The World's Greatest Light-bulb

Farhad Manjoo has posted a glowing review of a new LED light-bulb from a company called Switch Lighting. He writes that the most remarkable thing about the new bulb is that the light it produces is totally unremarkable - it looks just like a typical incandescent bulb but uses roughly 1/5 the power. And it doesn't have the huge toxic drawback of compact fluorescent bulbs, namely, mercury. The new bulb is beautiful too. The main drawback today is that it's expensive. A 60 watt bulb costs $20 and should last for nearly twenty years. Even at today's high price the savings in electricity enable the Switch bulb to pay for itself in about 4 years. But, if you wait a couple of years, the cost should drop below $10. Read Farhad Manjoo's full review of Switch Lighting's new bulb at Slate.