I was watching a TV show the other night about 2 guys who make a living by digging up what they call pieces of history (I call it junk) and reselling them as antiques. Most of the treasures they found came from the 1930's to the present day with some items much older. Each decade leaves treasures for future generations to find and call antiques. A good example would be 8 track tapes from the 60's and 70's which gave way to cassette tapes in the early 1980's. Cassettes were replaced by Compact Disks in the 90's which in turn have been replaced by MP3 players and instant downloads to our phones. It got me to thinking about what we will be leaving as antiques from this decade. What would the one thing our grandchildren will remember from the 2010's be?
In a flash of insight, the light came on over my head! Incandescent lighting itself becomes an antique beginning in 2012. Something everyone of us has taken for granted our entire lives will be phased out completely by 2014. Incandescent lighting is such an energy hog that the government is banning its use entirely. What does the government support as a replacement? Compact Fluorescent lights.
CFLs are being pushed at us constantly. They do use a significant amount of less energy over incandescent bulbs but all of us who have used them know how questionable the light being produced really is. CFLs are based on 70 year old technology that was originally designed as a temporary fix during WWII as a way for factories to keep operating 24 hours a day. Research shows that fluorescent lighting is not good for us by any means. You can find information on how lighting affects our health all over the internet with some of the articles dating back to the 80's but still we are being encouraged to use them.
Comparing an incandescent bulb to an 8 track tape would make the cfl bulbs compare to cassette tapes. The MP3 and instant download equivalent in lighting technology today would be Light Emitting Diodes. LEDs are actually an old technology as well with the first ones dating back to the early 60's. It has only been in the last three to four years the ability to produce white light needed for everyday illumination has been commercially available. In most instances, LEDs use 80% less energy than incandescent bulbs and 50% less energy than cfl bulbs. LEDs do not have the toxic Mercury gas contained in cfls. LEDs do not produce heat which helps to shrink our carbon footprint.
I suspect the symbol of a bare bulb coming on over our head when we get an idea will long outlive the memory of an incandescent bulb. Future antique hunters will be drooling over an actual working incandescent bulb in someone's attic probably within the next 20 years. Come to think of it, I think the CFL bulbs will become collectors items as well.