In the 1880s, light bulbs revolutionized the world. Though we call them "lights," traditional incandescent bulbs are actually small heaters that produce a little light — but waste a lot of energy making heat.

Today, we can do better. At the moment, 85% of lamps used in European homes are not energy efficient. From September 2009 the phase out began of incandescent and less energy efficient bulbs, to be replaced with energy efficient bulbs to meet our lighting needs. By 2012, the European Parliament and Council of the EU aim to restrict incandescent lamps in Europe, and low efficiency halogen lamps by 2016.

Lighting typically accounts for up to 30% of total electricity costs within the home. Energy efficient lamps can reduce energy consumption by as much as 80% and can last up to 15 times longer than their less energy efficient equivalents. By installing energy efficient lighting or lamps you can reduce your overall energy costs as they use a fraction of the electricity.Not only can you get lower electricity bills, you can cut energy wastage by over three quarters (basically prevent 23 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. That is a saving of £3 a year for an average bulb, or up to £6 for brighter bulbs, or those used for more hours a day. Also in the summer, because they don't burn as hot as incandescent bulbs, they'll lower your cooling bills.

Energy efficient lamps today come in a whole range of shapes and sizes and give a high quality light, to be used in current applications.

Some Facts

If everyone in the UK switched all their remaining traditional inefficient light bulbs to energy saving light bulbs, the electricity saved in just one year would run the UK's street lighting for over 5 years or provide electricity for every house in London for 11 months.

If every household replaced just three 60-watt incandescent bulbs with efficient bulbs, the pollution savings would be like taking 3.5 million cars off the road!

Replacing all the remaining traditional inefficient light bulbs in your house could save you around £50 and 170kg CO2 a year, or £675 and 3 tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the bulbs.