The NY Times has an interesting article on improvements in incandescent light bulb technology, as manufacturers, driven by government energy efficiency mandates and competing CFL (and LED) technology, try to come up with alternatives.
“There’s a massive misperception that incandescents are going away quickly,” said Chris Calwell, a researcher with Ecos Consulting who studies the bulb market. “There have been more incandescent innovations in the last three years than in the last two decades.”
The first bulbs to emerge from this push, Philips Lighting’s Halogena Energy Savers, are expensive compared with older incandescents. They sell for $5 apiece and more, compared with as little as 25 cents for standard bulbs.
But they are also 30 percent more efficient than older bulbs. Philips says that a 70-watt Halogena Energy Saver gives off the same amount of light as a traditional 100-watt bulb and lasts about three times as long, eventually paying for itself.
With efficiency standards set in 2007 coming into place in 2012, it’s a race for low-energy bulbs with a quick start-up time, pleasant spectrum, minimal environmental impact, long life, and low cost. While I think LEDs are the long-range winner, I’m happy to see a lot of ideas being tossed around out there.
Note, by the way, that this surge of innovation and competition is being driven in part by energy efficiency desires of the public, but primarily by a government mandate. (Eek! Socialism!) It makes you wonder how fuel efficient our car would be now if Congress had been steadily mandating tougher CAFE standards, rather than simply accepting the Big Three’s frantic assertions that it would destroy the auto industry to tell them they had to squeeze a few more MPG out of their models seven years down the road.