LEDs emerge to fight fluorescents

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The best thing about LED lighting is color temperature. LEDs can be manufactured to produce light at around 5400 K, which is perfect. Tungsten bulbs have a very red cast. Fluorescents are too blue.

Right now, LEDs are about as efficient as Flourescents. The longer life makes them cheaper already though. The better color temps are enough for me to pay a premium, though it is hard to find bulbs that are bright enough now.

1. Fluorescents come in more than one color. Try the soft-white fluorescents .

2. LEDs are much more efficient than fluorescents.

[Niels Bohr 72]

The best thing about LED lighting is color temperature. LEDs can be manufactured to produce light at around 5400 K, which is perfect. Tungsten bulbs have a very red cast. Fluorescents are too blue.

Right now, LEDs are about as efficient as Flourescents. The longer life makes them cheaper already though. The better color temps are enough for me to pay a premium, though it is hard to find bulbs that are bright enough now.

1. Fluorescents come in more than one color. Try the soft-white fluorescents .

2. LEDs are much more efficient than fluorescents.

I think many people think fluorescents are energy efficient. Weird. LED is super energy efficient.

If warmth is an issue, turn the heat up. Get energy efficient insulation, windows, and doors. This will make the house warm.

[homesick_american 1]

I think many people think fluorescents are energy efficient. Weird. LED is super energy efficient.

They are more efficient than regular incandescent bulbs. I think a lot of us who keep up with this issue realize that LEDs are more efficient but most people don't keep up with this issue. It's up to us to gently prod them if we want them to change their behavior and keep from wasting electricity.

If warmth is an issue, turn the heat up. Get energy efficient insulation, windows, and doors. This will make the house warm.

If houses were properly insulated to begin with you might not even need central heating. Houses in Europe are better insulated than houses in the US; they could be a lot better, but insulation in US houses is ridiculous. People have no choice but to turn the heating up. If money's tight, some people have to choose between being warm and being fed. That sucks.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Ironically, brighter INCANDESCENT bulbs have existed since at least the 1960's:

• quartz-halogen (mostly in auto headlights--the main-beams of these are MUCH brighter than those of the now-nearly-defunct conventional glass headlight bulb and sealed-beam). More recently "Type T" bulbs for household light use
  
• Xenon: even brighter (in auto headlights, the "blue-light" bulbs) than quartz halogen, these have been known by auto mechanics since 1970's (in timing-lights)
  

Both of these are considerably SAFER than the mercury-ballasted CFL's (especially if they break, or when you need to dispose of spent bulb).

[Sinergy 3]

I love these floresant light bulbs. me and my husband just moved into our new apartment and we replaced all the regular light bulbs with these new ones. they are 15 watts and last up to 5 years each. in the bathrooms there were 4 vanity bulbs each at 40 watts. thats 120 wats just for turning on the bathroom light, in EACH bathroom, we put ONE of the energy eff bulbs in each bathroom and its brighter than with the 4 40 watt regular bulbs. we also put in the diningroom, kitchen and both bedrooms, our livingroom we are working on as we just moved in on saturday. But it will save us money in the long run.

you can buy a 2 pack of 15 watt 5 year lasting energy eff bulbs at walmart for $6.44 so i dont find it expensive when it will save me money in the long run.

[pedroh 21]

LED's are 1337!

[Portlander 0]

I personally don't like LED lights, especially LED Christmas lights, they have no warmth and are too bright.

newver seen them! It would be incredibly simple to make them less bright, though - simply reduce the power going to them with a dial switch.

We are slowly changing out our regular bulbs with fluorescents and we really like them. I don't find they flicker, other than when I turn on the fan with three bulbs, and it takes a split second for it to turn on. I am looking forward to checking out how our electric bill is impacted over time.

With that being said, I am all for any kind of improvements that are more energy efficient.

Curiously, there is a genetic component to seeing flourescents flicker. Some people can't tell at all, but for most people its on the edge of awareness. For some people, its like living in a disco. Their eyes sample fast enough to see the flickerings.

If warmth is an issue, turn the heat up. Get energy efficient insulation, windows, and doors. This will make the house warm.

Warm in this case refers to a quality of light, not a physical temperature.

[StarProg 0]

Curiously, there is a genetic component to seeing flourescents flicker. Some people can't tell at all, but for most people its on the edge of awareness. For some people, its like living in a disco. Their eyes sample fast enough to see the flickerings.

Exactly. My eyes operate at a scan rate of 120 Hz , flourescent lights look like strobe lights to me, as do many PC monitors. It hurts my eyes just thinking about it.

[Cassie 8]

I personally don't like LED lights, especially LED Christmas lights, they have no warmth and are too bright.

newver seen them! It would be incredibly simple to make them less bright, though - simply reduce the power going to them with a dial switch.

It has nothing to do with a dimmer switch. I find that LEDs have a very concentrated light that bugs me. That, and you can't put Christmas tree lights on a dimmer switch, as far as I know.

[Portlander 0]

It would be easy enough to make a 'bulb' for LEDs the diffused the light... I'm pretty sure a dimmer switch would work just fine with LEDs... I was recently talking about this thread with a group of engineer buddies of mine, and one of them started going "and you could do this, and you could do this, and you could do this...."

[StarProg 0]

It would be easy enough to make a 'bulb' for LEDs the diffused the light... I'm pretty sure a dimmer switch would work just fine with LEDs... I was recently talking about this thread with a group of engineer buddies of mine, and one of them started going "and you could do this, and you could do this, and you could do this...."

Yep, lots of ideas for what you could do with LED light bulbs, like the color cycling night light I mentioned earlier, but even better. Like the commercial says, "Imagine the possibilities.""