GE to phase out CFL bulbs in favor of LEDs — will still manufacture incandescent and halogen, though

General Electric (GE) has announced that it will phase out the sale of compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs in the US over the next year, and instead shift its focus to promoting its line of light emitting diode (LED) bulbs instead.

Worth noting — the company will still sell all of its many other types of bulbs, including incandescent and halogen. 

Per the latter note, the reason why GE will continue to sell less efficient options like incandescent and halogen is because they still represent a large portion of the lighting market. CFL on the other hand, is at a bit of crossroads — it is more efficient than these older solutions, however, less efficient than LEDs. As such, GE has decided the future of CFLs is limited, and that it would be better worth it to instead focus on one energy efficient solution moving forward.

GE’s head of lighting, John Strainic, explained that the company’s hope in making this decision is to expand the market for LED bulbs. He noted that CFL bulbs peaked at 30% market share in 2007 due in large part to pushes from Walmart and Oprah; however, it stalled shortly thereafter. Strainic notes that this was due in large part to customers taking issue with CFL’s slow start-up time, and that LEDs solve this issue by being more efficient and readily usable.

The other part of the story has to do with Energy Star — specifically, the rebates tied to the purchase of CFLs will switch to LED bulbs next year. By updating its roster of LED products by this time, GE will be ready to fully take advantage of the new Energy Star requirements. 

To this point, while GE might be the first to formally announce its intentions of phasing out CFL bulbs, it certainly won’t be the last.

Via The Verge