What would we do without light bulbs? They illuminate nearly every facet of our lives. Not just our homes and streets at night, but so many things that we barely think about until the bulb burns out.

It’s in these little things where specialty light bulbs reign supreme. The itty bitty light bulbs that make all the appliances, odd and end fixtures, decorations, unusual and fun lamps, signs, digital displays, vehicle lights, and all the things that make our lives easier.

These versatile and unassuming lights have generally used Light-Emitting Diodes (LED), Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL), other kinds of lighting technology. With recent inventions and improvements on these kinds of lighting, the days are numbered for the familiar and dominant incandescent bulb.

The Nature of Specialty Bulbs

Is there a nature to specialty light bulbs? You bet. As hinted at above, these bulbs have fulfilled “specialty” types of purposes. If we took stock of every kind of light there is and what they are used for, we could literally fill a book. A really big book.

Just to give you an idea of the variety and diversity of specialty light bulbs, here is a condensed list; just the tip of the specialty light bulb iceberg.

We put little bulbs in everything it seems, stuff like scanners, cameras, computers, clocks, cell phones, PDFs, iPods, printers, televisions, DVD players, and all your electronic equipment. There are specialty bulbs for medical and surgical equipment, scientific equipment, commercial equipment, and all your street lights, billboards, exit signs, and store signs.

There are lights for aquariums, greenhouses, aircraft, dental equipment, projectors, infrared technology, tanning beds and other ultraviolet uses. Then there are all the cool-colored light bulbs, like black lights, reds, blues, yellows, greens, purples, pinks, and the multi-colored spinning kinds. Of course, the incandescent has most of these colors, but the LEDs, in particular, have real colors, not just white light inside of a colored bulb, as the incandescent models are.

In essence, the genre known as specialty light bulbs, have covered every lighting requirement under the sun. Well, some are under the sun, but many are under the moon.

Kinds of Specialty Bulbs

Going into the kinds of bulbs isn’t a redundancy of their uses. Their many uses, as outlined above, are nearly endless, while the list for the kinds of light bulbs is actually quite short. Though lighting technology has been around for over a hundred years, and that includes the invention of CFLs and LEDs, most of us only have a bit of knowledge about Edison and his incandescent invention.

CFLs

Compact Fluorescent Lamps were invented by Peter Copper Hewitt in the late 1890s. Mostly, his stuff was used for photographic purposes. Then fluorescent lamps were patented in 1941 by General Electric and the idea came up again in the 1970s when the oil crisis was threatening the United States.

General Electric decided it would cost far too much to build new factories or redesign older ones, so they tabled the bulb. Information about the bulb leaked out and other bulb makers created their own versions of CFLs.

CFLs have become very popular because of their high efficiency and their long-term savings. They use 75 percent less energy and burn ten to fifteen times longer than the familiar incandescent. Plus, they eliminate 400 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per bulb. That’s an estimated equivalent of just one ENERGY STAR CFL bulb saving enough energy to light 3 million homes and eliminating the equivalent greenhouse gases of nearly one million cars every year.

The drawback to CFLs is their use of mercury, but compared to the old thermometers, the mercury is fairly negligible. Still, it is recommended that CFL users are careful with them, taking precautions if they are broken. Plus, they should be recycled properly. Many states require proper disposal and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) encourages recycling and provides information about how to do this.

Even with this drawback, as long as you don’t make a habit out of breaking them, you won’t have to even think about their disposal for a good seven to ten years or more. The really good news is they have bulbs to fit wherever incandescent bulbs fit and their popularity is steadily rising.

LEDs

Light-Emitting Diodes technically came into being in 1907 by Britain’s H. J. Pound. Oleg Vladimirovich created the first official LED in the 1920s, but it was ignored. Some experimenting was done through the 1950s and 60s, but when Nick Holonyak developed the first practical LED in 1962, this completely non-toxic and energy-efficient form of light finally became useful and recognized through its long journey.

LEDs got another boost when Shuji Nakamura of Japan developed the first blue LED. From there, this little powerhouse has kept growing, getting brighter, more useful, more powerful, and more efficient.

You have been using LEDs for quite some time now, and may not have even known it. Think Christmas lights, watches, clocks, remote controls, and calculators. How often do those lights go out? LEDs last 30 to 50 times longer than the traditional incandescent, and twice as long as CFLs.

Though they still aren’t as bright and are more useful with directional kinds of things, LEDs have just begun to take their place on the lighting stage. There’s really no telling where LED technology will end up. Its nature is not like the others, and its true potential hasn’t even emerged--yet.

Fiber Optic

Fiber optics isn’t actually a bulb, but its use as a light transfer source has been expanding. Not only can fiber optic send information over long distances at incredible rates by converting communications from electrical signals to light signals and back again, but it can also be used as pretty light enhancements.

By directing LED light through one end of the fiber, the light passes through and lights up the other end. Mostly, this has been used in Christmas trees and decorative things like those fiber optic bush lamps that project little light through the fiber and out the end. But again, the potential of this relatively young technology probably hasn’t even been tapped yet.

The Future

As energy consumption, environmental concerns, slumping economies, and the simple rise of populations have become more prevalent and considered, more and more governments are proposing and instituting changes in energy use.

Banning the use of incandescent bulbs altogether is on the rise and has already been implemented by various countries. Some countries have already implemented the ban. Brazil and Venezuela were the first to phase out incandescent light bulbs in 2005. Cuba exchanged all incandescents to CFLs in 2007, and banned imports and sales of incandescents.

Australia adopted a Minimum Energy Performance Standard (MEPS) for lighting in 2007, imports of non-compliant lighting and incandescent bulbs in 2008 and plans to ban retail sales of any lighting that doesn’t comply with the MEPS in 2009. New Zealand is adopting similar protocols for their energy usage.

Canada requires LEDs to be used for electrically-lit exit signs and traffic signals. They are also in the process of enacting several regulations relating to not only lighting, but all energy uses. The European Union has proposed a ban of incandescent light bulbs for the near future, but has yet to pass through all the participating countries.

In Europe in general, many, if not all, countries are adopting or proposing measures to improve their energy consumption and most include the ban of the incandescent bulb. These include Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Britain has even entertained ideas about redesigning the city streets to improve the poor designs of city lighting, which include prospects of creating luminous asphalt.

The United States’ Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires 25 percent greater efficiency for light bulbs by 2014 and 200 times greater by 2020, which basically dooms the incandescent bulb in the States.

At the last estimation, more than 40 countries worldwide have publicly declared their intentions of phasing out incandescent light bulbs and reducing their country’s energy consumption.

Environmental advantages aside, what does all this mean for the average Jane and Joe? Just go to Wal-Mart and head to the lighting aisle. You’ll see a plethora of new curly CFL bulbs, instead of the traditional incandescent.

Yeah, they are a bit more pricey, but that will probably change a bit. The upside is that you’re only going to pay to replace those bulbs once every seven years of so, instead of once or twice a year. If you supply all your outlets with these more specialty kinds of bulbs, you’re very likely to see a decrease in your electric bill, too.

Though people tend to be resistant to change, they are going to have to learn to adapt. Looking at environmental concerns, there’s over 6 billion people on the planet now. We cannot expect to keep operating on antiquated ways that were sufficient for billions less. Plus, with newer and more efficient technology available, why would we really want to?

As more dollars, pounds, pesos, liras, yens, rupees, and euros are invested into the development of better ways to fuel and light the world; we are all going to be better off for it. Better light, lower bills, and less danger to the planet and ourselves. And no matter what your stance is on the environment, more efficient power at lower costs overall is going to benefit everyone.

To think it’s all because of the technology of the unassuming specialty light.