Would you upgrade your house lights to LED?

[tron3]

I guess the answer is obvious. Ideally these new bulbs would fit existing bulb sockets. But what is holding you back?

If you are looking for the "true flashaholic...let's get him" poll option, you'll have to come up with your own reason to get me this time.

 

[Brighteyez]

If LEDs could provide the same level of lighting effectively and reliably at affordable levels, I sure would. Unfortunately such products are not being mass produced and are only available from cottage industry sources at rather high costs. Additionally, these suppliers may not have had adequate resources to R&D or QC their products to a level of reliability that would make them appealing enough for the average consumer.

I guess the answer is obvious. Ideally these new bulbs would fit existing bulb sockets. But what is holding you back?

 

[bjn70]

It doesn't seem to me that the light spectrum from LED's is right.

 

[jtr1962]

The main things holding me back now are cost, efficiency, and light quality. By next year LED efficiency should be right up there with the best fluorescents, and it will continue to improve from there. Therefore, efficiency will be a non-issue soon. Cost is the main thing after that. I figure about the most any consumer, including myself, will pay for an LED replacement bulb will be in the $10 area. Assuming you want to match the output of a 28 watt CFL, which is about 1700 lumens, you would at present need about 350 5mm LEDs, or ~35 of Lumiled's K2. The cost of the LEDs alone in either case would be three figures, effectively ruling out LED for now.

Light quality is the final hurdle. While I most certainly don't want LEDs which mimic incandescent I do want them with a CRI better than the typical high 70s which most currently offer. I also want a color temp around 5000K rather than the 6500K to 8000K currently typical of white LEDs, or better yet a bulb using RGB LEDs with user selectable color temp. Furthermore, I want some consistency so that each bulb looks the same color. Right now there is still too much variation from LED to LED even in the same lot.

As much as I love LEDs they just aren't there yet for general lighting. I think in about 2 or 3 years though you'll start to see Home Depot offering screw-in LED replacements with output equaling or bettering the incandescents they're designed to replace, 1/10 the power usage, and for $10 or less. The most obvious thing to make first are replacements for those small base candelabra incandescents which have horrible efficiencies of 10 lm/W or less.

Two other things I expect from any LED replacement-it must be dimmable using a standard lamp dimmer, and the output must not flicker. That means no PWM, just continuous, filtered DC. For dimming, you can electronically read the duty cycle set by the dimmer, and adjust the LED's current to the same percentage of maximum as the duty cycle.

Given that much of our house is already lit with linear fluorescents though LEDs will at best be only about half the total lighting until the fluorescent fixtures wear out. I suspect it'll be a really long time before it makes sense to replace fluorescents with LEDs.

 

[jtr1962]

It doesn't seem to me that the light spectrum from LED's is right.

The beauty of LEDs is that the spectrum can be tailored to anything you want. You can match incandescent if that's your cup of tea, or better yet sunlight, or anything in between. I suspect LEDs will revolutionize our general lighting paradigms in more ways than any of us can imagine.

 

[WildRice]

One of my Uncles buddies has a newer house with loads of track lighting. He has switched ALL his track lighting to LED upgrades. IIRC he got his stuff off of Ebay, you know, the stuff that isn't supposed to be sold in the US. he LOVES it, nice and bright and WAAYYYY less running cost. I heard that he has recientally changed most of his outdoor lighting to LED replacements too (edison base). I myself use CCFL's as they are cheaper and lower running cost per lumen (so far). But fir smaller lighting like resessed or track lighting, I'll have to wait for the prices to quiet down.
Jeff

 

[Big_Ed]

It would probably be very expensive to replace all the bulbs in the house. I can pay for lots of electricity with the money I would save by just using the plain old cheap incans. I do think, though, that in an environmental sense, it would be a good idea to switch over to LEDs. I'm sure someday it'll be more feasable for everyone to consider switching.

 

[LEDninja]

I have a 1 watt 6500K reflector in a lamp clamped to my headboard.
I plan to get another one for the desklamp on my computer desk when it gets hot in the summer.
I am trying out a 1 watt omnidirectional 3500K as a night light in the hallway.

I find the multi-LED bulbs 8000K to have too much angry blue/ugly purple. Yuk!

 

[jezzyp]

Yes - Eventually


Bought an LED spot but its too dim compared to the 20W 12v ones. I have a 1 watt led bulb that has a selection of leds in it. It uses so little electricity I can't measure it. The light is dim and blueish but as it runs cold its fine for the kidddies nightlight

 

[Manzerick]

I have a 19led light bulb I placed in a lamp post. Not bright but give off a distinct blue light that peeps wanna know what I did to it. i think it looks awesome...esp. after snow

 

[Empath]

Some things, like night lights, are already upgraded to LED. Others are upgraded to fluorescent. Your poll doesn't seem to take fluorescents into consideration.

Whether LED will ever manages to be more efficient than fluorescent, I don't know. On higher output, flood type lighting, it's difficult to imagine it. The thing to keep in mind is that white LED is fluorescent lighting. The difference is that one is blue light exited, and the other is electronically excited. That adds an additional energy conversion step to the formula. Presently, LED activated fluorescents for producing the equivalent of a hundred watt incandescent would likely produce more problematic heat considerations than CCF lighting.

I don't know if the "golly-gee-whiz" factor would be worthwhile enough to push the industry into something that would appear to be less efficient.

