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But the most important near-term reason to smarten the grid is waste reduction. Cutting tiny inefficiencies can have dramatic effects on the entire system. Consider the case of the humble incandescent light bulb. By the time power has been generated at a plant, transported across high-tension lines, and sent to the lighting fixture, a measly 0.8 percent of the power is converted into light. More efficient light bulbs, like light-emitting diodes, could vastly alter that equation. Widely adopting LEDs in the next two decades could save $265 billion in energy costs, remove the need to build 40 new power plants, and cut the demand for lighting electricity by more than 30 percent, according to the Department of Energy.

Most Americans are completely unaware of how much power common household items like the light bulb fritter away. So smartening the public is as critical as smartening the grid itself. Individual smart meters that replace the traditional power meters installed on homes can show consumers how much power their home is using at given times of the day and how much that power is costing. Indeed, policymakers and utilities hope that giving people the true costs of their electric appliance use will naturally change their behavior and give them an incentive to make cheaper choices.

http://politics.usnews.com/news/energy/articles/2010/04/07/a-smart-electrical-grid-could-secure-the-energy-supply--.html

Consider the case of the humble incandescent light bulb. By the time power has been generated at a plant, transported across high-tension lines, and sent to the lighting fixture, a measly 0.8 percent of the power is converted into light.

But that heat is not necessarily wasted. Here in the PNW, where electric heat still exists, the heat emitted by incandescents in wintertime provides additional heating that the electric heat doesn't have to provide.

These are things that designers of "green buildings" learn (or used to learn) to factor in.

I like my CFLs, but folks should have the right to use "heat-bulbs" if they want. Congress is WAY out of control!