There are a lot of considerations these days when buying a new light bulb, all captured in a recent article from Leslie Brooks Suzukamo at the Pioneer Press that features the CERTs Right Light Guide. Keep reading for a preview, or click here for the full article.
Excerpt: Brian James needed a light bulb. Just one little bulb to replace a 40-watt light that burned out in his stairwell. How hard can that be? Pretty hard, it turns out.
“I’m balancing the expense versus the efficiency of the bulb,” the 51-year-old Bloomington resident said after spending long minutes scrutinizing an array of incandescents, compact flurorescents and LED bulbs ranging in price from $2.50 to $20 at Lowe’s in West St. Paul. “I would prefer more energy efficiency, but is it worth paying such an expensive price for such a small amount of light?” James asked. He finally chose an incandescent, reasoning that the light was so seldom used that energy-saver bulbs wouldn’t make much difference.
But increasingly, the simple days of replacing a 40-watt incandescent bulb with another 40-watt bulb are over. Consumers have a lot more decisions to make. The new energy-efficient bulbs throw off the same amount of light using a fraction of the electricity, sometimes as much as 85 percent less. So consumers are now confronted with a new lighting yardstick called lumens, which measure the actual brightness of the light instead of the amount of electricity or watts that the bulb uses.
What color light do you want? Soft white? Warm white? Bright white? Daylight? Be careful – some daylight-rated compact fluorescent bulbs may have a cold bluish cast instead of the warmth the name evokes for most people.
And how much do you want to pay? Do you want a cheap incandescent bulb that will burn out in a matter of months? A more expensive compact fluorescent that will burn out in a couple years? Or the most high-tech and pricey light emitting diodes or LEDs that can last for decades?
“It’s almost like you have to do your homework before you go out and shop. It’s like shopping for a car,” observed 29-year-old Jesse Oropeza, who tagged along with James for the trip to Lowe’s.
