So says the Institute of Energy Economics, a research group overseen by the country’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

IEE analyzed the benefits of switching to LEDs following the March nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Meltdowns prompted the country to abandon expansion of a nuclear industry that has provided 30% of Japan’s electricity with 54 reactors – 35 of which remain shut for safety.

IEE’s findings surfaced this week in the Mainichi Daily News.

“Promoting the introduction of LED lights will serve as energy-saving measures that have immediate effects and sustainability,” the Tokyo-based online paper quotes an IEE representative as saying.

LED light bulbs use only about 10%-to-20% of the power consumed by incandescent light bulbs, and about 60% of fluorescents, including common energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs. IEE figured that Japanese homes, offices and manufacturing sites use some 1.6 billion bulbs, annually eating up 150.6 billion kWh of electricity.

If people replace those with LED bulbs, the country would cut annual consumption by 92.2 billion kWh, to 58.4 billion kWh, according to IEE. It says that’s the equivalent of 13 nuclear reactors, a quarter of the country’s total.

Cost is a challenge. As we’ve noted before, LED bulbs in the U.S. can have retail prices of $40. If you have, say, 40 bulbs in your house, you’d pay $1600 to replace them all at once.

IEE tallied the bill for 1.6 billion bulbs in Japan at ¥15.7 trillion ($194 billion). However, the upfront cost provides long-term savings not only in electricity bills, but also in longevity. Manufacturers say LED bulbs can last for 25 years, although it will take a quarter of a century to find out if that’s true.

Another knock on LEDs, especially for home users, is that lighting designers and architects note that they lack the warmth of incandescent bulbs. But the good news from Japan – 70% of the 1.6 billion bulbs in Japan are fluorescent, to which many people would prefer LEDs for glow.

The lighting giant said today that the EnduraLED A21 will be available in the fourth quarter for a price expected to be between $40 and $45. It will show off the bulb tomorrow at the LightFair lighting conference, where many LED lighting announcements are expected.

The EnduraLED A21 will be the first general-purpose LED bulb to give off as much light as a 75-watt incandescent bulb, according to Philips. It will be rated at 1,100 lumens and an efficiency of almost 65 lumens per watt.

The bulb itself roughly resembles a crown, a design meant to give off light evenly. LED light sources give off directional light, making them very good at downlights or spotlights, but now manufacturers are designing bulbs to disperse light more in all directions.

The bulb will have a rated life of 25,000 hours, or about 17 years with four hours of daily use. The color rendering index, a measure of light quality, is 80 and the color temperature is 2,700, or a warmer yellow light meant to be similar to incandescents.

Philips last year started selling a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb with the same design and LED light sources, which is available through Home Depot for $39.97. It uses 12.5 watts.

Lighting manufacturers are seeking to boost the brightness and light quality of LEDs to make them attractive alternatives to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. The prices for LED bulbs are much higher but are expected to drop over time.

Philips said that over its lifetime, an EnduraLED A21 could save a home or business $160. There are about 90 million 75-watt incandescent bulbs sold every year in the U.S., and switching to LEDs would eliminate the carbon emissions of almost 1 million cars, according to Philips.

The 8801 chip is small–about the size of a penny–and will be about the same price as existing LED lighting electronics. If Marvell signs on light manufacturer customers, it could bring the very good light quality of some commercial LEDs to more affordable consumer products, said Kishore Manghnani, vice president of Marvell’s Communications and Consumer business. He said the chip, which integrates multiple functions on this single controller chip, is being tested by commercial or consumer light fixture makers now and it takes them about six months to introduce products with new chips.

Light quality for consumer LED bulbs has improved over the past few years but the color rending index (CRI), a measure of quality, is still not as high as incandescent bulbs. With the chip, Manghnani said a CRI of 95, higher than most of the consumer LED bulbs available now, is possible.

The chip can control the current and temperature of two types of LED light sources. So a fixture or bulb maker could use the chip and driver to use LEDs with two different colors, such as white and red, to improve color rendering. Until now, the electronics to control different colored LEDs would be too large or expensive for consumer products, Manghnani said.

Others have introduced a number of LED bulbs in the last few years, but most have the same drawbacks: because LEDs are powered by semiconductors, they project light in only one direction and lack the warmth of their incandescent counterparts. Switch Lighting claims to have solved these problems by mounting outward-facing LEDs on metal fingers and cooling them with an inert liquid, creating a warmer, brighter output. The bulbs are also recyclable and, like most LEDs, mercury free.

They will be available in 40-, 60- and 75-watt equivalents, for about $20 each, later this year.

Researchers at the University of California in Irvine and Davis crushed LED bulbs from strands of Christmas lights and found that the red ones had up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, while the other colours bulbs had even more contaminants. White bulbs contained the least lead, but they had high levels of nickel, said researcher Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of the university’s department of population health and disease prevention.

“LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements,” he said in a statement.

The report is the first to look for toxic chemicals in LEDs, he added.

His team also studied larger LED bulbs in everything from traffic lights to headlights in cars. But the results, which are similar to the Christmas lights, have not been published yet.

