I have a weak LED flashlight or two. Other than that the only LED’s in my house are those you’d find in computers and that sort of thing, colored lights that tell you what is on but that are not intended to light a room or anything like that. LED’s are fine for some purposes. For general lighting purposes though in most cases there will be a better non-LED light that puts off a better light, is more powerful, more energy efficient, and cheaper. That will probably change in the future. We’ll see much more efficient LED lights and they’ll get cheap enough that we’ll start seeing the big companies offering all sorts of general lighting LED products at grocery stores, hardware stores, discount stores, and wherever else you would buy lightbulbs. They’ll have to get a lot cheaper and a lot better before we see sales really take off though.
You’ve been buying these $100 lightbulbs? I couldn’t see myself ever paying that much for a lightbulb for my home. I don’t care if they last forever. I wouldn’t pay anywhere close to that for a lightbulb that would only replace a forty watt bulb. These they talk about in the article don’t even put off as many lumens as a standard forty watt bulb, and they are less energy efficient than most compact fluorescent lights. These are spotlights though, so they are different than standard lightbulbs. But I would bet that you could find something much cheaper to use as a low wattage spotlight, that would be more energy efficient, last a pretty good long while and put out better light.
Personally, I’m going to wait on this technology, at least when it comes to general home lighting. In a few years a light as good or better than this $100 bulb will cost $10 or less. We’ll start seeing relatively cheap LED “bulbs” that put off a nice light and actually spread it around like regular lightbulbs. They’ll probably still cost more than regular lightbulbs and even cfl’s, but as long as they aren’t too much more it will make sense to buy them because they will last so much longer.
I haven't paid anything like $100 for one...but some were about $40. Mostly where I have used them are where I need something that will be low power and quite reliable, like in battery backup applications, or in areas where I don't need tremendous amounts of light but where changing a bulb can get quite expensive, like some of our stairwells.
I'm gotten a few from C Crane that I have been happy with. They prices have dropped some and their selection has improved. I will be happy when they are available in Lowes and Home Depot though.
C Crane