The incandescent light bulb has seen its day; guzzler of electricity, producer of waste heat, short of life, it is slowly but surely being supplanted by CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lights) and LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). If you've got
one of these, then
an incandescent bulb is still the way to go - but the tide is turning. (Note there are now
LED models among the classics.)
Follow me past the Orange Omnilepticon for a quick look at three recent stories about switching to more efficient lighting, and how it is making a difference.
UPDATE: All right - Community Spotlight and the Recc List? Nice! This looks to be a topic a lot of people are paying attention to - there are some good suggestions in the comments - and some questions. I'm adding a section at the bottom of this diary to pull some of these together.
One more thing - if you find this diary useful, don't hesitate to share it via social media. Kos will thank you for helping drive site traffic - and there's good info in here it won't hurt to spread.
A Quick Overlook
First, a few basics. The incandescent bulb is easy to understand: electric current runs through a filament inside a glass globe, heating it white hot to make it glow. But, if the idea is to produce light, only about 5% of the energy actually goes to that - the rest gets turned into heat. Over time, the stress of heating eventually destroys the filament.
Fluorescent bulbs work differently. A fluorescent light passes an electric current through mercury vapor inside a glass tube; excited by the current, the mercury vapor emits ultraviolet light - light that can cause sunburns and retinal damage. That's why fluorescent lights are completely coated on the inside with a phosphor coating. It absorbs the UV light and re-emits it (fluoresces) in visible wavelengths.
Fluorescent lights are harder/more expensive to make than incandescent bulbs. They require a 'ballast' to regulate the current needed to make the mercury vapor glow, and the mercury itself is considered environmentally hazardous and must be disposed of properly. Further, fluorescent bulbs take a little longer to reach full brightness and some people find the color of fluorescent light displeasing to the eye.
But… fluorescent bulbs use less power to create the same amount of light, generate much less heat, and can last much longer. Compact fluorescent lights start with these advantages and go further. The ballast and light tube have been shrunken down to where they can fit into fixtures originally designed for incandescent bulbs. Newer designs do a better job of providing more natural color and brighten up faster. And, they can last far longer than incandescents. (I have some early CFL bulbs that are still going strong after at least 15 years - and I got them used!)
LED lights continue the trend. While LEDs have been around for a while, it is only recently that they've become available in colors and brightness suitable for use as replacement lighting for incandescents and CFLs. LEDs emit light through electroluminescence; getting electrons to emit photons of light as they bounce back and forth through holes in semiconductor material. As such, the conversion of electricity to light is even more efficient than in fluorescent bulbs and heat is not a factor either.
LED lights do not contain mercury and have potentially long lives in use; they don't need a warm up to reach full brightness and many people find the color they provide acceptable, even pleasant compared with the alternatives. The chief shortcoming - and it's apparently minor - is that over time they tend to become less bright. Although expensive and somewhat difficult to manufacture compared with fluorescent or incandescent lights, rapid advances in semiconductor technology are bringing down costs and widening the advantage LEDs have at a rapid pace. They're turning up in all kinds of places.
I have an LED flashlight that is not only far brighter than conventional ones I've used with comparable batteries, the batteries so far seem to last a lot longer. I'm currently looking forward to seeing how these new LEDs work out replacing incandescent bulbs in electric trains. (A long string of lighted passenger cars can really use up all the power a power pack can supply.)
So, to recap: Incandescents -> CFLs -> LEDs = Good -> Better -> Best - or so the trend seems to be.
Story Number One: Who's Buying, and Where?
Utilities, some local governments, environmentalists, and others have been on the efficiency bandwagon for some time, but how is it working out so far? GIGAOM has a nifty map.
Home Depot is the largest retailer of light bulbs in the world, so it’s got a birds eye view on who’s buying next-generation light bulbs — both LEDs and compact fluorescents — in which cities throughout the U.S. The company took sales data for over 2013 and census data and created this heat map-style data visualization showing off the top 10 and top 50 cities that bought energy-efficient light bulbs per capita.
It's not a comprehensive survey by any means, but it still provides some interesting data within the markets served by Home Depot. Who would have thought Atlanta, GA would lead the TOP 10 list, or New York wouldn't make it into the top 50?