 

[nerdgineer]

You don't have my option: I changed most all the lights to compact fluorescents a few years back.

Electricity bill dropped $40 a month (less now that kids have left home and not all the lights stay on all the time...). CCFLs are low cost and efficient. LEDs will have to go a ways before they can beat a cheaper than 2 dollar, 60 watt equivalent 13 watt compact fluorescent. I've occasionally seen 60 and 80 W equivalent CCFLs on sale for a dollar each. They're subsidized prices, but $30 will buy you many years of lights when these sales show up.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

Eventually I will upgrade to LED, Still using the compact Flouro tube lights
as they are affordable and easily obtainable

 

[jtr1962]

You don't have my option: I changed most all the lights to compact fluorescents a few years back.

Or the option "I use mostly linear fluorescent so LED would require new fixtures". For those already using compact and especially linear fluorescent, it may be a while before LED is efficient enough to make sense.

 

[Darell]

What about the option: Yes, I already have. Or... Yes, they are already bright/cheap enough?

For me, the answer would be, Yes, I already have for the most part.

But I can't anwer, so I guess I won't.

 

[Doug3581]

The beauty of LEDs is that the spectrum can be tailored to anything you want. You can match incandescent if that's your cup of tea, or better yet sunlight, or anything in between. I suspect LEDs will revolutionize our general lighting paradigms in more ways than any of us can imagine.

This does not seem to be true.
Stage and media (TV/movie) production is still using [very-hot] incandescent lights, because nothing else looks like natural light. That is, sunlight.

And I agree with others here, in that I haven't ever seen a LED light that looked right for normal lighting. Also I haven't seen a lot of LED lights, but what I have seen is not encouraging. Maybe there is some expensive setup that does, but I haven't seen it. And probably can't afford a whole bunch of them, even considering the offset of resultant lower electricity and AC costs.

And by the way--nobody gave the obligatory VOS Pad link: http://www.thevospad.com/gallery/gallery.htm

Here's a Slashdot article with additional comments on it: http://slashdot.org/articles/04/01/11/211220.shtml?tid=126
~

 

[Changchung]

I work with Leds, look what i am doing... the light output in the first job is just for decorative, but in the second one the Led work great to iluminate the area in the night...

​

 

[billw]

They've got to be a LOT brighter. I mean, I replaced most of my 200-300W
incandescent fixtures with 50-70W CFL fixtures (usually featuring multiple
CFL lamps to replace one incandescent), and I'm sorta barely satisfied. I'm
not willing to take another hit like that, and I'm not willing to put in LOTS of
LED lights (at $$$) to reach equivilent brightness to what I have now.

(the replacement of 1200W worth of 60W candelabra incandescents with about 100W
worth of CFL has worked much better. But I do miss the 200W reading lamp
and 300W halogen torcheries.)

 

[ViReN]

If the Brightness of LED vs CFL is Equal
and If the Size of LED vs CFL is Equal or Less than CFL
and that they will fit in existing fixtures (holders) without any modifications

I will not upgrade untill the Cost of LED vs CFL is Equal or Less than CFL lights.

till then, it simply dosent make any sense for me to upgrade.

 

[jtr1962]

This does not seem to be true.
Stage and media (TV/movie) production is still using [very-hot] incandescent lights, because nothing else looks like natural light. That is, sunlight.

What about HID? Those look a heck of lot more like sunlight than incandescent. I remember seeing some 5500K HIDs that were in fact used in movie production.

Longer term, there is no good technical reason you can't make an LED which comes pretty close to duplicating sunlight. Just because it hasn't been done until now doesn't mean it can't be done. The technology is still in its infancy. Such a sunlight lamp would be perfect for both general lighting and movie production. While the above-mentioned HIDs do a good job of duplicating sunlight, they are far too expensive to even consider using in homes.

And I agree with others here, in that I haven't ever seen a LED light that looked right for normal lighting. Also I haven't seen a lot of LED lights, but what I have seen is not encouraging. Maybe there is some expensive setup that does, but I haven't seen it. And probably can't afford a whole bunch of them, even considering the offset of resultant lower electricity and AC costs.

As I said earlier, I agree LED isn't quite there yet for general lighting but then again present-day incandescents were never really a great choice either given their heat production, horrid efficiency, abysmally short life, and poor color. I'm frankly amazed so many people are still using them. The present-day blue + phosphor LEDs definitely have too poor color rendering and inconsistency to use for general lighting but within a few years that should change. The best choice for now is certainly fluorescent, either CFLs or linear tubes. I also think it'll be a long time before LEDs become efficient enough to warrant replacing fluorescents with them. Where they will make sense soon is for replacing the aforementioned incandescent lamps for those who still insist on using them. Unlike fluorescents, LEDs won't suffer from being frequently started, and they should be dimmable if properly designed.

Furthermore, I'm fully in agreement that the cost needs to come down to at least the level of present CFLs plus they need to match the output of whatever they're replacing. That will happen as we develop more efficient emitters. By the time we're at 150 lm/W the higher efficiency should allow us to drive a K2 or Luxeon type emitter to 6 or 7 watts, giving us about 1000 lumens per emitter. The cost will continue to fall as well. Once the price hits $1 or less for such an emitter, it will be possible to sell LED replacements for under $10. Long term I wouldn't be surprised if LEDs match or even beat the price per lumen of incandescents, finally relegating them to the scrap heap of history.