The new E.I.S.A laws are changing the way that you are shopping for light bulbs. Not a big deal right? Wrong, what used to only be a small area of your local store has turned into it’s own section. This new retail section now has all kinds of “strange creatures” when it comes to different LED, CFL and energy efficient light bulbs. But, there is nothing to fear!

First off, you need to educate yourself on the new lighting laws. Knowing what the laws are, can help you make smart buying decisions. check out this short video on the new lighting laws:

We admit, it can be confusing picking an energy efficient light bulb. There are those squiggly CFLs, the space ship looking LEDs, and the “it looks like what I used to buy” halogens all waiting for you to chose them. Knowing that you have all these options before you go, will help you determine what you need to pick.

NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) has put out a great piece on choosing the right bulb. Also, the NRDC has also put out some great information on choosing the right bulb to meet your needs. TCP has also created a resource center to answer some commonly asked questions that can be found here: http://www.tcpi.com/EISAFaq.aspx

With new laws from the Energy Independence and Security Act quickly coming into place, lighting companies have done many things to stay ahead of the game. Many new LED, CFL and halogen technologies have been coming into play in the marketplace. These new energy efficient technologies are great for the environment, cutting back on the amount of electricity that they consume while producing the same amount of light output.

This is great for the lighting industry! However, for the general consumer, these new laws and new technologies open up a new can of worms. Now consumers have to ask questions like: “What do I buy?” “How does this work?” “Will this look good in my house?” However, there is one very important question that consumers are not asking is, “Do I need to be able to use this bulb on a dimmer?”

All of these great new technologies are great for energy savings, however not all of these bulbs work in all applications. Consumers need to be aware that not all of the new technologies will work on the standard dimmer that is currently in their house. They need to look at the bulb packaging and verify that the new bulb that they are picking does in fact work on a dimmer.

After finding out if the CFL, LED or halogen bulb that has been picked is dimmable, the next step is to see if the bulb works on all standard dimmers and if the bulb is to performs like the incandescent bulbs that they have become accustomed to. Many CFL and LED bulbs on the market require a special type of dimmer. It is important that if you are just looking to replace your current bulb that you choose one that will work on a standard dimmer and will not require you to purchase a new dimmer for your room.

The next step is to look at dimming performance. Not all CFL and LED bulbs that state that they are dimmable perform like an incandescent bulb! Some dimmable bulbs flicker and flash and do not have a “smooth” dimming curve. Make sure that you pick something that is going to perform the way that you expect it to. The best dimming CFL on the market dims from 100% down to 2% with zero low end flicker. The best performing LED on dims exactly like an incandescent from 100% down to 0%.

So, when you are shopping for a new bulb or helping a customer pick a new energy saving technology make sure that you know what type of dimming you need in order to pick a great bulb.

In my travels around the blog-o-sphere today, I found this great post on the Tips for Better Lighting Blog and thought I would pass the information along. There’s some great stuff in here about the E.I.S.A laws.

Could Congress be doing a cha, cha, cha on light bulb efficiency? One wonders as Congress debates The BULB Act, legislation that has 27 cosponsors in the Senate and a companion bill in the House. It would repeal the part of a 2007 law that toughened energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs, lambasting the standard as overregulation that is paternalistic and anticonsumer.

Still, The Christian Science Monitor reports “Kyle Pitsor of the National Electric Manufacturers Association (NEMA) testified that The BULB bill would be bad for US light bulb makers, who have already upgraded factories to meet new standards and would face a patchwork of state regulations if the uniform federal 2007 standard (due to take effect nation wide in 2012) were rolled back, he said.

” ‘NEMA does not support its repeal,’ said Mr. Pitsor. ‘It’s a common misunderstanding, but these standards do not ban incandescent bulbs, nor do they mandate the use of compact fluorescent bulbs…. Consumers will still be able to purchase a general service incandescent bulb,’ but one that will be 28 percent more efficient.’ “

Read about “the good, the bad and the ugly” of lighting regulation here in The Monitor.

