If you really love traditional metal-filament light bulbs, 2011 is the year to stock up on them, because you'll soon be hard-pressed to find them on store shelves.
Mooresville-based home improvement giant Lowe's put out a press release commemorating incandescent light bulb inventor Thomas Edison's 164th birthday Friday - and reminding customers that federal energy efficiency legislation mandates a gradual phase-out of incandescent bulbs from 2012 to 2014.
"While the phonograph has been replaced by sleek digital music devices, the telegraph by texting and the motion-picture camera by advanced, hi-definition and 3D technologies, we’re still using the incandescent light bulb today," Lowe's said in the release.
Lowe's, like most retailers, is offering a greater selection of compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), halogen and LED light bulbs in advance of the new regulations. Although CFLs cost more upfront ($9.48 for a four-pack of 100-watt Sylvania CLFs vs. $4.48 for an eight-pack of 100-watt Sylvania incandescents at Lowe's), supporters say CFLs can save more than $40 over their lifetime by using three-quarters less energy and lasting ten times as long as incandescent bulbs.
IKEA is the first major retailer to totally phase out incandescents, which they did in January. Retailers are working hard to sell customers on the energy efficiency and long-term savings of new light bulb options, presumably to help them deal with the sticker shock of vanished cheap lighting options.
And evidence suggests they have a lot of work to do getting customers' attention. A telephone survey of about 1,000 adults commissioned by IKEA and released last month found that 61 percent are unaware that incandescents are about to burn out for good because of the new federal rules.