Incandescent bulbs have been around since the 19th century with mainstream adoption in the early 20th century.  With only a staggering 5% or less of energy going into the bulb being converted to visible light, the rest is turned into heat.  This represents a great inefficiency and even more so if you are trying to cool off a warm home in Hawaii.  These bulbs have been around for over a century and are very commonplace.  Because of this drastic inefficiency they represent, many areas already have phased them out, or are starting to.  Brazil and Venezuela pulled them from retailer shelves 8 years ago in 2005 with the EU, Switzerland, Australia following suit in 2009. 

 

Advantages:

• Inexpensive

• Dimmable

• A wide variety shapes, sizes, colors, and brightness

• Turn on instantly

 

Disadvantages

• Greatly inefficient

• Short life span

• More expensive across their lifespan (especially in Hawaii) than their more modern counterparts