LED vs CFL

MaryMumsy

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OK, with the upcoming demise of the incandescent light bulb I'm going to have to do something. Or else go back to kerosene lamps.

I have tried various CFLs. The light quality is yellowish, not as bright as incand, are not 'on' when you switch them on, the whole mercury and disposal issue, etc etc.

Can LEDs be used in regular old reading lamps? What kind of an expected life do they have? Are they a viable alternative to CFL?

Or do I need to turn my craft room into a 12X12 storage space for hoarded incandescent bulbs of varying wattages?

MM
 

HistoryLvr

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LEDs are incredibly powerful, and as far as I know they work in most or all light fixtures. I bought some and brought them home and they work, so I assume they'd work everywhere. The only thing is they are still quite expensive. Yes, they will save you money on electricity, but that does not yet outweigh the price of the bulbs themselves. The prices should go down soon, but as of yet they are incredibly expensive.
 

benbradley

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If you're complaining about CFL's bought in the last year or so (they've actually improved greatly over years - early ones took forever to "warm up"), then you might as well get enough incandescents to last a few years until the LED's come down in price.

Just don't invite Al Gore to dinner, and you'll be okay.
 

Drachen Jager

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CFLs don't have that much mercury, it's a minuscule amount, less than the coal-fired power plant releases into the atmosphere when you use incandescent. Coal-fired power plants in the United States are the #1 source of environmental mercury in the world. So, on the mercury issue, CFLs are better than incandescent.

Brightness and warm-up times have changed over the years. I find mine warm up to about 80% in a quarter second or so and after 10 seconds they're at 100%. The colour is variable, you can choose broad spectrum 'sunlight' wavelength CFLs now.

I don't really like LEDs because they are not broad spectrum, though they are more efficient than CFLs.
 

frimble3

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I would suggest that you hoard incandescants; they will gain in value over the next few decades. There is a company in Canada that is marketting them as heating elements.
Yes, what will the 'Easy Bake Ovens' do without them? Or my projector that relies on one big ol' bulb to enlarge and project.
 

Drachen Jager

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Not all bulbs are being replaced frimble, just common bulbs. It's really not that tricky to figure out. Halogen is okay and special types of bulbs will still be accessible.

Lava lamps won't work though...
 

MaryMumsy

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Soooo, the consensus is to hoard ;)

I still have the light quality issues with CFLs bought within the past six months.

Guess I will check out LED.

MM
 

benbradley

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No doubt CFL and LED have their own spectrum/color, and neither is the same as incandescent. Maybe the LEDs will eventually be made that generate the incandescent spectrum, or maybe not...

Lava lamps use those smaller incandescents, I forget what power they are, 7 or 15 watts, somewhere in there. Since that's a specialty item and doesn't use that much power, it would seems those would continue to be available, but then this is law, where logic doesn't apply. Worst case, a lava lamp bulb can be replaced with a small LED light and a resistor, a device which does absolutely nothing but convert electricity into heat. It would be hard to outlaw resistors, since they're used in every electronic device manufactured.

As I understand the US law, it doesn't specifically ban incandescents, it just mandates minimum efficiency of lights, and standard incandescents don't meet that minimum. Halogens are incandescent, but since they run at higher temperature they create a higher amount of light for the heat they put out, and meet the minimum efficiency.

Here's a webpage discussing all this, I hope it's not too long or too technical...
you're in a long twisty maze of long twisty mazes.
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/incandescent.htm