Thomas Edison would be rolling in his grave if he knew that his most notable invention, the Incandescent Light Bulb, has been marked for phase out by Congress in a bill passed on December 18, 2007. Does this mean that we have to rush out and buy all new lighting? Not exactly. It is true that the President has signed into law, a bill to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2014, it should be noted that this bill only impacts the 100 watt bulb by 2012 to the 40 watt bulb by 2014. The most common and widely accepted replacement at the moment is the CFL or Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb. It has become a fixture in the lighting aisle of most home improvement centers. It uses about 75% less power than a regular filament bulb and lasts 10 to 50 times longer. The cost is relatively inexpensive as I have seen them in packs of four for $9.95. There are a few drawbacks to this type of bulb.

• They do not work well in cold environments. The gas in the bulb changes density at lower temperatures and the light will either be dim or not light at all.
• Not Dim-able. Although not exactly true, the majority sold at your local hardware still are not dim-able. Even if you find ones that are, be sure they are compatible with your dimmer. Those that will dim only work with older rotary dimmers. Newer 'soft' dimmers will not work.
• CFL's contain a small amount of mercury. This makes the CFL a hazardous material which needs to be disposed of properly. They should never be smashed as this could cause you to come into contact with the mercury inside.
• They won't bake! If your child has an Easy Bake Oven and wants to set an example by changing the bulb. I am sorry to say that the Easy bake Oven will be one of the first things to go to the recycling center.

The next evolution of lighting is L.E.D.'s or Light Emitting Diode bulbs. The LED light bulbs take even less power than CFL's, on the order of only up to 10 watts, and last almost a lifetime with care. The ratings are roughly 50-100,000 hours which figures out to just over 63 years. Talk about leaving a legacy to your children. There is no harmful mercury in LED's so if you had to dispose of a bulb, you would not have to be concerned with harming the environment. Is there a downside? Most would say the cost. The cost of an LED bulb is substantially higher. I have seen direct replacement bulbs from $US50-$100 each, but this is offset by never having to buy another replacement bulb again. Most do offer at least a 1 year warranty so if you happened to get a bad bulb, you would have time for replacement. LED's also suffer from temperature limitations, cold as well as extreme heat, but as the technology improves, so will the operating range. More and more manufacturers are getting on the LED bandwagon. There are replacement bulbs to fit nearly every fixture in your home as well as automobile, including tail lights and turn signals. Sadly the technology isn't quite advanced enough to replace halogen headlamps, but there may be a day or 'night' when the world is owned by LED technology. So please do your part and replace your incandescent bulbs with LED's.