The new lamp, which will initially be sold only on the company’s Web site, vu1.com, costs $19.95. But the introductory price will drop to $15 within 12 months, according to the company’s chief executive, Philip Styles, and then to $12 six months after that. That’s a considerably higher upfront cost than that of a standard light bulb of around $1.50, or a C.F.L., which can be found in many communities at a utility-subsidized price of around 50 cents.

LED lamps are more expensive, but they use less electricity. Based on lifespan and power consumption, an LED lamp costs less than a Vu1 lamp. Philips sells a 60-watt-equivalent LED A-lamp, the type used in standard sockets, for $40. It uses 12 watts of power and is expected to last 25,000 hours before it loses half of its brightness.

Still, consumers choose lamps not on their final cost, but on their purchase price. “The mistake with C.F.L.’s was that they were sold based solely on cost,” not on their light quality, said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at University of California, Davis. “It’s a national tragedy. We should have solved this by now.”

LED lamps are as efficient at creating light as its C.F.L. equivalents, according to Jim Brodrick, the Energy Department’s solid-state lighting program manager, without the downsides inherent in C.F.L.’s: mercury pollution, poor dimming and undesirable light color. Mr. Brodrick said that LED lamps currently under development were twice as efficient as C.F.L.’s.

But, he said, “there is not as much price drop as we’d like.”

That is about to change, said William D. Watkins, chief executive of Bridgelux, a manufacturer of LED components based in Livermore, Calif.