A Philips LED bulb is the winner of the U.S. Department of Energy's $10 million competition to develop a low-cost, energy efficient, high-performance replacement for the incandescent bulb.

The 60-watt incandescent bulb is one of the most widely used types of light bulbs by consumers. It also is extremely wasteful in its energy usage. The energy-saving L Prize winner uses less than 10 watts of power, providing an energy savings of 83 percent, while still emitting the same amount of light, and with the familiar warm glow.

If every 60-watt incandescent bulb in the U.S. was replaced with the 10-watt L Prize winner, the nation would save about 35 terawatt-hours of electricity and avoid 20 million metric tons of carbon emissions. That's enough electricity to power the lights of nearly 18 million U.S. households.

Buildings in the United States consume roughly 70 percent of the electricity generated across the country and represent one of the greatest opportunities for reducing energy consumption through the use of energy-efficient technologies.

The winning bulb, announced August 3, excelled through 18 months of rigorous performance testing carried out by independent laboratories and field assessments conducted with utilities and other partners. The product also performed exceedingly well through a series of stress tests, in which the product was subjected to extreme conditions such as high and low temperatures, humidity, vibration, high and low voltage, and various electrical waveform distortions.

The L Prize-winning, 60-watt equivalent LED bulb from Philips could arrive in stores as soon as early 2012.

For now, help save the planet with this dimmable CF Warm Glow light bulb.