4 Best Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Under $2

By Louis DeNicola, Cheapism.com

For those who haven't heard, the classic incandescent light bulb -- a staple for more than a century -- has officially been phased out. It fails to meet new efficiency standards put in place over the past couple of years, first for 100-watt bulbs and culminating with 40- and 60-watt bulbs at the start of 2014. Now U.S. companies cannot manufacture or import any traditional incandescent light bulbs. Consumers are left with a choice of energy-efficient alternatives, all of which cost more up front. In some corners, this has engendered outrage (and an impulse to stockpile remaining inventory). Others have cheered the move as a small step toward reducing the country's energy consumption.

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There are some exceptions to the new rules, such as three-way bulbs. Modernized halogen incandescents meet the requirements but have higher price tags than their predecessors. Meanwhile, two more efficient types of light bulbs are taking the place of incandescents: compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Although some consumers object to the prices -- a single 60-watt LED generally costs at least $10 -- these light bulbs use less energy and last much longer, so they eventually pay for themselves.

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A CFL bulb has about 10 times the lifespan of an incandescent and an LED lasts about 25 times longer. As for efficiency, CFLs and LEDs trounce traditional bulbs, which transform only 10 percent of the energy they consume into light and emit the rest as heat. A 19-watt LED generates roughly the same amount of light as a greedy 100-watt incandescent. As a result, wattage no longer serves as a proxy for brightness. Instead the industry has adopted lumens as a measure of light emitted and a way to compare equivalent types of bulbs.

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The cheapest CFLs cost less than $2, and each bulb saves $40 or more on electricity over its lifetime, according to government estimates. LEDs save even more energy and can go more than two decades without replacement, but again, they cost far more up front. Cheapism.com has taken a shine to four energy-efficient light bulbs -- three CFLs and one LED -- that keep the initial outlay to a minimum. Each one can capably replace a 60-watt incandescent.

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