As technology advances, light bulb choices become more sophisticated

There are plenty of jokes about how many people it takes to change a light bulb. Nowadays, it’s not a matter of hands doing the work – technological advances mean bulbs last 20 years or more – but you will have to understand a whole new vocabulary. For decades, consumers have been used to buying light bulbs based on the number of watts printed on the packaging. Those days are pretty well gone, thanks to a 2007 federal law aimed at moving the country toward greater energy independence and increasing the efficiency of products, including those used to light homes, offices and businesses.