FEATURE - Light bulb makers moving out of Edison's shadow
Date: 22-Aug-01
Country: USA
Author: Rina Chandran
Manufacturers have been expanding lighting far beyond Edison's energy-guzzling incandescent light bulb, improving the color and efficiency of lighting through halogen and compact florescent lights, and such novelties as "blue lights."
The new products have provided consumers the widest choice in residential lighting since the light bulb was invented, experts say.
In particular, use of compact florescent lights, known by the initials CFL, is up more than 50 percent in the past year and already accounts for 5 percent of the $1.9 billion residential lighting business, according to research firm Triad Vista.
"The energy crisis has certainly moved the general public toward the product," said John Rowe, a partner in The Lighting Resource, an online lighting database. "Businesses had already moved in that direction, now the average home user is."
Manufacturers have introduced sleeker designs of compact florescent lights, known as CFLs, at various price points to beat down consumer resistance to their high price, uninspiring lighting and lack of application, said industry experts.
Manufacturers also have overcome the flickering and humming associated with the unwieldy contraptions made just a decade ago.
"Manufacturers have created better color rendering, temperatures, newer shapes, and made CFLs look more like incandescent lights," said Susan Grisham, managing editor of trade magazine Home Lighting & Accessories.
Philips Lighting Co., a division of Royal Philips Electronics , which claims to have first introduced CFLs, recently launched the "Marathon" light, which looks like the standard incandescent light and lasts 6,000 hours, as compared to the 750-hour average life of incandescent lights.
General Electric Co.'s GE Lighting has also introduced new models, and Osram Sylvania, part of German industrial giant Siemens AG , has introduced "cool white" and "warm white" CFLs, strip lights, downlights and up-lights, and CFL tall floor lamps known as torchiers.
The results are encouraging, said manufacturers. Philips Lighting said its CFL sales are up 64 percent in the past year, and more than 300 percent in California. GE Lighting said demand is up by three to four times from a year ago.
BARRIERS TO INCREASED USE
Use of the more energy-efficient bulbs has been strongly encouraged by state governments and utilities, said Steve Goldmacher, director of public affairs at Philips, the leading manufacturer of CFLs. Consumers who've taken the advice have realized significant energy savings by using the new technology: CFLs last 10 to 20 times longer, and use 50 percent to 70 percent less energy, he said.
An average 20-watt CFL produces 34 lumens, or units of light, per watt and lasts 8,000 hours at a cost of $3.07 a year. A comparable 40-watt incandescent light produces 12 lumens per watt and lasts 1,500 hours at an annual cost of $6.13, according to the Energy Federation Inc., a not-for-profit conservation firm.
They are "efficient, cost-effective and maintenance-friendly," Goldmacher said.
However, these attributes are hard to communicate, and the price remains relatively high, industry experts said. CFLs cost between $7 and $20, while the average incandescent is priced at $2 to $3. In switching to a CFL, there may also be the added expense of a new fixture.
"Consumers can understand the extra dollars coming out of their wallets, but it's hard to understand how much energy they are saving, or how much longer a light bulb lasts," said Conan O'Rourke, technical director at the Lighting Research Center of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The challenge is also to get consumers to actively think about lighting choices, said industry officials, a tough task, given that consumers only think about it when a light bulb burns out.
"It's hard with lighting, a light bulb is a light bulb is a light bulb," said Tracie Kacmarcik, a manager for consumer products sales at Osram Sylvania, which is launchin