By Ginny Skalski, Cree*
When you go to buy a light bulb or fixture this time next year, you’ll notice something new on the package. In mid-2011 “Lighting Facts” labels will be added to all U.S. light bulb packaging. The new labels are designed to help shoppers better compare the different types of bulbs available on the market.
The labels will look almost exactly like the “Nutrition Facts” labels you see on food products, only they will show off details such as lumens and color temperature. The Federal Trade Commission voted to add the “Lighting Facts Labels” to help change the “Watt” mentality that has been engrained into many shoppers.
You see, back when incandescent lights were the only thing on the market, you could pretty much judge what type of light output you would get based on the Wattage (even though, it’s not the right way to measure the type of light you’ll be getting). It was safe to assume that the higher a bulb’s Wattage, the brighter it would be.
But the new Lighting Facts labels will emphasize lumens as a measure of light output instead of emphasizing Watts. A graphic on the front of bulb packages will display how many lumens a bulb delivers. The back of the package will have additional information on Wattage, color temperature, etc.
Hopefully, this change to the packaging will push people to understand that Watts measure energy consumed and lumens measure light output. Those who are already energy conscious know this. But many shoppers don’t. And it’s important because as more energy efficient lighting options (such as LEDs) are sold at the store, consumers can no longer judge the brightness of a bulb based on Watts.
And as incandescent lights are phased out in the coming years, understanding how to select a good energy-efficient bulb is going to become even more important for consumers (hooray!).
Other features of the new labels include:
- Wattage: You’ll still be able to see how much energy your light consumes.
- Estimated yearly energy cost: That way if you’re spending more on the up-front cost of an energy-efficient bulb you’ll be able to gauge estimated savings to see the true value.
- Life based on three hours of usage a day: Since Cree LED lights are designed to last 50,000 hours, their life expectancy would be more than 45 YEARS if used for only three hours a day.
- Light Appearance: There’s a scale measuring the light from warm to cool, including the specific color temperature. No more guessing whether soft white means warm or cool or somewhere in between.
- Mercury Alert: Bulbs that contain mercury (I’m looking at you CFLs and other fluorescents) will be required to disclose that on the package, and include a link to the Environmental Protection Agency’s site that details how to clean up a broken mercury-laden bulb.
“The new labels will enable consumers to save money by selecting the most efficient bulbs that best fit their lighting needs,” according to the FTC press release.
And not only can consumers save money, the can also save energy, and that’s a lighting fact I can get behind.
*Ginny Skalski is social media specialist at Cree, a market leader in LED lighting. You can follow her on Twitter @Cree.
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