philips L prize bulb | designed to replace a 60-watt incandescent, LED consumes 10-watts. set to debut in june in the u.s. for about $50 |click > large

switch60 warm white | a liquid cooled LED bulb. available in early 2012 | $20.

[ preview of upcoming feature ] 2012 brings in a new energy-saving lightbulb [ see background ] standard. In anticipation many light bulbs sold in the U.S. will typically use about 25% to 80% less energy and thereby meet these new standards, including incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs, and are already available for purchase today. The newer bulbs provide a wide range of choices in color and brightness, and many of them will last much longer than traditional light bulbs. The bottom line, all bulbs must be at least 25% more efficient by 2014. The incandescent bulb ( 1879 – 2014 ) is not expected to survive, going the way of the dodo bird.

[ background: energy independence and security act of 2007 ]

In 2007 the U.S. Congress passed legislation to ban the incandescent light bulb via the bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). The phaseout officially begins with the 100-Watt incandescent light bulb on January 2012 and ends with the 40-Watt bulb in 2014. [ note: the Act remains in place but in January congress pulled funding to enforce the law. ] Light bulbs outside of these requirements are exempt from the ban. The bill mandates that all light bulbs must use 30% less energy by 2014 and by 2020, all light bulbs must be 70% more efficient than bulbs used in 2007 and produce a minimum of 45 lumens per Watt.

[ need-to-know terms when buying a bulb ] LUMENS
The amount of light a bulb produces. This is “brightness” or “light output.” Your reference point: A standard 100-watt incandescent produces about 1,700 lumens.
WATTS
Not a measure of brightness but a measure of how much energy a bulb consumes to reach its claimed brightness.
WATT-EQUIVALENT
Sure to confuse, here’s how the LED’s are going to be presented: If a 100-watt incandescent produces 1,700 lumens, and a 20-watt LED does the same, the LED will be sold as a 100-watt equivalent.
EFFICACY
The number of lumens a bulb produces for each watt it consumes. The higher the number, the more efficient the bulb. A good number for incandescents is around 18, CFLs around 60, and LEDs around 54.
BULB LIFE
LEDs dim over time. They’re considered effectively dead when they produce no more than 70 percent of their original brightness. For LEDs, this lifespan is given in hours or years, the latter an estimate based on three hours of daily use.
ENERGY COST
Based on an assumption of three hours of use per day at 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. For a 60-watt incandescent, it’s just over $7 per year. CFLs and LEDs both come in at about $1.50 per year.
COLOR TEMPERATURE
Expressed in degrees Kelvin, this is how we measure things like soft white or daylight. A pleasant soft white will have a color temperature of 3,000 K. White light ranges from 4,100 to 6,000 K, roughly equal to midday sun. Higher numbers get increasingly blue.

[ coming: bulbs to choose from, and more ] [ philips $10 million L prize bulb ]