The old days of light bulbs are over.
Originally patented in 1879, light bulb technology has progressed from incandescent to florescent, then to compact florescent bulbs. The newest kid in town is the LED bulb and now we’ll never see light the same way again.
“The LED industry is new – it’s like the Wild West of lighting. It’s still a growing field and it’s always changing,” said Gail Beatty of Wolberg Electric in Saratoga Springs.
Branding Bulbs
LED bulbs are more efficient and last longer than incandescent or compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, but after LEDs blue beginnings, considering a switch causes quite a ruckus.
“The first objection I get is, ‘Those can be so blue!’ but actually, the color of an incandescent and an LED bulb can be so close you can’t tell them apart. LEDs are not the color of ET’s hand anymore,” said Beatty.
Lightbulbs are rated on a color temperature scale from warm to cool and there’s virtually no light fixture that you can’t get an LED bulb for.
The Federal Trade Commission created the Lighting Facts label (patterned after the nutrition label on foods) to tell consumers the color of the bulb, how much light it puts out, how much it costs to operate, how long it’s expected to last and how much energy it consumes.
Wrangling Watts
There’s a glaringly obvious missing link between this Lighting Facts label and how most of us are used to selecting lightbulbs. That is: understanding the difference between watts and lumens.
“We need to reeducate ourselves by looking at the brightness rating. A lumen is a measure of how much actual light a bulb puts out,” said Beatty.
Watts measure energy consumption. On our electric bill, we pay for the number of watts we use. When it came to lightbulbs, we got used to the idea of a 60-watt bulb consuming 60 watts of energy and associating that to a certain level of brightness.
We can't do that anymore since we have new light sources that use fewer watts to produce more light. Instead of lightbulbs being measured only by the amount of energy they consume (watts), we are now measuring how much light energy they produce (lumens). More lumens equal brighter light.
Cost Quarrel
The initial cost of LED lightbulbs is something to balk at until you understand lumens, how much money you’ll save on your electric bill and how long LED bulbs last.
“You do see a really huge drop-off in power bills,” said Beatty.
After switching to LED bulbs in her own home, Beatty’s average $150 monthly bill is now usually under $100.
“There’s a good tax incentive for businesses, and for home owners, the biggest incentive is saving money,” said Beatty.
The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act requires greater energy efficiency but does not ban the sale or manufacture of ALL incandescent bulbs. In 2017, an amendment to the act extends these energy requirements to specialty bulbs, three-way bulbs, chandelier bulbs, refrigerator bulbs, plant grow lights and others as of 2020 (although the Trump administration has proposed withdrawing those regulations).
General Electric is discontinuing the manufacture of CFL bulbs and Beatty predicts that CFL’s will disappear from the market soon because LED bulbs are just so much better – longer life, more efficient, better color rendering, no slow “warm up” time, and no Mercury pollution when they are disposed of.
“Our primary contribution to the community is education. We spend a lot of time teaching people and we’re happy to demonstrate the bulbs for you,” she said.
The Wolberg Electric Showroom is at 60 West Avenue in Saratoga Springs.
