One exciting new entrant into the LED market is the Panasonic “Filament” LED. It’s designed to look like a traditional filament light bulb but uses only a tiny, tiny fraction of the energy. It won the 2011 Good Design Gold Award at this year’s Good Design Award show hosted by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.
It’s a traditional screw in bulb, uses only 4.4 watts (almost 80% less than it’s incandescent counterpart), and it has a soft, warm glow (for you lighting geeks . . . that’s a 2700 kelvin light temperature).
Perhaps the most impressive feature of this bulb is it’s endurance. It is designed to provide 40,000 hours of light! For the average user this bulb will last 40 years!
Unlike CFLs, LEDs deliver 100% of the light instantly. So no need anymore to wait a warm up of the lamp. You can finally truly use it in a staircase or bathroom or wherever the light needs to be switched on 100% instantly. And they are dimmable and contain zero mercury.
Since this bulb is meant to replace a 20 watt incandescent bulb, it’s great for bath, kitchen or other locations with multi-bulb fixtures.
– from oldhouseweb.com