Starting August 1, 2010, IKEA will begin to phase out all incandescent light bulbs in their U.S. stores.
This home goods retailer aims to eliminate all incandescent bulb by January 1, 2011, which would make it the first major retailer to do so, ahead of a federal mandate that goes into effect in 2012.
While the compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) is the most popular replacement for incandescents, IKEA also offers LED lamps which are 70% more efficient than using incandescent bulbs and last 20 times longer.
And beginning fall, 2010, IKEA will offer a halogen bulb which can be used in a standard light socket and offer a 30% energy reduction compared to incandescents.
According to 18seconds.org, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with a CFL, we would prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than two million cars and families would save more than $600 million in annual energy costs. The average American family spends $1,900 on energy bills each year.
From 2001- 2007, IKEA was the first and only retailer offering its customers an environmentally safe recycling program for CFLs. In their fiscal 2006 year, IKEA recycled 126,722 CFLs.
In Related News…
The world may be moving toward a political tipping point to replace inefficient light bulbs. Sales in the United States climbed from 21 million compact fluorescent lamps in 2000 to 397 million in 2007. Of the estimated 4.7 billion light sockets in the United States, close to 1 billion now have CFLs.
Shifting to CFLs in homes, to the most advanced linear fluorescents in office buildings, commercial outlets, and factories, and to LEDs in traffic lights would cut the world share of electricity used for lighting from 19 percent to 7 percent. This would save enough electricity to close 705 of the world’s 2,670 coal-fired plants.
Read more on the topic from the Earth Policy Institute at the link below.
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