As of August 1st, it became illegal to sell incandescent light bulbs anywhere in the United States. The changeover to LED bulbs is intended to save tremendous amounts of energy and thereby help deal with the problems posed by climate change.
However, some smaller incandescent bulbs, such as the ones used inside certain electric appliances, will still be used because they cannot – at least as of yet – be replaced by LEDs.
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The ban comes into effect after a nearly 16 year process. In 2007, the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act. This law required the Department of Energy to evaluate whether efficiency standards for light bulbs needed to be set or amended and required a minimum standard of energy efficiency for light bulbs of 45 lumens (a measure of light brightness) per watt to be considered. And this resulted in the implementation of the ban.
“By raising energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, we’re putting $3 billion back in the pockets of American consumers every year and substantially reducing domestic carbon emissions,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in 2022.
LED stands for light-emitting diode. They are a type of solid-state lighting that produces light when an electric current passes through it and are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs, and have a longer lifespan. LED bulbs come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and color temperatures.
Their advantage is in the energy they save and they produce less heat than traditional bulbs. This is because they only use the energy from light that provides illumination and leaves out the energy used for producing heat. They may cost more than incandescent light bulbs, but since they use so much less energy they end up saving users a great deal of money over the long term. And since they last longer one LED bulb is the equivalent of several traditional ones.
And in case you haven’t noticed yet, LED bulbs wattage is officially much lower than their corresponding incandescent bulbs, but they still give off more light.
An incandescent light bulb is a type of electric light bulb that produces light by incandescence. The filament is a thin wire made of tungsten, which is a very heat-resistant metal. When an electric current is passed through the filament, it heats up to a very high temperature, causing it to glow white. The glass bulb around the filament protects it from the air and helps to keep it from burning up.
Incandescent light bulbs are the oldest type of electric light bulb, and they were once the most common type of light bulb used in homes and businesses. However, they have been largely replaced by more efficient light bulbs, such as fluorescent and LED light bulbs.
“Energy-efficient lighting is the big energy story that nobody is talking about,” said Lucas Davis, an energy economist at the Haas School of Business, part of the University of California, Berkeley told the New York Times. “Going from an incandescent to an LED is like replacing a car that gets 25 miles per gallon with another one that gets 130 m.p.g.”
