North Coast Electric Company

There has been a lot of talk recently about the incandescent light bulb provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. Many have claimed that the government is phasing out or even banning the incandescent light bulb.

As always, there's more to the story.

The EISA doesn't really ban any light bulb technology. Rather, it specifies efficiency standards for energy consumption (watts) and light output (lumens) that will make current mainstream incandescent light bulbs obsolete. But that doesn't mean the manufacturers won't come up with new incandescent bulbs that meet the new standards. In fact we are already starting to see that and the first EISA bulb standards don't even take effect until 2012.

Here is what the new standards specify along with their effective dates...

So while CFLs and LEDs and who knows what else continues to improve, I think the incandescent light bulb, in a "new and improved" form, will be with us for quite some time.

Won't that be de-lightful? (or not? ;-)

Tom Woltjer, Energy Solutions Manager