Here is my professional view about LEDs, about 8 years ago or so I accidentally found myself in a position building then LED flashlights I personally modified from existing bulb types, I had numerous versions and other experiments including using laser diodes in cartridge cases for bore sighting purposes, these products are currently on the market. At first it was an open playing field but soon the Chinese flooded the market and I withdrew and ceased building any new prototypes.
Its all about corporate greed and high profit margins. You will not for the most part find a LED type of lamp with an output near a conventional bulb in Walmart, but they have been available for many years. Anybody with some minor electrical background in auto lighting can buy 12v white or colored LED lamps from Ebay and a regulated 12 volt DC power supply and build a home lighting system, I did many years ago. Its the Walmart curse, we won’t really see useful technological products in the big box stores until they can be made ultra cheap and thats usually at least a year or two after their is a public interest.Its also the gullibility factor, recently we were lectured CFLs were the wave of the future but in pure reality they are a dangerous product to dispose of. Mercury being a toxic material, LEDs however are almost entirely made from solid material like epoxy resins and have except for some designs no dangerous gases or materials. Introducing high output LED lamps at this time would disrupt many areas of other consumer goods, right now there are new RPTVs with LED lamps that are more efficient than other DLP lamps that have a life of around 6,000 hours. Many new cars have marker lamps of LEDs, that now decreases the demand for replacement bulbs, flashlights usually had an hour or two of battery run time, now with LED lamps its measured in months, less battery sales. Trafficlight systems are mostly LED now, lamps now last over 5 years and less people needed to change lamps thoght technically a traffic signal may not need a “lamp” replacement if LED for well over 10 years.
Introducing high output low cost LEDs on the market right now is on a comparison to being able to buy a new car that ran on tap water and was affordable to anyone like buying a bicycle, almost totally maintenance free and not needing expensive fuels or replacement parts.In the real world its a sad fact that there is a stranglehold on consumer products that we the consumer are blind too, we have been lead to believe we need to constantly buy products that require high maintenace costs like printers and such. The smart consumer would do best to abstain from living off the the “affordable” goods coming from the big box stores like Walmart, instead research for instance what boaters use for lighting, myself I buy very few high end items from Walmart, for the most part its Mobil 1 oil, laundry detergent and Gatorade, with the current love of high profit margins a place like Walmart is just an outlet for Chinese goods made cheaply and with many possible hazards of toxins and such due to the low standards.
Currently Ebay is a good place to get LED lamps, I tell all my friends to look there, plus the shipping on most items are small.
excellent post! I am bookmarking it to read at work
There are also experiments using LED for wireless data transmission, including traffic light LEDs. It’s range is not long , but can transmit broadband quality data (currently 10MBPS). Implemented into traffic systems, it could tell how long the light will be green, yellow, red, assist blind people, and even provide traffic information ahead. LEDs are pretty cool for its fast blinking rate. However, I also learned not long ago about a more effecient source for room light, which is solid state laser. It is assumed that it has an infinite life span, and there is no need to replace it once installed. However, laser has different characteristics from beam, which sprays, and there is a need to scatter the solid state laser (white color) to spray the light into multiple directions. It must also be eye safe. LEDs too, also are dangerous to look at for a long time (well, not many people woud do so).