The principal icon for energy efficiency these days is the LED light first introduced around 1960.
The current generation of LED light has a relatively low light output, but coming generations are expected to deliver enough light to serve as a direct replacement for the incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs that light up the spaces where we live and work in. LED lights last 50,000 to 60,000 hours, ten times as long as a compact fluorescent and a hundred times longer than an incandescent lamp. Most important, they use only about 10 percent of the power as a standard incandescent lamp. Electric lighting consumes as much as 25 percent of residential electric power. Imagine all the power plants that would never have to be built if we lit our homes with light that saves 90 percent of the watts currently going to lighting.
LED lighting was the clear momentum leader going forward. One obstacle to wider adoption of LED lighting is cost. Price is still the key factor in terms of LED lighting, with nearly three quarters of respondents saying their company would consider replacing all of its lighting with LED only if the cost were less than $5 per bulb. But the survey does clearly show that LED lighting is a prime spending area in the world of corporate energy efficiency.
