The US Federal Trade Commission has announced a final ruling on new labels for light bulbs.  The labels will break down the "lighting facts" of bulbs much like a nutrition label on food products.  With CFLs, LEDs and other lighting technologies filling the shelves alongside incandescents, the labels will help consumers find what they're looking for.

The major change that these labels bring is using lumens to indicate the brightness of the bulb instead of watts, that way all bulbs will use the same terminology and consumers can compare them easily.  Other statistics listed on the labels will be:  yearly energy cost, the bulb's life expectancy, light appearance (on a scale of warm to cool), energy used (wattage) and, for CFLs, a warning that it contains mercury.

The clear labeling of cost and energy savings over time, could help more efficient lighting win over consumers who haven't made the switch yet.

The new labels should start showing up in the middle of next year.

via TreeHugger

NREL is always discovering and creating amazing things.  This time, the team of scientists has invented an air conditioning process that is 90 percent more efficient than the top of the line units available today.

Air conditioning is responsible for about five percent of the nation's annual energy use, so in addition to better insulated and better designed buildings, more efficient air conditioning units are a necessary stepping stone on our way to more efficient buildings.

The air conditioning process uses "membranes, evaporative cooling and liquid desiccants" to remove heat from the air.  Evaporative cooling is a process that has only worked well in dry climates in the past because the cooled air has added humidity.  NREL has solved that issue in their DEVap technology through the addition of the liquid desiccants, which remove humidity from the cooled air.

Another benefit of the DEVap process is that it uses salt solutions instead of the refrigerants chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFSs), which contribute about 2,000 pounds of CO2 per pound of refrigerant.

The DEVap technology will be under development for the next five years, but once NREL has it perfected, it will license it for commercial use.  Luckily, the unit is designed to replace existing units with little changes necessary, so these could easily be phased in when the technology is ready.

via MIT Technology Review