honorable Joe Barton
2109 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Even if it didn’t affect the use of CF bulbs, this legislation is incredibly stupid. If I need 300W of lighting in a room, and want to use incandescent bulbs, I’ll simply buy two lamps. This is the same stupid law that changed daylight savings time in 2007 for no good reason and to no measurable benefit.

I originally tried to come up with something witty to say about them, but perhaps it’s best not to let this blog degenerate into a cesspool toilet humor.