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LEDs: Lighting for the long term
- Carmen Pastore
Following the lead of countries around the globe, the United States has bid adieu to 100- and 75-watt incandescent bulbs.
Manufacturing of 60- and 40-watt bulbs will cease in 2014 as part of the U.S. Department of Energy mandate requiring household light bulbs to become at least 25 percent more efficient within five years.
The great news is 
there are energy-efficient lighting options that provide a similar amount of light to incandescent light bulbs while helping lower your energy bill.
Homeowners already are embracing energy-efficient alternatives. Among the options takingthe place of incandescents are LEDs, or light-emitting diodes.
While these bulbs carry a higher upfront price tag, they use 75 percent less energy than a traditional incandescent bulb and some last more than two decades. So the LED bulb you put in your baby’s nursery will still be going strong when you send him off to college, and it will pay for itself well before he completes elementary school!
For example, by simply replacing one 60-watt bulb with a GE Energy Smart® LED A19, it would produce nearly $6 in energy savings each year if used for three hours per day at an electricity rate of 11c per kWh.
In addition to lasting longer and using less energy, LED bulbs are a viable alternative to incandescents because they:
- are available in similar shapes and sizes
- don’t sacrifice the bright, white light you are used to
- are dimmable (some models, including GE)
- contain no mercury
- illuminate instantly
- are not affected by being turned on and off
Some manufacturers, like GE, have even engineered LED bulbs to emit light omni-directionally – or in all directions – just as your incandescent bulb does, so be sure to look out for this feature when shopping.
To learn more about LED options, please visit www.gelighting.com/lighttransforms.
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