I got mine for peanuts. They save a ton of electricity.
But this whole argument is really moot. In my new house in Kentucky it will be rife with embedded LED lighting.
There will probably not be a fluorescent or incandescent on the property. I’ll be able to control not only intensity, but color temperature and color period. And at a fraction of the power useage of even fluorescents.
LED is to fluorescent what fluorescent is to incandescent.
Times ten.
I got an LED nightlight earlier this year. It lasted only 3 months.
Would you mind sharing the suppliers you are buying from?
I haven’t come across affordable/practical LEDs yet.
“LED is to fluorescent what fluorescent is to incandescent.
Times ten.”
LED is great technology with a bright future. Today though they are just way too expensive and most of what you will find on the market isn't even as efficient as fluorescent lighting. Newer fluorescent tube lighting, like some four foot T8 tubes with a good electronic ballast will give you about 100 lumens of light for each watt used. A regular sized incandescent light will give you less than 15 lumens per watt, and the little tiny ones for flashlights and that sort of thing are way less efficient. Compact fluorescent bulbs put off around 60 to 70 lumens per watt, but LED technology is still all over the place. A company called CREE claims to have gotten 161 lumens per watt in their lab from an LED just recently, but those available on the market are often closer to 20 or 30 lumens per watt. Some of the newest high output LED's available on the market are getting close to 80 lumens per watt efficiency, but most of what you will find on the market aren't half that efficient. They're in the 20 to 40 lumen per watt range and the light quality is not very good. Not only that, but these cheezy lightbulb replacement LED things they make throw off some weird light patterns just because of the way they have to make them with a cylinder studded with LED's. And of course they cost a fortune. You can drop $90 on a single “bulb” easily if you get one of the best available.
LED's aren't ready for prime time for residential lighting yet. Ten or fifteen years from now they'll be pretty cheap and super efficient. Right now they're mainly good for specialty applications. They're great for flashlights, stoplights, brake lights, and so on. But it's going to be several years before we see most people using them as their primary source of lighting for their homes. Right now they're going through a transformation kind of like we saw with computers in the 1980’s, and in a few years we'll see them being used more and more in people's homes like we saw with computers in the 1990’s. Prices will drop and they'll just get better and better. Pretty soon we ought to see these crappy LED lightbulbs that now go for $50 going super cheap as better stuff comes on the market. I wouldn't buy any LED lights for general lighting now unless I could get them at super reduced clearance sale prices, and I knew the particular light I was buying will produce enough light and at decent enough quality for wherever it was I wanted to use it. I haven't really seen any super cheap prices yet though for “obsolete” LED lights, but I bet that's coming.
I’m aware of the LED lighting superiority but have been waiting for the price to come down and a good white light LED to come along. Can you shed any light (yes, pun intended) on their current price and whether a good white light LED is available?