LED bulb news - 9W bulb for $65, uses 150 LEDs

[Mark_Larson]

So I just caught wind of this LED bulb - uses 150 LEDs, 9 watts, and up to 594 lumens if you're willing to go without the cool looks.

You're a very special kind of person -- our kind of person -- if you're the type to drop a good $65 on a single light bulb only because it's made up of 150 warm white LEDs. The 308 lumen (and 594 lumen frosted glass version) bulb sips only 9.2 watts, but is said to be equivalent of a 70 watt incandescent, meaning even though you'll improve your energy consumption by roughly 87%, at 20 cents a kilowatt-hour it'll still take you about 4,600 hours of incandescent use to reconcile the bulb's. But you want one anyway, don't you? Like we said, our kind of person.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Can they be used in Boston?

 

[2xTrinity]

The 308 lumen (and 594 lumen frosted glass version) bulb sips only 9.2 watts, but is said to be equivalent of a 70 watt incandescent

A 70 watt incandescent bulb puts out 1200 lumens+ I could buy a 9W CFL for about $2 that actually produces more light than that LED bulb and save ~$63 up front (energy cost would be the same).

meaning even though you'll improve your energy consumption by roughly 87%, at 20 cents a kilowatt-hour it'll still take you about 4,600 hours of incandescent use to reconcile the bulb's. But you want one anyway, don't you? Like we said, our kind of person.[/quote]
What I would be interesetd in is a 100 lumen per watt + ~3500k Warm White similar to a halogen (I'm aware Cree has a warm white LED, but it's significantly less efficient than the standard cool white LED) in a track lighting system. There is one area where CFLs are not a valid option, and where you could actually save an even more significant amount of energy compared to Halogen spot bulbs by using efficient optics to direct the light exactly where you need it. Also since you're talking about one die instead of hundreds of discrete LEDs, I'm sure you cuold make the thing cheaper if it were to be produced in mass volume (I suspect the main reason why the higher power LEDs are more expensive is that they are fairly low volume items).

I think it will take another doubling of LED efficiency, and a decrease in the price of each LED component, before they are cost effective competetors for flood lighting.

 

[eebowler]

That looks like a heatsinking nightmare!

 

[Mark_Larson]

I think it will take another doubling of LED efficiency, and a decrease in the price of each LED component, before they are cost effective competetors for flood lighting.

I think these small 20 mA LEDs are useless for anything that needs more light than a nightlight. The real advances will be when Luxeon and other high-powered LEDs start getting cheaper and more efficient.

You don't want an LED for flood lighting, you can easily use a fluorescent there. LEDs are great for spotlighting, where you can really use the point-source aspect and design an effective reflector or optics to direct a beam. But LEDs aren't that efficient yet, and they produce a lot of heat like an incandescent, but that heat has to be heatsinked unlike an incandescent.

Fluorescents are terrible for spolighting because of their large size.

 

[2xTrinity]

I think these small 20 mA LEDs are useless for anything that needs more light than a nightlight. The real advances will be when Luxeon and other high-powered LEDs start getting cheaper and more efficient.

You don't want an LED for flood lighting, you can easily use a fluorescent there. LEDs are great for spotlighting, where you can really use the point-source aspect and design an effective reflector or optics to direct a beam. But LEDs aren't that efficient yet, and they produce a lot of heat like an incandescent, but that heat has to be heatsinked unlike an incandescent.

Fluorescents are terrible for spolighting because of their large size.

Agreed. The best LEDs right now (Cree XRE) are about on par with good fluorescents for efficiency. That's why I said it would take another doubling of efficiency. If LEDs were actaully more efficient than fluorescent, they could run higher power without producing as much waste heat to worry about, and only then (IMO) be competive for area lighting, and that is if up front cost can be brought down to low enough to where it will pay for itself on energy savings.

I believe that is a very long way away still, although for spotlighting, LEDs would make a great solution. Actually, at our grocery store I see that they have switched their spotlights in the produce section over to mini HID bulbs (probably 10 HID bubls, produces similar light ouptut to a 40W halogen spot). This sort of application would be ideal for LEDs.