Soon, when you buy a new light bulb you’ll see a new Nutrition Facts-style label that details the numbers most important to you: how bright the bulb is, what the energy cost is, and when they’ll burn out.
https://gizmodo.com/the-light-bulb-that-could-help-to-save-the-world-5537191
The new lightbulb labels will be placed on the front of the lightbulb package and detail:
• Brightness (in Lumens)
• Energy Cost
• The Bulb’s Life Expectancy
• Light Appearance (for example, if the bulb provides “warm” or “cool” light)
• Wattage (the amount of energy the bulb uses)
• Whether The Bulb Contains Mercury
In old light bulbs, wattage was the main unit of measurement. That was nice and all but since wattage is more a measurement of energy usage, it wasn’t really relevant to a lightbulb’s primary purpose: brightness. With these new labels, lumens, a measurement of brightness, will get top billing.
But as cool as lumens and wattage sound when you say them, all I really care about is how it’s going to affect my wallet (and secondarily, the world). Thankfully, the new numbers tell you a bulb’s typical energy cost and average lifespan. So you’ll finally know if that $1 bulb is a real dealzmodo or not. The new light bulb labels are expected to hit sometime in mid-2011. [FTC]
