fair usage quote of NYT article
December 22, 2007
No Joke, Bulb Change Is Challenge for U.S.
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
The new energy bill signed this week makes it official. When 2012 hits, stores can no longer sell the cheap but inefficient incandescent light bulbs that are fixtures in most homes.
Even so, light bulb manufacturers say that worries about greenhouse gases and the high cost of energy had them moving away from conventional incandescents way before Congress weighed in. For quite some time, they note, they have been trying to soften the light emitted by compact fluorescent lights, bring down the cost of light-emitting diodes, and yes, find ways to increase the efficiency of incandescents.
Many of the products are already on the market, and more will be available before the deadline kicks in,
The important things about this, IMO, are:
- manufacturers are supporting this (probably in part, because the new technology will have higher margins for them while it's still new
- It is no longer a question of IF old-tech incandescent will be banned, it's when. We should push for earlier both at the Federal and state level.
- They actually did this part of the bill right, it doesn't mandate a specific technology, just efficiency standards, so new-gen incandescents as competitors for CFLs may return, and they haven't accidentally made LED lamps illegal.
Oddest thing about this is that I found out about it in slashdot... AFAIK, we all missed this in discussion of the energy bill... which is now shown as not being quite as bad as we thought.
Offhand, I'd guess we'll see LED light bulbs at prices comparable to current unsubsidized CFL in a year or so... and in 5 years, conventional lighting won't be socketed anymore, LEDs should last the lifetime of the fixture, so why not solder them down?
I think new-gen incandescents will wind up as replacement for lamps in existing fixtures.