With new lighting regulations going into effect in 2012, the FTC is doing their part to help educate consumers by developing packaging standards for lighting manufacturers. Currently, consumers use watts to figure out what type of light bulb that they need to purchase. However, with new technologies coming onto the marketplace every day that consume less power, this unit of measurement is not really an accurate depiction of how much light a bulb is going to put out. Having terminology such as “60 watt equivalent” is helpful, but confusing at the same time because a consumer isn’t aware of the energy savings that they are getting from that light bulb. The new standards from the FTC will focus on lumens and not watts to help consumers determine what type of bulb they need to purchase. But, the big question is the difference between a watt and a lumen.

Let’s first start with the definition of a watt. A watt is defined as the power needed to move a one kilogram object at the speed of one meter per-second against a force of one newton. More simply put a watt a measurement of how much electrical power a device consumes. When looking at lighting and watts, you are not looking at how much light a bulb puts out when looking at watts, but how much energy a bulb uses to put out that amount of light.

Now moving on to lumens, a lumen is a measurement of the amount of light that is contained in a certain area. The technical definition of a lumen is one candela multiplied by one steradian. A much simpler definition of a lumen would be that one lumen is equivalent to the amount of light put out by one birthday candle when you are standing one foot away from it. If a light bulb puts out 100 lumens, imagine standing one foot away from a cake with one hundred birthday candles on it.

Lumens are more accurate way of measuring the amount of light a particular bulb is putting out, because lumens are a direct measurement of light output. Wattage, even though it is what people have become accustomed to seeing on packaging and measuring how much light they are seeing, it is not really an accurate way to measure light output. Just because a light bulb uses a particular amount of energy to run, does not mean that it directly correlates with the amount of light that is put out. With a variety of energy efficient CFLs, LEDs and Halogen lamps coming onto the market on a regular basis that do not use nearly the same amount of energy as incandescent bulbs it makes sense for people to move away from thinking about wattage when they purchase a bulb and start thinking about lumens.

With California leading the pack by starting the phase-out of 100 Watt incandescent light bulbs a year earlier than the rest of the U.S. they have started a mild uproar. Many people are misinformed about the reasoning for the laws and what options they now have with the new laws being put into place. The new laws are regulating the, but are introducing you to a new variety of energy efficient options.

First off, there are many great reasons why this law was put into place in 2007. 90% of electricity that incandescent light bulbs use is wasted as heat. With over 4.5 billion sockets in the U.S. and around 3 billion still using inefficient technology, we are wasting over $13 billion a year in electricity. The amount of electricity that we will be saving with the new standards is just about equal to the amount of electricity that all of the homes in the state of Texas uses in an entire year.

The new lighting standards are also environmentally friendly. The new standards will reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by 100 million tons per year. 100 million tons would be the equivalent of around 12.5 million elephants. This is a huge savings and helps in the fight against global warming and pollution.

The new lighting laws are not banning incandescent lighting; they are just weeding out inefficient options. These laws actually put the consumer in the driver’s seat for picking the right energy efficient light bulb for any application. There are many different CFL, LED and halogen options to choose from that all meet the new standards and will provide the same amount of light that people are used to in their homes. Without out these new standards lighting technology and innovation would probably be in the same place that it was 15 years ago.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has recently published a great paper called Shedding New Light on the U.S. Energy Efficiency Standards For Everyday Light Bulbs on some of the changes and how they are impacting the everyday consumer. It’s a great read for anyone that is concerned about how the new lighting laws are going to affect them and really puts the rumors about how the government is banning traditional light bulbs to rest.

Shopping for light bulbs can be challenging. Not so long ago, you went to the store and bought an incandescent light bulb. But those have been deemed energy inefficient, and many will no longer be available from stores in 2012 – which leaves us selecting from an array of approved energy-efficient alternatives.

