In reality, LED and spiral fluorescent lamps ARE much more efficient than incandescant lamps, in terms of power consumed vs. lumens produced. LED’s are the ultimate conclusion for lighting, with low power consumption, little heat output, and very long life with proper design, exceeding virtually every other light source. The only hangup is color temperature, and up front cost. The first is being tackled as we speak, with LED’s that mimic daylight white, the second is scale of economy. Of course, these observations are purely from an engineering standpoint, without being viewed through a political lense.
CFLs, on the other hand, are crony capitalism at its finest. Phillips and other manufacturers basically bribed legislatures to mandate the use of these dangerous and inferior (though higher-margin) devices for a few years until the economics of LEDs closed their window of opportunity forever.
LEDs have for decades been able to produce any color temperature desired. If that were not the case no LED monitor or Led TV would even have been sold.
It only takes the manufacturer to introduce the right combination of RGB leds to produce the desired color temperature.
Engineers should also consider these facts:
Spiral fluorescent lamps must be disposed of by specially designated hazardous waste facilities. Costly additional expense and infrastructure in waste management is required to do this,
If a spiral fluorescent lamp is broken inside a home, it becomes a hazmat cleanup site, which the average citizen is not trained to do properly, and counties apparently don’t care to inform things like, if a bulb breaks on your carpet, it cannot be cleaned, it must be disposed of... ostensibly at the hazardous waste facility. No doubt users of these bulbs fail most of the time to take the spent bulbs to a proper facility, instead dropping them in the trash where they can end up polluting the environment and/or groundwater.
Where do you drop off your spent bulbs, just curious?
Engineers should also be aware of the effect on the human body of these lights. Fluorescent lamps deplete the human body of vitamin d. Engineers may be aware of the epidemic of vitamin d deficiency currently in our society, and direct correlations can be drawn.
In addition, the LED lamps damage retinas and can cause blindness after prolonged use. Also demonstrated by researchers in Europe.