The Guardian: How many incentives does it take to change a light bulb?

If I asked you to give me £100 and guaranteed to give you £400 back six months later, would you accept my offer? This is the kind of return on investment that LED light bulbs offer. So why aren't more people switching to low-energy bulbs?

There's a lot of noise about the power of new technology to drive positive change - but how do we get people to adopt it?


Get the labelling right

One simple thing manufacturers can do is explain wattage equivalents. Most people know that a 100-watt bulb is bright and suitable for a main light, that a 60w bulb is suitable in a lamp, and 25w bulb works where we want soft and gentle light. LED bulbs use about 10% of the energy of traditional bulbs - so 10w will give you the equivalent light outout of an old 100w, 6w of a 60w bulb, and so on.

Focusing on what consumers need to know also means communicating likely financial savings. Without knowing just how much money they could be saving by switching to low-energy bulbs, it's easy to see why someone might go for the cheaper option and chosen a halogen bulb for £1.50 instead of its LED equivalent at £5.99.

But when you add in the running and replacement costs of the bulbs over 15 years, the choice looks very different: £330 for a halogen bulb and £35.99 for an LED replacement. Lifetime running cost information on packaging would provide a persuasive case for making a low-energy choice.

Make desirable products

The newer light bulbs are also increasingly programmable. New developments in GreenChip light bulbs,which respond to your home wi-fi network, make it possible for us to control home lighting with our smartphone.

A nudge from government

A step in the right direction was the EU announcement in 2009 on the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs. They are now against the law in the UK, with an EU target for halogen bulbs to follow suit by 2016.

So with the right point of sale information, a common sense approach to labelling, markeing that makes efficient lighting desirable combined with a nudge from the government, you get a double win: the country gets a step closer to our carbon reduction targets, and you get a lower energy bill.

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