Consumers warm to LED bulbs as prices fall

"They're getting to a point where more people are willing to splurge," he said.Thanks to subsidies from utilities, improved quality and lower manufacturing costs, sales are expected to rise significantly this year, Connors said.Part of the shift is by default. Since last year, incandescent bulbs are being phased out.The 75-watt and 100-watt bulbs are no longer being manufactured, and the 40- and 60-watters will be eliminated next year.Although retailers can still sell the bulbs if they have supplies, most retailers are now stocking halogens, compact fluorescents and LEDs, with only a few incandescent choices.Although some might say LEDs are selling for lack of a better option, Connors thinks demand for LED will double this year for a different reason: the availability of cheaper, better bulbs.Early adopters who were initially disappointed can now find mercury-free bulbs that do what incandescents do well: reach maximum brightness immediately and have the capability to be used with dimmers, motion detectors and enclosed fixtures.

Although today's prices are a big plunge from $70 for a bulb in 2009, they still seem exorbitant for people used to paying 50 cents for an incandescent.But a 60-watt LED bulb that costs $13 pays for itself in about two years.Assuming use of three hours a day, an incandescent burns about $7 in electricity per year, an LED $1 per year, said Mike Watson, vice president of marketing at Cree Inc., an LED manufacturer in North Carolina.Watson sees $10 a bulb as the tipping point at which many consumers will try LED as a replacement for 40- or 60-watt incandescents, which make up 80 percent of North America's residential bulbsThere are some differences from traditional bulbs.People used to choosing by wattage alone now have to look at lumens for brightness and kelvins for color. Consumers have to read labels now, said Kim Sherman, senior product portfolio manager at Xcel Energy.The lack of consistency in size or shape makes it difficult for consumers to easily pick out the bulb they want. Besides 400 or 800 lumens and 2,700 or 4,000 kelvins, they have to read the label for a bulb's ability to be dimmed or used in an enclosed fixture.