Your light bulbs could be burning money

The government is phasing out the production of incandescent light bulbs. In a few years you wont be able to buy them. Instead you will have to opt for more energy efficient options.

It’s not just a flip of the switch. The light you use may be taking money out of your pocket.

Alvin Wilson with South Alabama Electric Company has been lighting the Gulf Coast since 1984. He showed us the options.

First your standard incandescent bulb.

"Worst efficiency, worst heat and cheapest of all of the bulbs we have in the industry," said Wilson.

So the price tag on our common incandescent bulbs might be appealing, but Wilson says they actually cost your money.

"Not very energy efficient too much heat and very low lamp life. That's the problem everyone uses them because they are cheap and they have been around a long time,” said Wilson.

Now lets meet their closest competitor, the CFL bulb. This is the bulb that looks like a curly-q, but Wilson says don’t let the looks fool you.

“Not it doesn't just look that way it really is that way. The energy is about one fifth the energy savings," said Wilson.

There is one more option, the newest on the market, the L.E.D. bulb.

“It’s even better than the florescent that we use. Its way more energy saving and there is no heat at all. So if you had a lot of these in your house you would cut your air condition bill down considerably because it doesn’t make any heat. The lamp life is many times more and still many more than the florescent bulb,” said Wilson.

So it burns longer, burns cooler and uses less energy. You would think it was an obvious choice. Maybe not. Here are the prices:

Standard bulb- $1.25