GE phasing out CFL bulbs in 2016, shifting to LEDs
By Richard Clough Bloomberg News
General Electric will stop producing compact fluorescent lights this
year as the company founded by Thomas Edison shifts focus to more
advanced bulbs.
Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, are growing in popularity as their
prices decline, enticing consumers away from compact fluorescents, the
company said in a statement this week. The less-efficient CFLs accounted
for 15 percent of light bulb sales in the U.S. last year, about half of
what they did in their heyday, GE said.
The transition to LEDs, which can be used in smart-home systems,
reflects a broader effort across the company to marry software and
sensors with older technology. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt
has pushed to incorporate GE’s so-called industrial Internet
capabilities in heavy-duty products such as jet engines, oil field
equipment and gas turbines.
GE’s CFL operations grew in part out of the search for more
efficient lighting options amid government efforts to phase out the
old-fashioned incandescent bulbs that Edison commercialized.
The CFLs were never really popular, GE said, as consumers complained
that the light they gave was too harsh and that the bulbs’ usefulness
was limited.
LEDs, which can last significantly longer than other types of
lights, represent about 15 percent of the 1.7 billion bulbs now sold
annually in the U.S., GE said. The company projects LEDs will account
for about half of the bulbs used domestically by 2020.
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*================================================ Duane Whittingham -
N9SSN (ARES/RACES, EmComm, Skywarn & Red Cross)
http://www.radiodude.info ================================================*
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