Although there are many options to choose from, two forms of energy-efficient lighting seem to dominate the market as replacements for the old incandescent. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) or light bulbs have the bigger share of the market, while LED bulbs are gaining in popularity. So what are the differences?

A CFL is a miniature, twisted version of the straight fluorescent tubes commonly used in office and retail settings. Many are designed to screw in to standard incandescent fixtures. When gas inside a CFL is excited by electricity, it produces an invisible ultraviolet light. The UV light then hits a white coating inside the CFL, producing light you can see.

The advantages of CFLs, according to ENERGYSTAR®, include:

• Provides the same amount of light as an ordinary bulb, but uses about 75 percent less energy
• Generates approximately 75 percent less heat, cutting home cooling costs
• Lasts up to 10 times longer than a standard incandescent bulb (Anywhere from 6,000 to 15,000 hours of use.)
• Saves about $30 in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
• Allows for different color temperatures (color) for differing applications
• Quality CFLs give off pleasing, wide-spread general light at reduced energy costs compared to standard incandescent light bulbs.

The disadvantages of CFLs include:

• A minute amount of mercury is included, which requiring careful clean-up and disposal
• Low-end, low-price bulbs often flicker, and burn-out quickly
• Higher initial cost than incandescent bulbs
• Not all CFL bulbs are dimmable. Use CFLs labeled for dimming
• Most photocells, motion sensors and electric timers are not designed to work with CFLs. Always check with the manufacturer or check the box for compatibility
• CFLs require a warm-up time before reaching full brightness. The time varies from a few seconds to minutes, depending on the manufacturer

LEDs, or Light Emitting Diode light bulbs, are “the new kid on the block” for residential and commercial lighting. Instead of giving off light from a vacuum (like an incandescent bulb) or a gas (as in a CFL), LEDs use Solid-State Lighting technology, or SSL. LEDs produce light while electrons move around within its semi conductors

LED advantages include:

• No mercury or other harmful elements are in a finished LED
• Extremely low energy consumption (LEDs use 8 watts to produce 60 watts of light. A CFL uses 14)
• LEDs last an estimated 25 to 30 years, or 50,000 hours
• Contain no glass and are difficult to break
• Excellent for rapid cycling, vibration, and hard-to-reach applications

LED disadvantages include:

• High cost, which will be recovered by long life and energy-savings, but it still deters many purchases
• LEDs are often more direction oriented in light output, which may be ideal for a recessed can, but not your reading lamp

So there you have it – some pros and cons of LED and CFL lighting. Choose the ones that best meet your needs and wallet.

With the new E.I.S.A Lighting laws going into effect soon, many people are concerned about the light quality that will be in their homes. Many people have tried CFL’s that are subpar and are upset about their slow start-up times that leave their rooms gloomy and dark when they flip the switch to turn on the lights. However, most people do not know about TCP’s InstaBright™ technology.

InstaBright was created because there was a market for faster starting CFLs. This CFL technology from TCP comes on faster with a 30-45 second run-up time. At 10 seconds, a TCP CFL with InstaBright will be up over 200 lumens where other bulbs are still under 100 lumens. Here’s a quick demonstration of this amazing technology:



TCP InstaBright CFLs are available in globe, par and A-Lamp sizes in a variety of color temperatures and wattages. These great bulbs are also ENERGY STAR® rated. InstaBright bulbs take away any concerns about walking into a dark room after flipping the light switch. For more information on InstaBright, visit the TCP website.

The Energy Independence Security Act of 2007 (E.I.S.A.), is forcing innovation to an old standard for the good. The E.I.S.A. standards call for better performing and more efficient lighting. That means that starting in 2012 (2011 for California’s accelerated schedule) inefficient lighting options will be phased out in place of more energy efficient options. The goal is that all sockets will be filled with energy efficient options by 2014. Here’s an exact breakdown of how the E.I.S.A standards are shaking out:

The law is not banning incandescent lighting, it is just creating a standard for lighting that traditional incandescent lamps do not meet. The government is creating this standard for lighting, because it is in the public’s best interest. These standards are ensuring the quality and safety of the public, just like they have on many products on the market today.

