FTC Proposes New Output-Based Labels for Light Bulbs

The days of referring to a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) as being "equivalent to a 60-watt light bulb" may soon be over, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new labels for light bulbs that are based on light output rather than energy ...
Nov. 26, 2009

The days of referring to a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) as being "equivalent to a 60-watt light bulb" may soon be over, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new labels for light bulbs that are based on light output rather than energy consumption. The proposed labels provide consumers with information to help them choose among different bulb types.

The FTC is seeking public comments on new labels that emphasize lumens, not watts, as the measure of bulb brightness. This information, along with estimated energy cost information, would appear on the front of the light bulb package. The back of the package would display a "Lighting Facts" label modeled after the "Nutrition Facts" label for food packages, and first seen in the lighting market with LED lamps.

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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.