The brightest news in fluorescent lighting is here. Subcompact fluorescent lamps (sub-CFLs) offer consumers an energy-saving alternative to ordinary incandescent bulbs at a size that will fit nearly every light fixture.

This is no ordinary light bulb! When you replace an ordinary incandescent lamp with a sub-CFL, you’ll get the same amount of high-quality, good-color-rendition light but you’ll only be using one-fourth to one-third as much energy. Subcompact fluorescent lamps: last 8 to 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs; screw in to conventional sockets and fit inside most existing fixtures, with lengths as short as 4.7 inches; and save more than $15 per year on average, which means the money you save on your electricity bills may pay for the cost of the lamp in less than a year.

Did you know?
In the United States there are over 750 million incandescent light bulbs in use right now. Replacing just one of these incandescent light bulbs with a subcompact fluorescent lamp can save enough electricity to keep up to half a ton of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere over the lifetime of the lamp. Buzzing, flickering fluorescent tubes are a thing of the past. Today’s fluorescent lights provide the color and light quality similar to standard incandescent bulbs and they have such high energy performance that payback periods are usually less than a year. Produced by several manufacturers, this new generation of fluorescent lamps is shorter in length, so they fit in places the older compact fluorescent lamps couldn’t. At 4.7 to 6.8 inches long, the sub-CFLs are comparable to ordinary incandescent bulbs, and, because they have screw-in bases like traditional light bulbs, there is no need to purchase converters.

How to Turn a Bright Idea into Big Energy Savings
Sometimes a company will have a great idea for a new energy-saving product but they’re not sure if they should invest the time and money to develop it. It may look different, it may seem strange. What if no one will buy it?

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Building Technology encourages businesses to bring good ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. The goal is to make buildings, and the appliances and equipment in them, more energy and resource efficient. Through evaluations, demonstration projects, consumer information campaigns, and other programs, DOE identifies energy-efficient products and helps smooth their way to market.

In 1998, DOE found that the primary objections to existing compact fluorescents were their cost and size (too expensive and too big). In order to overcome these barriers, DOE embarked on an approach to technological innovation called technology procurement, which engages high-volume potential technology buyers in an intensive process to carefully define the technical specifications of a new product, and then uses a central competitive solicitation for offers from manufactures to supply the newly defined product. Manufacturers meeting minimum technical specifications (size and price were key elements in this case) and with the highest scoring bids were selected to supply lamps through the program. These lamps are sold directly to buyers, without DOE’s involvement. All lamps sold through the program were either specifically designed for the program, or were introduced to the U.S. market through the program.

Three suppliers presently participate in the program: SunPark Electronics Corp. of Torrance, Calif., Lights of America of Walnut, Calif., and JKRL USA of Casselberry, Florida.

Source: Pacific National Laboratories