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Home > Light My Nest > 002: How to Buy a Light Bulb - Home Lighting Design Choices
Podcast: Light My Nest
Episode:

002: How to Buy a Light Bulb - Home Lighting Design Choices
Category: Arts and Design
Duration: 00:16:36
Publish Date: 2017-02-20 14:31:00
Description:

Today we are going to talk about light bulbs. Since the most common incandescent lamps are disappearing from the shelves, we need to look for alternatives. Why did “they” ban our regular light bulbs? Well, nobody actually banned the incandescent lamps, but it sure feels that way.

The quick answer is that it was to save energy. What was wrong with the old incandescent bulb? I’ll actually start with what was so unique about it. When the light bulb was invented by Edison 137 years ago, it made a huge impact on the lives of millions of people. Imagine how life was before with gas and oil based lighting and afterwards where light could be turned on with the flip of a switch.

The light from an incandescent bulb is warm and pleasant. It has excellent color rendering. (100 on a scale from 0 to 100.) Incandescent bulbs are inexpensive, have a predictable light quality (as in: one bulb puts out the same color as the other), are unfussy about dimming (and change to a warmer hue with dimming, excellent for romantic evenings.) They don’t require fancy dimmers, don’t contain toxic mercury and turn on and off instantaneously. What is not to love? No wonder that we have been hesitant to change to more energy saving options. Back in 2007 when the Energy Independence and Security Act was signed I was not jumping up and down with joy even though I really see the need for a huge change in how we guzzle up energy.

As a lighting professional I was unhappy with the alternatives that were available on the market. But now it’s a different story: CFLs have improved tremendously and LEDs are showing such incredible potential. I’m so excited just thinking about what is available – and imagining what the future will bring for the lighting industry. So, back to the good old Edison bulb and why it’s time to retire it. An incandescent bulb turns 90+ % of the energy it uses into heat and only 5 – 10% into light.

That’s almost like trying to light your house with a bunch of toasters! (And then of course cooling it with air-conditioning!) There are an estimated 4 billion lamp sockets in the US that take incandescent screw-in type bulbs with 3 billion still in use with this130 year old technology. So no matter which exciting innovations we are expecting from the LED revolution, innovations that won’t need bulky screw-in lamp bases, there is definitely still a need for a replacement for the Edison based lamps.

 
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