Incandescent bulbs run current through a filament, heating it to produce. CFLs send current through mercury vapour to generate UV light which excites the phosphor coating on the inside of the glass. LEDs use special semiconductors which emit light when excited electrically. Vu1′s technology does away with the filament (which is the achilles heel of the incandescent bulb, resulting in the eventual failure of the bulb when all the heating and cooling causes the filament to break), which should improve the lifetime.

Advantages
The bulbs look like regular incandescent ones. Indeed, the company claims that they source them from existing bulb glass manufacturers. They also claim that the new bulbs generate similar quality light as an incandescent, but do so at a fraction of the power. Given that they are using a phosphor coating on the glass though, the same technology as CFLs employ, I’m not sure how they can claim a difference in the light quality between their bulbs and CFLs (many of which now generate warmer light than their predecessors did).

When compared to CFLs, they are fully dimmable and contain no mercury (a concern for CFLs since they require special handling if broken and must be disposed of carefully). They also start instantly, rather than taking a minute or so to build up to full brightness.

They should also be cheaper than LED technology since they are much simpler to manufacture. CleanTechnica reports the pricing will be around $12/bulb – about the same as dimmable CFLs. That seems too high to me, but it is new technology so one can hope that the price will come down as the volume increases.

Compact Fluorescent Lights

The simplest choice today is compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). These use fluorescent technology, but rather than being long straight tubes, the tubes have been coiled up to look like a glass spring. In some cases, like the flood light in the picture, they are then enclosed in a glass shell so they look almost exactly like the regular incandescent bulbs they replace.

CFLs use around 25% of the power for the same light output, and they should last longer than a regular bulb, but they’re not perfect. From a usage standpoint, perhaps the biggest drawback to them is that they tend to start dim and build up to their full brightness over a minute or two. From an environmental viewpoint, they contain mercury, so they need to be recycled carefully when they do need to be replaced and not just thrown away.

If the bulbs you’re replacing are in a 3-way switch or are controlled by a dimmer switch, then you need to look for CFLs that are compatible with those systems. They are available though in most of the same styles as the regular CFLs.

LED Fixtures and Bulbs

A relative newcomer on the scene, and still much more expensive than CFL bulbs, LED lights offer even lower power consumption at around 5%-10% of an equivalent incandescent. They are cool to the touch and should last 10 times longer than a CFL (or 50-100 times longer than a regular light bulb), so they should last you a lifetime. And that’s a good thing given how expensive they are today.

There are an increasing number of options out there to replace most types of bulbs, they come on at full brightness immediately (faster than an incandescent in fact) and many are compatible with dimmer switches too.

Switching Off

Another simple way to save some energy (and money) is to remember to switch off the lights when you don’t need them. During the day, try to make use of natural light whenever possible. It’s free, better for the planet and arguably even better for you. At night, switch off lights you don’t need. If you have multiple bulbs on a single switch and you don’t need that much light, try taking out some of the bulbs (or replacing them with old, burnt out bulbs so they don’t look like they’re missing).