Ultimate Business Guide

Project Illumination

By Megan Malugani

Gone are the days when a light bulb was just a light bulb.
These days, you can choose between your old-school
incandescent, your almost-mainstream compact fluorescent,
and your cutting-edge LED. Dave Sorensen, general
manager at Bright Ideas (Rochester Market Square, 37 Wood Lake Dr. SE , 252-8376), sheds some light on the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Incandescent: The old stand-by
Standard incandescent bulbs are still widely used but have
taken some heat for their inefficiency as 'greener' bulbs become available. Almost 90 percent of the energy that goes into a standard incandescent bulb comes out as heat and only a small percentage comes out as light, Sorensen says. "That's why there's a big push away from those—not to take anything away from our friend Thomas Edison," he says. A typical incandescent bulb burns for 1,000 to 2,000 hours and costs $.50 or so.

Compact fluorescent: More light with less power
Compact fluorescent bulbs have been on the market for several years and have been embraced by environmentally-
conscious homeowners (although the greenest among us may avoid them because "there is a little bit of mercury in every bulb," Sorensen says). CF bulbs provide more light with less power, and switching from incandescent to CF means that a person may not have to change a bulb for several years. Although each CF bulb costs more than its incandescent counterpart, the investment pays off in electricity costs. A compact fluorescent bulb burns for around 10,000 hours and can cost in the range of $4 to $20, according to various sources.

LEDs: The wave of the future
Even more cutting-edge than CF bulbs are LED (light emitting diodes) bulbs—the most energy efficient bulb of them all. "I think LED is going to surpass compact fluorescents," Sorensen says. The technology behind LEDs is constantly improving, so that the quality of light emitted from them—inconsistent up until now—is getting higher. (LED bulbs are a good choice for landscape, undercabinet, and recessed lighting, Sorensen notes.) The price per bulb is also decreasing a bit, although still prohibitive for some folks. An LED bulb burns for around 50,000 hours and starts out in the $30 to $40 range. With LED bulbs, the challenge is "balancing the quality of the light with energy efficiency," Sorensen says.