LEDs emerge to fight fluorescents

They are readily available and not that expensive. Search on ebay for LED light bulb.

 

I did a little bit of research on them. Most of the information I found stated that they provided directional lighting, good for spot lights and such, but didn't do a good job at diffusing light in all directions like a incondescant or CFL light will. For instance, if you put one in a table lamp, it would send a lot of light up to the ceiling, but very little directly to the table.

But then again, our family room is primarily lit by a 300W halogen torchiere lamp, which simply bounces light off the ceiling. It sounds like LED lights would be well suited for this.

 

We have been using LED cabin lights in our boat for several years. I retro fitted our halogen fixtures to take an LED module which is dimmable and color balanced to look like normal halogen bulbs. Power consumption is the main issue on a boat, but it's also nice to not have to worry about the fire risk of halogen and to get away from messing with little bulbs that can't be handled with bare fingers.

The ones we are using come from http://www.sailorssolutions.com/ , but I just looked and it appears their website is off line. I don't know if it's a temporary problem or a business issue.

Tom

 

There's a significant lower amount of light that comes off LEDs, even in larger LED arrays. If they can solve that problem at a reasonable cost, it might be a good technology advance to save more than even CFs save.

I'm converting over to CFs in most fixtures in my house, but we still have some three way lamps. I also notice some gas-illumination on the circuits that have timers and motion detectors on them, so I suspect the CFs won't last as long as they do in "regular" sockets.

 

The stage lighting industry will be the last holdout, and with good
reason. You just can't get the same evenness and control of spectrum
from CFL or LED, at least not without spending megabucks.
.
But when that last bastion falls, what will be left that uses a
*filament*? Tubes are out. CRTs are rapidly going the way of the
Edsel. Light bulbs are next. What's that leave?
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 14 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]441768[/snapback]</div>

What's up with the NJ slam? :huh:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ May 14 2007, 08:36 PM) [snapback]442155[/snapback]</div>

But LEDs can be programmed to provide almost any color out of one fixture! I've seen many DMX controllable LED lamps. Deep blue remains hardest, but color versatility is superb.


Edison developed the light bulb in New Jersey.

 

Yeah, but try getting a good, non-peaky white or a good "flesh pink"
out of LEDs, that doesn't turn other things like costumes all funny
colors you didn't want. DMX LEDs are great for deep-color effects
and architectural stuff, but pretty lousy when you want to light
*people* in a natural way.
.
If more emitters with different output bands are added in, making
a seven or eight channel unit, things can be made a bit better, but
it's not quite there yet and costs are completely prohibitive.
.
_H*

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 14 2007, 11:26 PM) [snapback]442139[/snapback]</div>

You can buy CFs for three way lamps.

Tom

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ May 15 2007, 11:17 AM) [snapback]442420[/snapback]</div>

Cost that is the big problem. I can get any color you want if cost is no issue. Another problem is heat dissipation. With incandescent lamps, the heat is radiated away. LEDs keep their heat right at the junctions, so heat has to be removed by large heat sinks or some other sort of cooling system. They don't make as much heat, but it is concentrated.

Tom

 

Don't forget heat lamps. Somethings got to keep that fat and grease from congealing!

The 3 way CFLs seem to work well. We have some in our office. I thought that they were incandescents at first because of the light quality. Was pleasantly surprised.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ May 15 2007, 12:55 PM) [snapback]442494[/snapback]</div>

Maybe a bank of IR LEDs.

Tom

 

I have many CF bulbs and a several LED ones for low area lighting that I can leave on all the time even in my off-grid home. I got my first bright LED about 10 years ago for 5 bucks and now they are finally coming down in price quite nicely...and back then I could only get a bluish - green and now there are many colors. I expect the technology to grow in options and decrease in price as we go along. An issue I did not think of, mentioned on an NPR program yesterday about lighting (with a lighting engineer or some such) is heat. They don't give out much, but are apparently *very* sensitive to heat, and may require (at least in some settings) their own special fixtures to deal with temperature. It was suggested that the fixtures might be sold with integrated LED bulbs.

This might make some sense, since they last *so* long. That first LED I wired in 10 or so years ago has never been turned off (can't) and is still going...

Jim

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 14 2007, 01:40 PM) [snapback]441768[/snapback]</div>

LOL. I wonder if he lives next door to the Hummer guy.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ May 15 2007, 12:55 PM) [snapback]442494[/snapback]</div>

Or maybe they'll make the food fresh for once, instead of keeping a huge vat of warmed-over food. Then, they might use less, and if they use less, then they'll consume less, and so on...

Good gravy, we might be on to something here!

 

The big concern with CFLs is mercury- there is, I think, around 5 mg of Hg in a typical CFL. I did hear someone on a news program recently mention that if you calculate the difference in energy required during the lifetime of a CFL compared to an incadescent bulb (I don't know if this was measured in "lifetimes" for each bulb, as a CFL has a longer lifetime), and then figure out the amount of Hg as a by-product of that electricity (assuming that it was produced by a coal-fired plant), that increased power required for the incadescent bulb would be 50% more than that in the CFL. Has anyone heard this statistic?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ May 15 2007, 08:55 AM) [snapback]442494[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, guys. I'll have to look for these next time I'm in the store.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 19 2007, 04:37 PM) [snapback]445847[/snapback]</div>

I've heard that. I wonder how many places meet the criterion for energy mix. Here in CO which is coal heavy, we have a 60%, 30% NG, 10% Hydro/Wind (though the wind part is growing which will cut into the NG slice, I would think). So we wouldn't qualify for that statement. However, since I intend to dispose of them properly, it won't matter so much in my case.