Posted on 02/21/2016 2:35:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The two events had nothing to do with one another, and yet they are inextricably linked. I am an inveterate coupon clipper and in the latest mailer from BJ's Wholesale Club (my big box savings store of choice) I noticed an eye-popping deal on LEDs--8 60 watt-equivalent bulbs from Sylvania for $19.99, or roughly $2.50 apiece. The next day, GE announced that it planned to stop manufacturing compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and focus instead on LEDs.
The market never really took to CFLs, for understandable reasons noted in my household as well: Most of them could not be used with dimmer switches, they generally took a long time to "warm up" to their claimed light output and the light itself was harsh, like the traditional tubular fluorescents that CFLs evolved from and not the soft light of old-style incandescent bulbs. Still, they were significantly more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs and sales climbed steadily. According to DOE data (see chart below), by 2014, just two years after federal rules took effect that essentially served as the death knell for incandescent bulbs, CFLs accounted for 46 percent of all installed A-type lamps (the screw-in variety that make up the bulk of installed residential lighting). But that clearly was the high-water mark for the twisted CFL.
In GE's Feb. 1 announcement that it was phasing out its CFL production, the company said that CFLs' market share (for all applications, not just A-type lamps) had fallen to just 15 percent in 2015, down from a high of 30 percent. Powered by a sharp drop in prices during the past several years, GE continued, LED sales have surged--rising 250 percent in 2015 alone. The growth has been so significant, GE said, that "LEDs now account for 15 percent of the 1.7 billion bulbs sold annually in the United States." And there is no end in sight to this market transition, GE wrote, predicting that LEDs will account for 50 percent of the lighting market by 2020.
While GE was the first to boot CFLs, other manufacturers are almost certain to follow suit since the current generation of bulbs will no longer qualify as an Energy Star product when even-tighter federal lighting efficiency standards take effect in 2017. Given the sharp and continuing drop in LED pricing, plus their many technological advantages--their instant-on quality, long operating life, high efficiency, excellent light quality and connectibility--few, if any, manufacturers are likely to invest the money needed to bring CFLs up to the new standards.
Good, but not good enough, might be an appropriate epithet for CFLs. They tried, but they couldn't.
LEDs, on the other hand, work, and work well--and for an ever-expanding number of markets. My favorite example of this is from a recent NASA video about growing vegetables on the International Space Station. The video, which can be found here , highlights the role that LEDs can play in agriculture--a market opportunity that has not been lost on a number of entrepreneurs.
In space-constrained Japan, GE helped launched an indoor farm that grows lettuce 2.5 times faster than conventional outdoor agriculture, while cutting waste to just 10 percent (compared to upward of 50 percent outdoors) and water consumption to only 1 percent of conventional outdoor farming. The trick? LED lighting.
U.S. produce companies have jumped into the market as well, with FarmedHere, a Chicago-area company already running a 90,000 square foot facility growing greens and herbs and having ambitious expansion plans, and Indiana-based Green Sense Farm touting itself as the country's largest indoor vertical farming company.
The inroads LEDs are making into agriculture are largely coming at the expense of conventional high-pressure sodium lamps that have traditionally been used in greenhouses. According to data from GE, LEDs are significantly more efficient than HPS lamps--with LEDs converting about 50 percent of their energy to "plant usable light" compared to just 30 percent for HPS bulbs. "That," GE says, "translates into significant energy savings: it cost four times more to produce the same amount of fruit with HPS lamps than LEDs."
Much as LEDs have given the boot to CFLs, a similar transition may be on the horizon in the horticultural sector. Navigant Research said late last year that it expects sales of LED horticultural luminaires "to experience astronomical growth over the next five years as both the total amount of horticultural space and the adoption rate of LEDS increase rapidly. Unit sales are forecast to grow between 2015 and 2020 at an 83.3 percent compound annual growth rate."
In some regions of the U.S., Navigant continued, LED sales will "make up more than half of new horticultural luminaire sales as early as 2017." Increasingly, LEDs are "the lighting technology of choice in a growing number of facilities," Navigant said. In particular, the lights greatly improve the profitability of indoor farming, said Jesse Foote, a senior research analyst at Navigant, which is "leading to a boom in...indoor food production facilities." [The press release from the Navigant report, LED Lighting for Horticultural Applications, can be found here.]
Increasingly, LEDs are the technology that can. Stay tuned for the next evolution of this revolutionary lighting technology.
Dang! I just installed five Feits in my kitchen... and I am studying for my Tech/General. I suppose the heat pump plus the LEDs will make me a “deaf” ham :-(
I’ve got a half-dozen or so of the CREE downlight retrofits. Dimmable, 3000K (close to incandescent), plus they don’t leak air into the attic. Good stuff, I like them.
So much electronic stuff causes rf issues up close—such as my radio reception being bad when near either of those computers.
But I can have any electronic equipment up close to these bulbs without any issues.
If you’re dealing with some finer level beyond all that, then I think that’s your issue rather than at least the LED bulbs of the type I have.
