What if the future of lighting looked surprisingly like the past? Cree, a lighting company with its roots in selling LEDs to the 80% of the lighting market that is commercial, has hit the consumer market with a new bulb it says could eventually save more than $40 billion in energy costs if adoption of the new technology hits 100%

The logic in appealing to the consumer market is similar to the IT strategies proliferating across the industrial sector, and more specifically energy: technology decisions are made by consumers based on their comfort with it, even when the applications aren’t for their personal lives. “This is a very important step to accelerate the adoption [of LED lighting]; getting the consumer on board will change the inflection point,” Cree Vice President, Corporate Marketing Mike Watson told Breaking Energy in a recent interview.

 

The failure of existing LED technology to appeal to consumers is self-evident in the numbers. Watson pointed out that of the more than five billion light bulbs currently in use in North America, roughly four billion are incandescent. The new light bulb from Cree not only looks almost exactly like an incandescent, it creates the same light quality and operates like an incandescent, removing customer discomfort.

But the most important component of the new bulb might just be its price: Cree aimed for and hit the retail price target of less than ten dollars for a bulb it guarantees will operate for ten years of life at six hours a day of use.

“It was important to us to price it at the point that allows consumers to try it,” Watson said, pointing out that most customers don’t know how expensive it actually can be to use incandescents because the initial purchase price is so low.

Pentagon Graphics for Backgroud Briefing by phobbs_bm

So it looks like a lightbulb, acts like a lightbulb and is priced like a lightbulb, but the technology inside is based on a series of technology innovations that both stem from Cree’s existing business-focused lighting operations and will aid the company’s overall business case in the future as its factories get more use. The bulbs are assembled in North Carolina, and Cree has hired 200 new workers in recent months as part of its launch.

The bulbs are currently available online, but started to arrive in Home Depot stores on March 5 and will be available in all the US Home Depot stores by March 21, 2013.