STARTING IN MID-2011, the information displayed on light bulb packaging will change. For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission will require the front of the package to declare a bulb's brightness in lumens, rather than its energy in watts, as well as its estimated annual energy cost.
The reason for the change is that “a reliance on watt measurements alone makes it difficult for consumers to compare traditional incandescent bulbs to more efficient bulbs, such as [CFLs],” the FTC said in a statement in June. By using lumens, the new labels “will help consumers make purchasing decisions as they transition to more energy-efficient types of bulbs,” the FTC statement added.
Energy-efficient bulbs require less wattage power to equal the same light output of incandescent bulbs; CFLs, for example, require one-fourth the wattage of incandescent to produce the same lighting effect.
But the back of the light bulb package will continue to include a bulb's wattage along with brightness, annual energy cost, life expectancy, light appearance (warm vs. cool) and whether the bulb contains mercury. This data will be contained in a “Lighting Facts” label modeled after the “Nutrition Facts” label on food packages.
The estimated average cost will be based on a bulb used for three hours per day at an electricity rate of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. “For some parts of the country, this will be higher [than the actual cost], in other parts lower,” said Pamela Price, marketing manager for retail, Osram Sylvania, Danvers, Mass.