Getting round the ban?

 

LightBulbChoice.com is coming to life again, a good comprehensive American campaign website with a forum, blog, petition links etc.

Recently they announced the possibility of allowing the incandescents to stay legal by means of adding a device...

"LightBulbChoice.com has recently joined forces with a corporation who has developed a device that makes incandescent bulbs meet the HR 6 energy efficiency guidelines. This product will be ready for market after the first of the year… just in time for the proposed beginning of the implementation of The Ban. With the introduction of this product we now can have our bulbs and save energy too!"

From further information,
"the technology is a diode that attaches the metal bottom on the bulb that turns AC into DC current which immediately reduces the energy consumed by incandescent bulbs by 40%... putting them within the new efficiency guidelines.
The corporation also has the patent on the design to put the diode directly inside the bulbs themselves. First they will come out with the "stick on" version, then they will come out with the actual light bulb."


Comment
Since light output seems lowered at an additional cost, the question is if consumers will go for this (even if legal).

German firms tried what seems to be similar current alteration devices some years ago without popular appeal, while the several other ways to improve incandescent energy efficiency, such as filament alterations and bulb coatings, (more: http://ceolas.net/#li8x) have all similarly lacked appeal, just like the touted halogen replacements.

As covered on the website, the appeal of regular incandescents goes beyond their price, in their simplicity and versatility, but if they are banned, then of course any of these developments might at least offer an alternative.
Unfortunately, EU and USA light bulb energy usage regulations effectively ban halogen and other incandescent replacements before 2016 (EU) and 2020 (USA).

In any case, major manufacturers have shown scant interest in improving incandescents, ever since the Phoebus Cartel limited their lifespans, and are even less likely to do so in the face of alternative profitable CFL and LED sales (cue China comment, previous blog post here).

That said,
if the corporation involved in the above device can temporarily exploit a legal gap in the market to provide a greater incandescent choice, so much the better...