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"   You&amp;#039;ve grown up with incandescent bulbs and are probably accustomed to their shape, intensity, and warmth. As of January 1, 2012, the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) will require the gradual phase-out of incandescents, starting with high wattage bulbs (100 watts or higher). If you didn&amp;#039;t know about this legislation, or you knew and were about to stock-pile incandescents in preparation, don&amp;#039;t worry. There are plenty of great (and better) alternatives. Both CFL and LED bulbs have come a long way from their beginnings and the stereotypes you may have of them no longer hold true. To help you understand the options, here are a few things to, excuse the pun, illuminate them. Bulb Types: There are 3 mains types of bulbs on the market, in addition to incandescents and a hybrid.    Bulb   Cost/Efficiency/Lifespan     LED   Very High     CFL/Hybrid   High     Halogen   Medium     Incandescent   Low    Color Temperature:  &amp;quot;Warm&amp;quot; colored bulbs look orange, while &amp;quot;cool&amp;quot; colored bulbs look white or bluish. Color Temperatures (see right) are based on a scale that assigns lower numbers (K) to orange (warm) light and higher numbers to whiter (cool) light. If you like the warm golden glow of incandescents, look for an LED or CFL with a lower color temperature. Wattage: Wattage measures the amount of power a bulb consumes. This energy is converted into both heat and light. You&amp;#039;ll notice that high efficiency bulbs stay cool (less energy goes into producing heat), while inefficient bulbs produce a lot of heat. In the days when incandescents were the norm and light output (measured in Lumens) was proportional to the amount of power consumed it made sense to measure bulbs by the watts they consumed. Now that the efficiency of a bulb has changed substantially, it&amp;#039;s no longer accurate to judge a bulb&amp;#039;s light output on the power it consumes.  Bulbs are now rated based on their equivalent wattage. For example, a CFL which consumes only 13W of electricity might produce as much light as an old 60W incandescent bulb, so it&amp;#039;s called a 60W equivalent. Shape: Bulbs come in hundreds of shapes and sizes, but here are a few of the basics.   Spiral: This is a popular shape for CFLs. They are omnidirectional (meaning light is emitted in all directions). You may not like the funny shape of these bulbs.   A-Shaped: A-type bulbs are the size of a typical incandescent but can be CFL, halogen, or LED. These also give off light in an omnidirectional fashion.  Reflector: Designated R-() reflector type bulbs are directional, meaning most of the light goes in one direction.  Our testing: Despite how far LED and CFLs have come, we&amp;#039;ve heard lots of complaints (and also experienced first hand) that bulbs often burn out before their claimed lifespan or just don&amp;#039;t look as good expected. At the Good Housekeeping Research Institute, we&amp;#039;re currently testing 35 different bulbs to see whether they live up to their claims. We have bulbs running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and others rapid-cycling on and off to simulate years of use. We&amp;#039;re measuring light output, direction, color temperature, and warm-up time. We also have a consumer panel testing how pleasant it is to read and do other real-world tasks in the light from the various bulbs. Stay tuned for the full results in an up coming issue of Good Housekeeping. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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