Turning out the lights on CFLs

Energy efficiency experts have long pointed to compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb as a home run for energy savings. But not everyone agrees that mercury-containing CFLs are the best solution.

The founders of a Vu1, a new Seattle-based company say they have a product for CFL nay-sayers: an entirely new bulb that would supplant CFLs at much less the cost of light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Vu1 in December 2008 raised $5 million in a private equity round to get through the independent testing process and the final stages of development. It’s planning to launch its first product in April 2009.

CFLs may be common—they grabbed about 20 percent of the market in 2007—but, even though they use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, they are not universally adored. Notably, each one contains a few grams of mercury, enough that many locales require them to be disposed of as hazardous waste.

In 2007, Congress passed a law mandating a phased switch to bulbs 30 percent more efficient than incandescents starting in 2012, Many think it paves the way for LEDs. Vu1, however, is preparing to launch an all new bulb that would be manufactured without toxins and would meet the law's most stringent requirements.

The bulb, made with Electron Stimulated Luminescence (ESL) lighting technology, would work in applications where CFLs do not, such as recessed can lighting or on dimmers. Vu1 claims the bulbs are much cheaper to make than LEDs, according to Ron Davis, the company’s chief marketing officer.