The light comes on when it comes to saving energy

Let's shine the light on lighting. Lighting makes up nearly 19 percent of global electricity demands. According to the Energy Information Administration), 14 percent of residential electricity consumption in the U.S. comes from lighting.

Can a light bulb make a difference? Apparently, 150 billion kilowatt-hours worth.

With so many choices for light bulbs available, it can be difficult to know what and how many to buy. Incandescents are being phased out, CFLs have mercury and what of LEDs?

Before moving back to Las Vegas, my husband and I lived in a cozy Tokyo condo. We had four light bulbs: one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom, one in the kitchen and one in the main room. With plenty of windows, we didn't need lights during the day, and at night we usually used only one at a time or two, if we closed the paper shoji door and needed alone time.

Recently, we moved into our condo in Henderson and found the bathroom lighting ablaze. We immediately removed the 16 hot, incandescent bulbs above the two bathroom mirrors and gingerly stored them to give back to our property manager when our lease expires. We replaced the 16 with four energy-efficient bulbs. And, yes, I can still see my smile lines just fine.

This took a trip to Home Depot, where I found myself dazed in the light bulb aisle. If it wasn't for the knowledge and patience of orange-vested Marvin, I'd still be standing there lost. He explained everything I ever wanted to know about light bulbs and then some.

History of the bulb

Thomas Edison was instrumental in the creation of the incandescent light bulb in 1879. It changed life for us dramatically by extending work hours, allowing for safer transportation and improving entertainment. Imagine Las Vegas without lights!

Simply put, incandescent bulbs work by using an electrical current that passes through a filament creating heat and controlled combustion, which produces light. Most of these incandescent bulbs use anywhere from 40W (watts) to 100W of energy to burn one bulb and typically last about 1,000 hours. An LED bulb, using only 8 to 10 watts of energy gives the same amount of light (lumens) and lasts more than 25,000 hours. LEDs skip the combustion step that produces the majority of the heat.

During the George W. Bush administration, Congress passed a bipartisan bill called the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This bill was to phase out the manufacturing and importing of incandescent bulbs that did not meet the federal energy-efficiency standards.

The bill started with phasing out 75W and 100W and, by 2014, included 40W and 60W bulbs.

To change or not to change, that is the question

When I asked Marvin at Home Depot why there were still incandescents being sold, he explained that people don't like change (an understatement). He added that the law does not prohibit people from buying or using them if they want. They just cannot be manufactured anymore, unless they meet the federal standards.

The good news is LED, or light-emitting diodes. Just a few short years ago, these semiconductor diodes could mainly be found in small directional lights, electronic displays and in some Christmas lights. Now the highly efficient bulbs are made in a wide variety of shapes and colors.

Last year in Japan, I sat with my husband, who puffed with pride, watching three Japanese scientists receive the Nobel Prize for physics on television. Their team efforts had figured out the last link of the color spectrum, the blue light-emitting diodes.

Red and green light-emitting diodes have been around for several decades, but without blue emitting diodes, white LED lighting would be unachievable. My husband proudly reminded me of this as we change our bulbs to LEDs, as if he discovered it himself.

Side-by-side comparison

A 60W incandescent bulb uses 60 watts of energy. The equivalent in an LED uses only 10.5W.

An incandescent bulb can last 1,000 hours, and an LED lasts 25,000 hours.

An incandescents average price is $1 (times 25), and LED bulbs run $4 to $8.

The energy cost over 25,000 hours for 60W incandescent bulbs is $165 ($.11 per kilowatt-hour).

The equivalent in a 10.5W LED costs $28.88, saving the consumer $136.13 per life of each bulb in energy costs.

Las Vegas saves $2 million a year from the installation of 42,000 new LED streetlights. Not only does this save money on energy but on maintenance as well, as the bulbs will last three times longer than the old bulbs. This type of retrofitting is happening in cities and communities across the country.

Battle of the bulb

Even with affordable pricing, lower heat, a substantial decrease in energy cost and a variety of styles and colors, many still prefer the old incandescent bulbs to the new LEDs. So much so, that in 2011 Congress voted to defund the law it had just passed a few years prior. Some of the reasons are political, but some reasons are what Marvin spoke of at Home Depot: "People generally don't like change."

For whatever reasons, many people like the nostalgic yellow glow of the tungsten filament incandescent.

Well, have no fear, businesses aim to please. New LED filament bulbs are now available that mimic the old inefficient ones in style and color with the added value of energy savings and duration.

I thanked Marvin for his help and left with my new LED supply of regular-style bulbs in soft white and cool slim style versions in daylight for less than $4 a bulb. Change is hard, and the changes we need to make to address our present environmental challenges now go way beyond light bulbs. However, one bulb at a time, your pocket book will thank you.

— Mary Beth Horiai has split her adult life between Japan and Southern Nevada. In Las Vegas, Horiai worked for the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council of Nevada. A graduate of UNLV, she was trained as a speaker for The Climate Reality Project. For more information and links to additional resources relating to this column, visit www.driverofchange.net.