LED lighting, LED chip, lamp and lighting maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA has earned ENERGY STAR qualification for its soft-white Cree LED Bulbs. ENERGY STAR qualification signifies that these Cree LED bulbs now qualify for incentive rebates through certain local utilities. Cree says that not only do the ENERGY STAR-qualified LED bulbs look and light like traditional incandescent bulbs, use 84% less energy and last 25 times longer than typical incandescents, but now they will be more affordable in select markets with utility rebates.
“ENERGY STAR qualification can enable the Cree LED bulbs to be purchased with an instant utility rebate, delivering consumers a quality LED bulb for under $5,” says Cree chairman & CEO Chuck Swoboda. “Cree’s already affordable bulb, combined with utility rebates, makes switching to LED lighting an easy choice for consumers.”
The bulb can pay for itself in less than a year when combined with the utility rebates (based on $4.97 retail price - after utility rebates - on a 60W replacement at 9.5W, $0.11 per kilowatt-hour, 25,000 hour lifetime and average usage of 6 hours per day). Incandescent and compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs are currently installed in more than 5 billion residential sockets across the USA, reckons market analyst firm IMS Research. According to ENERGY STAR, if every American home replaced just one light bulb with a light bulb that is ENERGY STAR-qualified, enough energy would be saved to light 3 million homes for a year, save about $600m in annual energy costs and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse-gas emissions per year (equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars).
Cree says that its LED bulbs turn on instantly and are easily dimmable with most standard incandescent dimmers. In particular, the soft-white LED bulb 60-watt incandescent-replacement consumes just 9.5 watts, while delivering light output of 800 lumens. The firm’s LED bulb 40-watt incandescent-replacement in soft white delivers 450 lumens and consumes just 6 watts.
