$50 Light Bulb That Replaces A 25¢ Bulb Got A $10 Million Government 'Prize'

American Thinker ^ | 03/12/2012 | Warren Beatty

[SeekAndFind]

Have you ever heard of the "L" Prize? The Department of Energy's (DOE) "L" Prize challenged the lighting industry to develop high performance, energy-saving replacements for conventional light bulbs that will save American consumers and businesses money. Initiated in 2008 during the George W. Bush administration, DOE's first "L" Prize category was the 60-watt bulb because it is one of the most widely used types of light bulbs by consumers.

The "L" Prize was meant to hasten manufacturers' production of more efficient light bulbs in order to ease the transition away from inefficient incandescent light bulbs to more efficient Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED or just LED) bulbs. DOE Secretary Steven Chu said the prize was initiated to get the lighting industry to offer CFL and LED bulbs at prices "affordable for American families."

DOE announced in August, 2011, that Philips Lighting North America has won the first award under the Department's Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize ("L" Prize) competition. Philips received a $10 million cash prize as well as "L" Prize partner promotions and incentives. The new light bulb was demonstrated at the LightFair trade show in Philadelphia this week, and will go on sale next year.

All of that is well and good (if you can call awarding a $10 million cash prize "good"). But there is one slight problem with the winning light bulb -- it costs $50, and that's not a typo. That price seems a bit high, considering that the bulb it was designed to replace costs about 25¢. Similar LED bulbs that did not win the "L" Prize are less than half the cost. For example, EcoSmart offers an LED bulb, assembled in Mexico, for $23.97. And another Philips LED bulb, made in China, sells for $24.97.

[Nip]

There was a caller on Rush Friday that stated that he had a waiver and the machinery required to continue to manufacture the “old” incandescent bulbs. According to the caller, he is able to do this because he is manufacturing “heavy use” (outdoor, industrial use ?) light bulbs which were excluded from the energy conservation act. He also claimed that any and everyone could purchase these heavy use incandescent light bulbs.

If his claims are true, the new high priced, long duration lights are really going to languish on the shelves! They may even make the Volt look like a fast moving product for the same reasons.

[DBrow]

There are mistakes in that table. For instance, a 10W load run for 50000 hours is 500 KWH, not .01. 50,000*10 / 1000

Expected Life 50000 10000 1000
Watts 10 14 60
KWH/life 500 140 60
Cost of elec 0.1 0.1 0.1
Total Cost elec per bulb 50 14 6
Number of bulbs 1 5 50
Cost/bulb 50KHr 50 5 0.25

Total cost for 50KHRS 100 95 312

[kenmcg]

We’re up to our neck and many generations that follow us will never be able to pay off the debt. And yet our friggin’ commie government has the gall to award a foreign company $10 million of our dollars for a $50.00 light bulb. You can’t make this crap up folks. Another four years of these crooks and we’re history.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I have cfls that have went out in a few months...

After seeing what can happen to the ballasts on these CF bulbs, I will never use one again. Especially the Global brand from WalMart. I don't care what Gov't Agency says what about it. I've stocked up enough cases of the incans to last me a lifetime.

[stars & stripes forever]

Shining the light on a future executive order from the President: “An agency must be formed to help the needy pay for light bulbs...”

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

And Wal Mart has a CFL called "Lights of America" that uses 14W, and costs $0.97, and offers 900 lumens

Do not use them. They are manufactured in China as the 'Global' brand and the ballasts have been reported in many instances to catch fire. My house is worth more to me than being green.

[FrdmLvr]

This one needs its own thread. Just posted to fb.

[dareon]

LEDs can be dimmed but you have to design the electronics to do so. It might be a little tricky to make this compatible with how standard dimmers in a house work(triac). I would not try to hook them up this way unless the LED(fixture) manufacturer says you can.

[Jeff Chandler]

The cost of CFLs are $1-2 at Walmart.

[MrB]

Thanks, I did some research in the meantime and saw what the problem was.
I guess I just took it at face value when folks were saying that LEDs were dimmable.

Sure they are, but to account for the changing waveform coming in on the “dimmed” circuit, they have to have a lot more “smarts” and will cost a lot more.

[Izzy Dunne]

I don't care so much about being green as being less expensive. And if you will show me where I made a mistake in debunking the table above, I will listen.

If there is a made-in-America alternative, lay it on me.

In the mean time, Snopes and UrbanLegends both say your "many instances" is overblown.

[Izzy Dunne]

I did make a mistake in my version: not counting the lifetime of the bulbs. The electrical cost is still the same as I stated, I believe.

Try again:

50000 hours at 10 W = 500,000 W-hr, or 500 kWH, or $50 electric cost.
50000 hours at 14 W = 700,000 W-hr, or 700 kWH, or $70 electric cost.
50000 hours at 60 W = 3,000,000 W-hr or 3000 kWH, or $300 electric cost.

50000 hours at 50000 hr/bulb = 1 bulb @ $50 = $50
50000 hours at 10000 hr/bulb = 5 bulbs @$4 = $20
50000 hours at 1000 hr/bulb = 50 bulbs @ $0.25 = $12.50

Add the electrical cost to the purchase price and you get:
LED = $50 + $50 = $100
CFL = $70 + $20 = $90
INC = $300 + $12.50 = $312.50

I don't know about Chu, but that makes sense to me.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I meant to make no allusions to your debunking of the table from American Thinker. It has inaccuracies.

I only meant to warm about CF bulbs. One ballast flaming out is too many in my book. I have no reason to use them at all.

[lonevoice]

See post #16 for details.

It's true, and the bulbs can be purchased online now. They're made in the USA by Rush's new sponsor.

[nascarnation]

The bulb heat load does help in locales where there’s a heating season and of course penalizes A/C. Nobody seems to ever include that in the cost estimates.

Although there’s more daylight hours during A/C season so probably less of a penalty then.

[MinuteGal]

All my ceilings are loaded with "eyeball" fixtures...bulbs imbedded. They use 65 W Indoor Reflector Floods.

The surface of the bulb, of course, is what makes it an "eyeball" fixture.

What will replace these bulbs under the new despotic mandate? A bulb that looks the same, or a piece of spaghetti twirling down out of the cavity in the ceiling???

All the bulbs are on dimmer control. Will the new bulbs be "dimmable"?

In short, should I stock up on current ceiling bulbs....or what???

(...in layman's terms, por favor).

Leni

[Izzy Dunne]

The bulb heat load does help in locales where there’s a heating season and of course penalizes A/C.

That's true - I built an upstairs office in my house in 2004 and it's well insulated and uses 8 light bulbs for light. That's 480 W of heat I was generating, but it was too much: if the outside temp was above 30F, I would have to open a window. (wood stove downstairs).

Now it's not such a problem.

I read somewhere where somebody was getting around the rules by declaring their bulbs to be "heat bulbs", which accidentally generate light (which is actually more correct than "light bulbs" which generate more heat energy than light energy).

[Wolverine]

Obama’s Mandate
http://www.wimp.com/lightenup/

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

LED’s are no longer $50.

True, but the $50 bulb in the chart is the "L" prize winner, not existing LED bulbs.

[RightField]

Even some Europeans are raging against the machine:

Heatballs