Here’s a website posting to some information that will hopefully clear up a few questions about the new laws going into effect for energy efficient light bulbs.
http://shine.yahoo.com/green/truth-light-bulb-law-200200491.html
The question comes up around here quite often as to what is going to happen. As you’ll read from the article the change is going to happen, but it won’t be abrupt. Higher wattage bulbs will be phased out over time: “Old incandescents will not be taken off store shelves on January 1, but phased out as they are sold off. The old 75-watt incandescent bulbs will be phased out in 2013 and the 60 and 40-watt bulbs in 2014.”
The article talks about a new style incandescent that IS 28% more efficient. Of course, they will be more expensive, but over the long term they will eventually provide dollar savings by way of lower electric bills.
The article doesn’t mention it, but keep in mind the growing technology behind LED light bulbs. The cost on these is quite high by comparison, but the energy savings is even greater. But the color and tone of the light they produce still has much to be desired. I’m confident that eventually they will produce a LED bulb with lower cost that provides excellent quality light.
What I also like to keep in mind that there are billions of screw type sockets in the world and that isn’t going to change soon. So whatever they come up with is going to be backward compatible with our current light fixtures – no need to get anything rewired – at least for now.
