What is an HEI Bulb?

Wisegeek

Much of the energy consumed by incandescent bulbs is wasted as heat. With countless households worldwide using this inefficient form of lighting, unnecessary demands are placed on utility companies to provide electricity that is essentially wasted. In short, tons of waste emissions that result in greenhouse gases could be cut every year if demand were reduced by switching to more energy efficient lighting like CFLs or the HEI bulb.

CFLs are highly efficient, but have had drawbacks. Sometimes called an “energy saving light bulb,” a CFL is a fluorescent bulb that can screw into an incandescent light fixture. CFLs are rated to last many times longer than a standard bulb, using about one quarter of the energy for comparable watts or lumens. While this is good, some people find the light of CFLs to appear dimmer and less soothing than an incandescent bulb. This is because CFLs radiate light from a different part of the color spectrum than a standard light bulb.

The HEI bulb, being an incandescent lamp, will reportedly generate light in the same spectrum as a standard bulb and could convince people dissatisfied with CFLs to finally switch to a more efficient lamp. Cutting energy demands for lighting in half would certainly help, particularly on a wide scale.