The US Department of Energy Has Released a Report Describing The Changes in The Market

The US Department of Energy has released a report describing the changes in the installed lighting market in the US over the last decade by technology and sector. The report indicates a 29% increase in average energy efficiency and a 14% increase in the number of lamps. A detailed report has been published recently by the US Department of Energy (DOE), which indicates an overall trend toward higher average system efficacy of installed lighting in the US from 45 lm/W in 2001 to 58 lm/W in 2010(Fig. 1). This 29% boost in system efficacy is due mainly to the replacement of incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in residential applications, and to the replacement of T12 fluorescent lamps with T8 and T5 fluorescent lamps in commercial and industrial sectors. The efficacies of each of the sectors shows that residential is the sector most in need of improvement with an average efficacy of 19 lm/W, significantly below the other three sectors, which have average efficacies at or above 70 lm/W. The improvement in industrial and outdoor sector efficacies is attributed to a migration from mercury-vapor lamps to metal-halide lamps. At the same time, new construction has led to an overall 14% increase in the total number of lamps installed in the US. The total number of lamps installed increased from 7 billion in 2001 to 8 billion in 2010, largely in the residential sector. The increased number reflects an increased number of residences but also a trend toward larger homes that require more lamps. The 2010 US Lighting Market Characterization report states that lighting accounts for 700 TWh, or 19% of the country’s energy use (Fig. 2). The commercial sector consumes nearly half of the total (349 TWh), which is largely dominated by fluorescent lighting. Although the residential sector (175 TWh) contained far more installed lamps, most of them incandescent, these lamps experience less daily use, on average, than commercial-sector lamps. It's worth noting that LEDs barely register on the chart of total electricity consumption in Fig. 2. Source: LEDs Magazine