European consumers are switching to green products as a result of the EU ban on incandescent lamps. According to the GFK market research company, sales of traditional light bulbs fell by up to 35 percent in the first quarter of 2009 in a number of European countries. The big trend is now towards energy efficient lighting.

 

 The U.S. Navy just gave an extra boost to a lighting retrofit underway for navy ships to replace existing inefficient lighting with energy-efficient light emitting diode (LED) lights.

In addition to energy efficiency, the Navy set up strict requirements for LED lighting regarding light output, shock and vibration and corrosion. The retrofit is expected to save 76 percent of energy previously used with incandescent lights. As a testament to the longevity of LED lights it is expected that bulb replacement will become a thing of the past, with the LEDs’ projected lifetime of up to 50,000 hours or more