subject: Incandescent Home Lighting May Yet Survive [print this page] Incandescent Home Lighting May Yet Survive
Energy efficient incandescent light bulbs capable of meeting compact fluorescent light bulbs head on are on the horizon. The legislation Congress set forth in 2007 to ban inefficient light bulbs in 2012 has lighting manufacturers looking for ways to keep their hold on the incandescent market. Incandescent has always been the most popular choice for lighting among consumers, which makes the benefit of incandescent research obvious. If incandescent light bulbs can be made to be as efficient or close to as efficient as compact fluorescent light bulbs, manufacturers will find a way to make it so.
Philips lighting is on the forefront of attempts at more efficient incandescent lighting. They've released a 30% more efficient incandescent light bulb, which for 70 watts provides the same lumen output as a standard 100 watt incandescent. Not bad at all for a first release. Of course it's not enough for me to change back to incandescent (not that I would anyway, I prefer the light from CFLs), but it's a step in the right direction. The technology for these bulbs is being developed by a company called Deposition Sciences; they're looking to work with other manufacturers in addition to Philips.
While the 30% more efficient incandescent light bulb has been moved to consumer production, Deposition Sciences continues to develop further advancements. They claim they have created 50% more efficient bulbs, with further research ongoing. If such a bulb is released, it would only be a matter of time before incandescent light bulbs are matching CFLs at 75% increased efficiency.
An inventor in Los Angeles believes he can create an incandescent light bulb with 100% increased efficiency; I'm sure something was misinterpreted there, because we're kind of a long way off from 0 watt bulbs providing the lumens of 100 watt bulbs.