LED lights have been widely hailed as a safer, more green choice compared to fluorescent bulbs, which contain mercury. Ogunseitan said he sent his findings to U.S. health regulators to warn them of potential dangers consumers could be facing.

LEDs are not classified as toxic products and there aren’t any disposal regulations, although the scientists now urge consumers to use gloves, a mask and a broom when they handle broken LED lights. Manufacturers and emergency crews who clean broken traffic lights should treat the LEDs as hazardous waste, they said.

The lead and other metals in the bulbs have been linked to hundreds of previous studies that look at cancer, neurological damage, kidney disease, skin rashes and other sicknesses, his team writes in their report, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Inhaling the fumes of a single broken light would not lead to cancer, but it could be a “tipping point” on top of chronic exposure to other carcinogens, the report warns.

It said that the copper used in some LEDs is also an ecological threat to fish, rivers and lakes.

“Risks are present in all parts of the lights and at every stage during production, use and disposal . . . consumers, manufacturers and first responders to accident scenes ought to be aware of this,” Ogunseitan said in the statement.

The LEDs could be redesigned so they’re made of safer materials, he said, calling the concern a “preventable risk.”

Consumers may not all be aglow with the idea, but the government-mandated phaseout of incandescent light bulbs has reached all the way to the winter home of Thomas Edison.
Under a 2007 federal energy law, manufacturers must phase out incandescent bulbs in favor of more efficient bulbs such as compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, LED bulbs or new styles of halogen lights.

The law phases out 100-watt incandescent bulbs in January 2012, followed by the 75-watt version in 2013 and the 60- and 45-watt bulbs in 2014.

At the Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, the incandescent garden lights have been replaced, even though Edison is credited with making the first practical incandescent light.

“Edison would have been all for this, because he was always looking for a better way to do something,” said Chris Pendleton, CEO of the estates.

While CFLs use at least 75 percent less energy, some consumers complain the lighting is dimmer, doesn’t look as warm and takes a while to reach full brightness. Some also worry about disposal requirements, because the bulbs contain a few milligrams of mercury.

“Every time I go to the store, I pick up a few (incandescent) light bulbs,” said Kay Horn, 62, of Fort Myers. “I probably have enough light bulbs for the next 15 years.”
Jack Lurie, owner of Tropical Hardware in Fort Myers, said he hears customers complain about the phasing out of incandescent bulbs and he said their sales have increased.

“There is plenty of stock now,” he said, “but that will change.”

The American Lighting Association’s Larry Lauck hasn’t seen statistical signs of stockpiling but has heard anecdotal reports.

Such reports are common whenever a new standard is introduced, says the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Noah Horowitz. He says consumers will be able to buy incandescent, but new ones will have more efficient halogen capsules.

“Unless you prefer paying higher electricity bills, there’s no reason to hoard old incandescent bulbs,” Horowitz says.

Richard Downing, 81, of Fort Myers has been using CFL bulbs in his home for almost 10 years. He has been a fan of fluorescent bulbs for 30 years, since he installed them on a 40-foot ketch.

“They drew the battery down a heck of lot less,” he said.

He said he is concerned about the bulbs’ mercury content, mainly because he worries consumers will just toss them in their garbage.

“You aren’t supposed to do that, but you know people will,” Downing said.

Lee County’s recycling program won’t collect the CFL bulbs, but homeowners can drop them off at the Household Chemical Waste Collection facility, 6441 Topaz Court in Fort Myers.

While that sounds inconvenient, Downing said he can’t say whether it is.
“In 10 years of using those lights, I’ve never had to replace one,” he said. “They might cost just a little more, but you make up what you spend very quickly in the energy savings and longevity.”

Due to provisions of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, also known as the Clean Energy Act of 2007, incandescent light bulbs will be phased out and replaced by more energy-efficient lighting, including halogen, compact fluorescent, or CFL, and light-emitting diode, or LED, bulbs.

General Electric Co., the last U.S. based manufacturer of incandescent light bulbs, closed its plant at the end of 2010.

According to GE, the Clean Energy Act requires that between 2012 and 2014, standard A-line 40- and 100-watt incandescent light bulbs must use 30 percent less energy, but produce the same light output as today’s incandescent bulb.

While consumers won’t be required to throw out existing bulbs, according to GE, “you may be surprised when trying to find the same replacements at the store. After 2012, you’ll find that these bulbs will have to be replaced with energy-efficient options, such as halogen, CFL and LED light bulbs.”

Richard Wilkins, operations manager for Ulster Electric in Poughkeepsie and Kingston, said that lighting technology is changing every day in an effort to meet demands for energy efficiency.

“There’s always something new coming out,” he said. “Lighting technology is going to change within the next 10 to 15 years,” he said.

LED lighting, for example, is currently somewhat expensive to purchase but is expected to come down in price, Wilkins said.

“LED lighting offers better light output with less wattage,” he said.

CFL bulbs, Wilkins said, draw a lot less energy but are more expensive to purchase than incandescent bulbs.

New construction projects benefit from tax incentives when installing energy-efficient lighting, Wilkins said.

