As a ban on incandescent lighting begins to take effect in 2012, people in the US are bracing themselves for a big change in how we light our houses. LED light bulbs are one of the top contenders—along with CFLs—to replace normal light bulbs, but this change may come with a cost. Starting next year 100-watt LED light bulbs will flood the market with a price tag as high as $US50 per bulb. Lower wattage bulbs will replace incandescent bulbs in the next few years with the same sticker shock for consumers.
In the end all this competition could better quality lighting and less expensive bulbs for you and me. [Samsung]
Image credit: Kardasheva/Shutterstock
TSH
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 12:21 PMCFLs > *. Gimme my “Cool daylight” temperature, relatively cheap CFL over the complicated, expensive LED bulb any day.
The only downside is that CFLs are a bit bigger. But I’m not a fan of light fittings anyway. Why put something in the way of the thing that actually produces the light?
Reb
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 10:06 PMWhat, you mean the moon and the stars?
jeremy
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 5:24 PMCFL do not last as long as LED, so you need to compare total cost (power + bulb) per Lumen/hour. LED already wins there – more efficient (if not a lot for larger sizes vs CFL) and last 5-10 times longer at roughly 3 – 10 times the cost. Limitations at them moment are mostly around the cost of affordable LED bulbs beyond the equivalent of a 40-50w warm incandecent (maybe 7W CFL) – they are about 20 bucks. Warmth is not an issue if you buy the correct “bin” emitters. I paid about 20 bucks for my 300-350 lumen warm 4.5w bulbs (the size of a normal bulb, and as bright at a 7w CFL), and about 60 bucks for my 600 lumen warm 9W bulbs (which are incredibly compact, smaller than any cfl, the size of a GU10 reflector, and as good at an 11w CFL)
Hybridfiat
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 7:36 PMGo here ; http://www.dealextreme.com/c/led-light-bulbs-907
FiftyOne
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 8:26 PMYou can still sell the older style light bulbs. Manufactures need to call them “heating elements” gets around all the legal jive, continue to sell cheap lights
Evan
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 10:07 AMCFLs cause cancer. I read that on the internet so it must be true…
Ash
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 10:41 AMUse CFL’s for the next 5 years until LED’s become more common and more companies start making them therefore bringing down the price due to the competition.