These new lighting standards are phasing out the blubs that you have come accustom to, but they are offering a lot more options that fit the energy efficient standards. Here are some options to keep in mind when shopping for light bulbs to meet the new requirements; the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb, the LED, and Halogen bulbs. There is no need to panic, all of these new lighting options are optimized for specific applications and will provide you with energy efficient lighting that will look great in you specific space.

Stay tuned for more lighting regulation information and how to set the mood with an energy efficient lighting option!

When shopping for light bulbs, it makes more economic and environmental sense to purchase the ones that produce more light with less energy. Lumens Per Watt (LPW) is used to show how much light is produced for each watt of energy used. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 to determine the LPW for each light bulb, or lamp as they are known in the lighting industry, to make sure you are getting the best deal.

1. Find the lumen output number on the light bulb box. This indicates how much light the lamp produces.
2. Watts indicate how much energy a lamp uses. That number is printed on the box and the bulb.
3. Divide the lumen output number by the light bulb wattage to get the LPW. It’s that simple.

Keep in mind compact fluorescent lamps last longer than standard incandescent light bulbs, but their light output decreases over the life of the bulb. Light bulb manufacturers provide both an initial lumen rating and a mean (average) lumen rating. Whether you are buying one light bulb or outfitting an office, purchase lamps with the highest rating to get the biggest bang for your buck. You’ll get the most light for the least amount of electricity. And while you may not notice much of a difference if you are purchasing one light bulb, imagine the energy savings for a hotel, office or store.

Here’s a great link to show you some of your different options when shopping for energy efficient lighting.

A light bulb is a light bulb is a light bulb – right? Wrong! There are certain types of light bulbs (or lamps as they are known in the lighting industry) which meet specific needs. Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL), for instance, are especially useful where dimming, rapid on/off (for signs), or long lamp life is required.

So what is a Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light Bulb? CCFL, like their cousins Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), use small, integrated ballasts to regulate electric current into a glass tube. The current then reacts with mercury and phosphors to generate ultraviolet light. In traditional CFLs, the cathodes incorporate thin tungsten wires which can reach upwards to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold cathodes use more robust solid metal stubs which max out at 200 degrees Fahrenheit – hence the relatively “cold” cathode.

What are the advantages of Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light Bulbs? Cold Cathodes are ideal for use in theaters, amusement parks, marquees, flashing signs, chandeliers, decorative applications, sanctuaries, down lighting and track lights. They are available in all common shapes, including a-lamps, flame tips, torpedo, G20 globes, G25 globes, G30 globes, R20 floodlights, R30 floodlights, and flat pars.

Dimmable down to 5% of total light output, Cold Cathodes provide more flexibility than CFLs. And, Cold Cathodes last for approximately 25,000 hours of use. That is over 15,000 hours longer than most CFLs. The extended life reduces the maintenance cost and hassle of replacing the lamps.

What are the disadvantages of Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light Bulbs? Cold Cathodes are restricted in light output, reaching only up to 40 watts comparable incandescent. Initial lumens range from 100 to 300. Compare that to the range of a traditional CFL – Upwards past 150 watts comparable incandescent and over 2850 initial lumens. Cold Cathodes tend to cost more than CFL for comparable uses. And finally, Cold Cathode and CFLs do not work well if used with timers, motion detectors, or photo sensors are used. On such systems, small amounts of electricity continuously enter the bulbs, even when turned off, diminishing the life of a Cold Cathode or CFL.

TCP has mastered the design and production of Cold Cathode technology.Choose the energy-efficient, long-lasting shape which best meet your unique lighting needs.