The incandescent light bulb is about to go the way of its inventor, Thomas A. Edison. The incandescent bulb will become a historical artifact in 2020 when all new bulbs will either be LED or CFLs.
California made the first move on January 1 when Jerry Brown signed law mandates that stores can no longer sell incandescent light bulbs. According to the recent article in Building Design + Construction, that move will ultimately save consumers in California over $1 billion per year in energy costs; no small savings.
Changing out the bulbs in California alone is no small task as there are an estimated 250 million inefficient incandescent bulbs still burning brightly in homes and businesses across the state.
The rest of the country will follow suit in 2020 when the manufacture of incandescent bulbs will totally cease. Their manufacture has been phased out since passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandated the shift to the newer more efficient bulbs. I wonder whether the venerable Mr. Edison ever foresaw the end of the incandescent era while he was trying hundreds, some say thousands, of ways to create the first incandescent bulb?