Individual Choices Have a National Impact
From New Scientist comes a report that the U.K has passed "peak lightbulb"
We have passed peak light bulb. The average amount of electricity needed annually to light a UK home fell from 720 kilowatt-hours in 1997 to 508 kWh in 2012, a drop of 29 per cent.
Brenda Boardman of the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute says this is largely down to the phasing out of inefficient incandescent light bulbs. "Because of the amount we are switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs and LEDs, there is a huge drop in demand," she says.
From 2007 to 2012, the UK's peak electricity demand fell from 61.5 to 57.5 gigawatts. The benefits of efficient light bulbs are good news for the UK, which will have to work hard to maintain its electricity supply. Some of the nation's ageing power stations are being mothballed over the next few years, while new capacity from renewable sources is slow in ramping up and planned nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point are a decade away. This means the risk of power shortages will rise in the next five years.
However, the switchover to energy-efficient light bulbs means any shortage would be unlikely to cause full-blown power cuts.
While we tend to think about Peak Power in the U.S. matching up with increased air conditioning demand during heat waves, the
New Scientist article notes that countries in the northern hemisphere (and the father north, the bigger the difference) see demand peak in December because that's when nights are longest and demand for lighting is greatest. Peak Power capacity is determined by the expected peak demand; it's when power providers fire up their power supplies of last resort - the most expensive ones, the dirtiest ones, etc. Reducing that peak demand by using more efficient lighting seems like a small thing - but it adds up far beyond lower electric bills!
New Light in Old Spaces
Why spend more to replace lighting? Sometimes it makes sense beyond the basic argument that spending more money up front saves over the lifetime costs of operating something cheaper to run. Sometimes it has some very impressive cost savings from a different direction. Consider the Palace Theatre in Albany, NY.
The burned-out bulbs in the massive chandelier at the Palace Theatre can be difficult to replace.
The fixture must be lowered to the lobby floor by a winch in the ceiling.
But with work under way to install light-emitting diode bulbs, that task will have to be done less frequently. That's because the new bulbs are expected to last 13 years or more.
The Palace is embarking on a project to replace 8,000 bulbs throughout the theater, many of them energy-hungry incandescents, with the LED fixtures...
…The theater will realize savings "just (on) the manpower alone," said Holly Brown, the theater's executive director. "Some of the spots in this theater are extremely challenging to get to."
The new LED bulbs will, of course, reduce the bill
the Palace Theatre pays for electricity - but they'll also save because they won't have to have people doing the rather risky work of replacing bulbs as often. If you've been hesitant to replace bulbs in your home or workplace with LEDs because of the cost, start with replacing lights in the hardest to reach places first!
Panoramic view from the balcony of the Palace Theatre - they could definitely use some light!
Followup UPDATE: In the spirit of lighting an LED instead of cursing the darkness, here's some stuff worth sharing from Comments.
Grey Fedora has put together
a bunch of helpful tips including a list of bulbs that are
excepted from new energy standards requiring CFLs or LEDs.
Several commenters brought up the problem of decorative lighting, those places requiring small socket bulbs and/or special shapes. I did a quick search and found a couple of answers right here! Doubtless there are more and if anyone wants to include them in a comment, please do. One more thing - it looks like LED lights are available that can be dimmed, although I don't think I've found anything that corresponds to the old 3-way incandescents...
Liberal Thinking found a Consumer Reports article which notes that two LED lights they tested did NOT dim or change color when tested over the claimed life - and their power requirements didn't increase either. That's good news for the long haul.
In one of those manifestations of keyword tracking and behind the scenes snooping, when I checked into this diary just now to update it, right at the top of the page was an ad for all kinds of LED lighting solutions, including LED replacements for old-style fluorescent light tubes.
In some evil fun, cotter person directed a tea bagger to a stash of Incandescents while chortling over the Light Bulb Conspiracy. (The tribal instincts of the Tea Party clan reflexively oppose any perceived liberal government initiatives and mandates, no matter how much it hurts them.)
One incandescent bulb that is probably not going to be replaced soon (if ever) was turned up by jwinIL14.
Several commenters mentioned that the heat from an incandescent bulb is a feature, not a bug - they use the bulbs because they provide heat for certain uses. Well, a quick web search turned up this site purporting to sell LED heat lamps! I have no experience with such, so consider this for information purposes only - but it's not surprising semiconductor technology can be adapted to produce heat as well as light.
Enjoy - and I'll update with any other useful info that comes up in comments.