Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb will be a thing of the past starting next year.
Beginning Jan. 1 2014, it will be illegal to manufacture or import incandescent 40-and 60-watt light bulbs, in compliance with the Energy Independence and Security Act. Stores that provide the light bulbs will be allowed to sell the ones they have left.
President George Bush signed the act in 2007. In 2012, 100-watt bulbs were phased out, followed by 75-watt bulbs in 2013. The phase out was initiated because incandescent light bulbs are considered inefficient.
"Once all of our nation's four billion screw-based sockets have an efficient bulb in them, U.S. consumers will save $13 billion and 30 large coal-burning power plants-worth of electricity a year." Noah Horowitz, senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Yahoo! Shine. "The savings really add up."
The alternatives to incandescent bulbs, CFLs and LEDs, are expensive. An LED light costs around $10 per bulb with the same power as a 60-watt bulb. About 50 percent of household lighting in the United States comes from incandescent bulbs, Yahoo! Shine reported. But Noah assures that over time, people will save $100 to $150 in energy costs with LEDs, Yahoo! Shine reported.
"If everyone would change to the CFL and LED light bulbs, we could feed every person in this world one meal, that's how much money we would save," Shelly West, Merchandise Manager at Ace Hardware, told WICS News.
Still, there are those who prefer incandescent light bulbs because of their charm.
"Until the mid-1850s, the only light that humans were exposed to was daylight and firelight- incandescent bulbs have a color that is similar to firelight," Lighting artist Bentley Meeker told Yahoo! Shine.
Meeker told Yahoo! Shine that LEDs become too harsh on the eyes after a while.
"The soul doesn't connect to LED, it's a visceral reaction," he said.
