Prepare to flick off your incandescent bulbs for good under new US rules that kicked in this week

Thomas Edison's pioneering incandescent light bulb, which cast illumination by heating a filament until it glowed, is fading into history. New federal rules governing the energy efficiency of lighting systems went into full effect Tuesday, effectively ending the sale and manufacture of bulbs that trace their origin to an 1880 Edison patent. The big winners are likely to be more efficient and longer-lasting LED bulbs. The rules have been whipsawed by politics for years, and as a result may not result in sweeping change simply because businesses and consumers have already begun to embrace more efficient lighting on their own.