If you are the one who buys the light bulbs in your household, you may be well aware that the days of 100-watt bulbs are numbered. Since they can’t be manufactured to use 25% less energy (as required by law), they can’t be sold or imported into the US after January 1st. Some consumers are stockpiling them, since you can use them for as long as you have them, but if you have an eye to keeping down your power bills, I doubt you’re getting too weepy right now.

While I applaud the urge to save energy, I don’t think alternatives for the 100-watt bulb are going to be wholeheartedly accepted by consumers. CFLs are much more expensive per bulb, and their longer life is easy for people to discount. Coupled with the dangers inherent in breaking a CFL and the effort required to dispose of it properly, I see CFLs as a compromise no one truly likes.

Fortunately, we are in a transition phase. LED bulbs are appearing all over, and companies are working overtime to make them cheaper, brighter, and just the right shade of creamy white we are used to with incandescent bulbs. That’s the upside. The downside is cost. LED bulbs are expensive. The cost will come down, but not to incandescent bulb price levels. Of course, only those of us born before 1990 will remember the days of cheap bulbs, so that’s something you can look forward to. Sitting in your rocking chair, waxing nostalgic for incandescent bulbs and music on CDs.

I think LEDs (by themselves) are amazing. They get to me on that ‘Gee whiz!’ level common to 2nd grade boys. If you look at an LED when it is off, it’s just a little square of light yellow. No matter how many times I read about how they work, it doesn’t click. I’m still thinking in terms of electrical resistance through a filament creating light and heat, but LEDs are something else entirely. And then there is the free-for-all in bulb design. The early days of incandescent bulbs saw all sorts of strange shapes fighting it out. Now, LED bulbs have the slogan, “The bulb of tomorrow, today!” They look like spaceships, not bulbs.

We use a lot of LEDs in exhibits, mostly for lighting artifacts, since they run so much cooler than incandescents or halogens. Some of our favorite products have LEDs wired onto a flexible ribbon that can be bent any which way.

Home improvement stores stock quite a few styles of LED fixtures and bulbs. Companies have created LED ‘bulbs’ that can replace fluorescent tubes, Exit sign bulbs, or just about any style of incandescent or fluorescent bulb you can think of. A couple of good places online include LED Fixtures & Bulbs and Super Bright LEDs.

New cars are using LEDs for almost every light, and industrial trucks have them for brakes and turn signals. Most municipalities have replaced their old incandescent traffic lights with LEDs, making them visible for miles.

Have you or your company used LEDs? What’s your favorite product?