Every light source has some sort of tradeoff--even the sun now that I think about it. Back in 2007 I dutifully recycled my inefficient incandescent bulbs and switched to CFLs, even though they were costly, the light was colder, and the mercury made them problematic to recycle.
They'll pay for themselves over time. That's been the refrain with expensive energy-efficient products. Back in 2008, I noted that LEDs cost 20 times more than incandescent bulbs in this post about efforts in the lab to make them cheaper. While the price has gone down slightly, Fortune Magazine writer Michael V. Copeland reported recently that a Home Depot in California is hardly selling any of the new $20 residential LED bulbs they just got in stock.
Should buying a lightbulb be like buying a boiler? Heirloom design proponent Saul Griffith would probably say yes, but I think it's too much to expect consumers to view lightbulbs as long-term investments. The plastic-packaged CFL movement left me wondering just how much of a positive impact it had. I'm not eager to swap bulbs again. Besides, I hear that engineers are working on electron stimulated luminescence lighting.
Photo Credit: Windell H. Oskay, www.evilmadscientist.com.
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