A recent Ace Rewards mailing included some info and a $5 discount card for a new style of lightbulb. Well, a new interpretation of one anyways and it has me pretty excited.

Ever since energy conservation became a big issue, we’ve struggled with the aesthetics of energy efficient light bulbs in our historic fixtures.

First to hit the market were those curly tubed fluorescents, which not only were too large to fit some of our antique shades, but they were ugly to look at, and put out a very cold white light. Improvements over time allowed them to be made smaller, and they enclosed the tubing in a round white shell to make them look more like frosted bulbs, but even the warm fluorescents tend to put out a cold white light than incandescent bulbs.

Then came the switch to LED lights for even more energy savings, but they had some of the same problems initially, they were large, ugly, and the light was too cool. Again over time, progress was made, and I had finally found a few that I could tolerate.

I had seen vendors of the old Edison style light bulbs, but they were expensive, didn’t put out efficient light, and of course, just like other incandescent bulbs, they could have a short lifespan. (with the exception of this one).

What the Ace Hardware flier was advertising was an LED bulb that looked a lot like the old style Edison filament bulbs. I was cautious and bought two of them for the ceiling fixture in my home office. Now I wish I had bought more since with the coupon they were $6.99 each (normally $11.99 each).

The packaging says they are a 60 watt replacement, but they only use 4 watts. I wouldn’t say they are as bright as a 60W incandescent bulb, but they are perfect to give the room a nice warm glow. The light they product is very warm, as the glass shell itself has an amber hue to it.

I plan to replace all of the visible bulbs in the house with these. An added benefit is that they are dimmable, a feature many fluorescents and other LEDs don’t have. They are made by Feit in a variety of styles and base sizes.