I was in a different to usual supermarket last night (Sainsburys) and they had a new range of Philips LEDs that are at very good prices. 60W equivalent for under £12 and GU10 for £7, for example. Also candles and golf balls. Not dimmable though.
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I was in a different to usual supermarket last night (Sainsburys) and they had a new range of Philips LEDs that are at very good prices. 60W equivalent for under £12 and GU10 for £7, for example. Also candles and golf balls. Not dimmable though.
If they can get down to the $15-20 range per bulb, I think people will start to adopt them more readily. $40 is a lot for a light bulb for most people even though it would still save them money and cost less over time.
I have progressively changed all the halogen bulbs (GU10 and G4) in the house to LED. Initially I bought LEDs from large DIY chains (B&Q, Homebase) - at the time they were disappointing: low brightness, very blue. I then found UltraLEDs.co.uk - their prices were lower and their brightness much better. Every major holiday in the UK they have a sale with 20% off or so. And their prices have driven progressively downwards.
January 2012 I bought GU10s drawing 4W and delivering a 50W equivalent brightness at £7.80 each (tax included): that's about $10 before sales tax. The light quality is a little green for my taste but I've rapidly got used to it. These LEDs will last at least 10 times longer than the halogens they replaced. A halogen bulb costs around $1 in bulk. So you can spend $10 on ten halogens each of ten years or one LED that lasts 10 years.
So they are really no more expensive in capital terms. For organisations that have a cost to change a bulb the LED's reduced replacement cycle makes them a win very quickly in reduced maintenance.
For a light that is used 1000 hours a year, the saved electricity is around £5/year on my tarrif. So the return is £50 over 10 years.
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I will say there was a lot of trial and error to find LED GU10s and G4s I was happy with. Often the form factor wasn't a true replacement - too long or too wide. I also tried CFL GU10s - these were not worth it.
However the payback is interesting. As I completed the process I worked out the total energy saving. And amazingly now that I've replaced all the halogens in the house it looks like the annual kWh saving is enough to drive my Roadster 6000 miles a year. Staggering.
(50 lights x 46W saved x 1000 hours per year (<3 hours per day) = 2300 kWh per year
Wall power required for Roadster: 400 Wh/mi
=> 5750 miles)
Given that I charge the Roadster on aTime of Use tarriff overnight that costs half of the daytime rate, and that almost all the lighting use is in the peak period, financially each saved kWh from the lighting buys two driving kWh.
I am currently doing under 12,000 miles per year, so I think the saved energy from converting halogens to LEDs is paying for all my miles driven!
My difficulty is the number of closed fixtures embedded in my house -- those glass domes that seal up a couple of bulbs. They are a deathtrap for anything other than incandescents, so they'll require replacement with something out-of-period that supports modern bulbs.
You want your candles and golf balls to be dimmable?!?Originally Posted by dpeilow
Wow, lotta hyperbole in that re-hashed press release. Kinda know someone else who had a lot to do with blue diode lasers. And what's the point of hyping the laser thing when it's yet another LED bulb (without fans, like, oh, say, every other bulb I currently have). I'm still waiting for lightbulbs with real frickin' lasers in them.
I'll buy one and try it out when I can, and we'll see...
Whoa, hold the cynicism. Nakamura really was instrumental in creating the modern LEDs and semiconductor lasers that we take for granted. Check up this thread.
I saw him talk in London 2 years ago where he explained how his group was honing in on materials that would create green and yellow emissons to make a better colour spectrum without the use of phosphors, and new led shapes and packaging methods, which increases efficiency further. I guess this is the result of that work.
The IET Kelvin Lecture 2010 - Lighting up the future - the way ahead for solid-state lighting
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