I am a fan of LED lighting, however they do have some drawbacks.
I live in Wisconsin and our city decided to install LED lighting for the stop lights. They failed to take into account that the traditional lamps melted the ice and snow. It made for interesting driving not knowing whether to stop or accelerate at the intersections.
Thanks! They sound good. Progress should mean something better.
CFLs just didn’t fit that definition for me.
From what I've read and received in FR Mail, buying a quality LED light (not the cheap Chinese knockoff's) will make a big difference.
The issue I have with my son's rather large fish tank and his grow lights are that they're (a) LED strips that run the length of his tank and then around the edges of the tank so he has about 20' of LED lights right underneath my fan dipole and (b) the crappy switching power supply that's used to power them generates a crapload of noise by itself. Then there's his reptile tanks and cages with their LED UV lights, heaters, etc.. which all cause their own noise. Uggghhh.
Switching power supplies (or what we commonly call WALL WARTS) cause A LOT of noise when they go bad. Switching power supplies are the DEVIL, IMO.
I had one in my shack that was connected to a NAS Disk Device that went bad. Made 20, 40, 75 and 160m completely useless until I found it. And even then, I was shutting circuit breakers off in the house to narrow down with the device causing the noise. It's a lengthy (and funny) story I posted on eHAM about how I ended up finding it and I can point you to that if you want a good laugh.
The bottom line from that entire story was that I now have a monthly task that I walk around the house and put my hands on all the wall warts/switching power supplies and if any of them feels "too warm" or "hot" they get repaired or replaced. Heat from a switching power supply hanging on the all is NOT a good thing, especially too much heat.
We have the same problem here in the flatlands of Illinois. I have the additional joy of having my ham radio receive blasted out by static when I pull up near most stoplights now.
I live on a corner lot, the village had to REMOVE the LED Street Light on the corner because it was interfering with my receive and I'm a licensed amateur radio operator. At first they refused, they changed their tune really quickly when the FCC got involved.
I have a license to transmit on the band that their light was creating interference on, they don't. LOL! Bastards. I can't wait to move outta here.
I’d love to read your story on eHam. I go there often to just dream about things named Elecraft.
I have a hard time parting with that kind of money for a rig. Now an Amplifier, that's another story! :-)
There is nothing like having an Alpha 9500 and being able to push legal limit+ any time you want for as long as you want. If I can hear 'em, I can DEFINITELY work 'em!
I love LED lighting. I have now converted my entire house LEDs my power bill is down considerably next step is to get rid of that dang hot water heater. Once that is an on demand gas system I will ger in the solar. My house has $75 a month power, 35 a month with the hot water heater off.
Glad to chuck those old cfl mercury bulbs, dang things are dangerous.
I replaced virtually all my bulbs with LED’s, having skipped the CFL phase. I have a constant reminder of it right here as I type. My articulated desk lamp used to burn me when I adjusted it....now it is almost cold to the touch. Amazing.
OK, first, how does LED “clobber” CFL? Not by the pie charts shown.
(No, I have not read this whole thing. Just enough time to pop in, skim, and comment.)
CFLs are heartily annoying, although I don’t think they are “harsh” like LEDs can be. What am I missing? The LEDs my husband bought for the hallway are highly hospital-level white-blue brilliance annoying.
As for the CFLs, I hate how they are affected by the least little coolness. Those near the roof this season are very dim, and take some 15 min to seem full power. All CFLs never start purely bright. I also do not see how they pass muster with “lasts for years!” BS. If you’re willing to leave your lights on indefinitely, I guess so. But people turn off lights at bedtime, and during the day. So, not much saving there.
And I'd love to find it and send it to you. It was a response to a post on one of the Forums. I've spent 20 minutes looking for it to copy and paste it back to you and unfortunately cannot find it. I cannot believe eHam doesn't have a way to find all responses based on a callsign. That's just frustrating .... I simply cannot repeat/recreate the humor with which I made that post!!
No problem, thanks for trying. I’m just happy to hear there are Freeping Hams. I am also learning a lot from the ham radio forum on ar15.com.
They're (sort of) dimmable. They dim quite well until half brightness, but then they flash at lower levels. That beats some CFLs I tried that also advertised dimmable. They had three levels: bright half-bright, and off. At least they didn't just sit there and buzz, like non dimmable ones. This is important to us, since all of our light switches have dimmers.
Thought I killed that profession before I left ....:o)
Don’t forget the 300 empty miracle grow buckets stacked on the house with no lawn or garden....
Loews had a sale on Black Friday - $1 each for 60W.
I told my son that about 20 of those would be a great Christmas gift for dear old dad.
He went there, scarfed up all they had left, and kept them for himself.
Not to mention their major plus that the power usage does not spike (a major lead for drug enforcement)! It allows your "Grow House" to remain more anonymous!
Not to mention their major plus that the power usage does not spike (a major lead for drug enforcement)! It allows your "Grow House" to remain more anonymous!
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