No More Traditional Incandescent Light Bulb in the United States in 2014

According to US government and light bulb law, the traditional incandescent light bulbs will come to an end after they've been known for over 100 years, which is bad news for incandescent customers.

In the past few years, the U.S. government banned 100W incandescent bulbs in 2012, and 75W in 2013. And it is said that 60- and 40-watt incandescent bulbs will be phased out on Jan. 1, 2014. That is, you may not find those warm, bright and cheap, though energy wasting incandescent light bulbs in your local store shelves or retail store anymore in the next February or March. Click this link to know more about the Phase-out of incandescent light bulbs

Then what to do next time when you are buying a bulb? What are the alternatives or replacement for your incandescent bulbs? Here are some energy-efficient lighting solutions for your reference:
1. Light emitting diode light bulbs (LED) - my favorite
2. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFL)
3. Halogen bulbs

From a survey by Osram Sylvania, you will know:
1. Which efficient lights will consumers plan to switch to: 46% to CFLs, 24% to LEDs and 13% to halogen.
2. What's the most important feature for a bulbs: brightness(92%), lifespan (87%), energy usage (82%) and price (82%)

If you still don't know which one to switch from various replacement options and how they compare with a 40W standard incandescent, this compare chart will help you to make descion easily:
(Assumes 3 hours/day and $0.11/kWh electricity cost)

LED bulbs offer many advantages such as instant on, dimming and no mercury. Due to their high efficacy (lumens/Watt performance) and long lifetime, they offer the lowest total cost of ownership. Their only drawback is the initial sticker shock. Although prices have come down to <$10 per LED light bulb, I wonder if consumers won't just grab the lowest cost bulb on the shelf and be on their way. There is no doubt that LED lighting ever provides the best savings over the long term, especially when the hours of bulb operation are high. There is ample proof of this in the increasing use of LED lighting in commercial settings where the positive impact on the bottom line has been carefully calculated.