“Architects are seeing rebates for using energy-efficient products in new construction, including commercial projects,” he said.

According to the United States Department of Energy, artificial lighting consumes “almost 15 percent of a household’s electricity use.”

Use of more efficient lighting technologies, according to the DOE, can reduce lighting energy use in homes by up to 75 percent.

The DOE’s EnergyStar website notes that one CFL bulb can save homeowners more than $40 in electricity costs over its lifetime.

CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.

Consumers have been slow to warm up to CFL lighting due to factors such as a yellowish lighting tint, a slow warm-up time and traces of mercury in the bulb, according to a recent article in USA Today.

Manufacturers are addressing concerns by producing bulbs that use less mercury and produce brighter light.

With LED lights, according to the DOE, small light sources become illuminated by the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material.

LED lighting is more efficient, durable, versatile and longer lasting than incandescent and fluorescents lighting.

LEDs emit light in a specific direction, whereas an incandescent or fluorescent bulb emits light — and heat — in all directions.

LED lighting uses both light and energy more efficiently, according to the DOE.

A benefit of LED lights is that they turn on immediately, as opposed to CFL lights that take a moment to illuminate.

The American Lighting Association recommends CFL bulbs as lighting for laundry rooms, storage rooms, kitchen and baths.

LEDs, according to the association, are very efficient light sources for a growing number of applications, such as under-cabinet lighting, task lighting and outdoor step lights.

For tasks such as reading, however, the association recommends that incandescent bulbs are often still the best choice because of their brightness.

To be as energy-efficient as possible, the association recommends using halogen incandescent bulbs instead of standard bulbs.

Halogen lights are more expensive to purchase than incandescent bulbs, according to the DOE, but are less expensive to operate because of their higher effectiveness.

They are commonly used in reflectors such as indoor and outdoor flood lighting, indoor recessed and track fixtures, and floor and desk lamps.

Unlike many CFL bulbs, some halogen lamps are dimmable, and are compatible with timers and other lighting controls.

According to GE, “Halogen lamps provide a small, white light source with excellent color rendering. Unlike standard incandescent lamps, halogen lamps use a halogen gas that allows the bulbs to burn longer without sacrificing light output.”

As living green becomes more ingrained in our lives, LEDS will continue to light the way, said Jeff Dross, senior product manager of Kichler Lighting, who will introduce several new under-cabinet systems and landscape products with an ultra-efficient technology next year.

LED lighting, in addition to halogen and CFLs, offers energy conscious options to replace the incandescent bulb.

The idea of an XL prize money on developing a light bulb may seem absurd but the amount of energy it would help save, which comes to 34 Terawatt-hours of power nationwide per year, does validate the huge offering. The entries were supposed to deliver at least 900 Lumens output, with a consumption of less than 10 watts, and a lifespan of at least 25,000 hours.

Energy saving is good, we hope they also keep the cost economics of the 21st century lighting substitute in mind.

The new LED bulbs can last for 17 years and are expected to outperform currently available products that may be underwhelming consumers right now.

GE has claimed that their new LED bulb is better at directing the light downwards onto the intended area and produces 450 lumens whereas LED bulbs offered by other vendors can only produce 350 lumens. GE has also filed multiple patent applications for the bulb and expects it will be an ENERGYSTAR (News – Alert)-qualified LED omni-directional light bulb.

John Strainic, global product general manager at GE Lighting has commented that this is a bulb that can virtually light users’ kid’s bedroom desk lamp from birth through high school graduation. It’s an incredible advancement that’s emblematic of the imagination and innovation that GE’s applying to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.

Strainic added that consumers are reluctant to move away from the less efficient incandescent because they prefer the light quality they produce. The new GE Energy Smart LED bulb will address that lighting preference head-on and give consumers yet another option to light their homes and businesses.

GE will put prototypes of the bulb – outfitted with Cree (News – Alert) XLamp XP-G LEDs – on display at two upcoming trade shows: Light + Building 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany, and LightFair 2010 in Las Vegas. The high-efficiency, high-lumen-output LEDs used in the GE bulbs are Cree’s smallest and brightest lighting-class LEDs, designed specifically for general lighting.

Analysts have suggested that the introduction of high-quality retrofit light bulbs, like the GE Energy Smart LED bulb can be the next step in LED lighting revolution.

The bulb will be dimmable and will provide 806 lumens, with the potential to save up to 80% in energy consumption, compared to incandescent bulbs.

Philips said the bulb has a 25,000-hour lifetime.

With federal legislation phasing out inefficient lighting in the years to come, it’s likely that additional LED replacement bulbs will hit the shelves in 2011. Last week GE (NYSE: GE) unveiled its first–a replacement for 40-watt bulbs.

Philips also detailed broader marketing plans for its LED offerings in years to come. The company is introducing a home lighting system called LivingAmbiance, which wirelessly integrates luminaires and lamps to create different light settings–including a range of thousands of different color–with touch-button control.

In 2010, the company will introdue a product platform of outdoor luminaires that it hopes municipalities will adopt for streetlighting.

The company is currently exhibiting its new products and concepts at the Light + Building architecture fair Frankfurt Germany.