[furrybill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kublikhan', 'W')e had mixed results with our CFLs and LED bulbs. Some lights worked fine for years others had bulbs die every few months. We decided to replace the problem lights with LED fixtures, no bulbs to change. I'm hoping these will last longer. If not, I may have to try these:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere’s a great way to lower your electric bills, and still have all the ultra-bright light bulbs you want operating 24 hours a day! Innovative new light bulbs called P-Bulbs give out bright, steady light – yet use no electricity. P-Bulbs look like compact fluorescent light bulbs, but instead of using electricity to make the gas glow inside, they use depleted plutonium from an atomic power plant. That means with P-Bulbs, not only do you get all the light you want for free, but you’ll be helping the atomic energy industry dispose of its used fuel! How green can you get? P-Bulbs come in 100, 200, 400, 1,000 and 5,000-watt sizes – choose the brightness that’s right for you. You can have as many P-Bulbs as you want operating all night and all day long! That’s because they can’t be turned off – the plutonium is always active. Imagine never having to remember to turn the light off when you leave a room. Imagine having all the light you ever wanted, with no dark rooms – even your attic and basement can be brilliantly lit at all times. Imagine the amazing holiday displays you can create for your home and yard, because there’s no need to run electric cords anywhere! Remember to position your P-Bulbs as far from your family as possible, as the plutonium is radioactive and has a half-life of 10,000 years. If for any reason you want to get rid of your P-Bulbs, simply apply to the Atomic Energy Commission for a special disposal permit and concrete container. P-Bulbs will change the way you live your life forever!

[dinopello]

I just replaced bulbs in 2 rooms with the Phillips Hue LED bulbs. They are 60 Watt equivalent and can be any color of rainbow. They can be controlled via smartphone/tablet or special switches with presets and dimmers. They have presets to mix colors for vaious cognitive responses (alert, relax, romanc, etc) The apps can make them respond to music or do a lava lamp mode where they slowly change colors.

Pretty extravagant price-wise but very cool and low energy.

[dolanbaker]

So far, I've replaced about 3/4 of all my lamps with LED and so far so good. Many of them are brighter than the CFLs they replace. I expect that CFLs will go the way of incandescent bulbs in the next decade or so as people abandon them.

[Shaved Monkey]

I just bought a few more LEDs out of China free postage from Ebay
Ive got 3 or 4 regular globes to go but rarely use those lights much.
I will replace my downlights in the kitchen too.
I dont have the lights on much at night I like to watch TV in the dark with the doors open to get a breeze so dont want to attract bugs.
I got a few emergency globes with batteries in them that turn on for 4 hours if we have a power failure.
I put them in lamps so I can move them around as needed in a power outage

[vox_mundi]

LED Streetlights Are Giving Neighborhoods the Blues

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Early adopters of LED street lighting are struggling with glare and light pollution

If the switch to LEDs had needed any more support, it came from growing evidence about climate change. In the United States, street lighting accounts for a whopping 30 percent [PDF] of all the energy used to generate electricity for outdoor lighting. Another 60 percent goes toward lighting parking lots and garages, and much of that energy is still produced by fossil-fired power plants. Consultants at the firm Navigant, in Chicago, have estimated [PDF] that the United States could save 662 trillion British thermal units—the energy needed to power 5.8 million typical U.S. homes for one year—by converting all remaining non-LED outdoor lighting to LEDs.

Armed with statistics like these, and a mandate to cut energy use wherever they can, municipalities across the United States have installed more than 5.7 million outdoor LED street and area lights. Other towns and cities in Canada, Europe, and Asia have added millions more over the past decade. Amid this rush to adopt outdoor LEDs, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) stressed energy efficiency as the biggest advantage of the new technology while cautioning cities to also consider light output and color quality. But now that ordinary folks have got an eyeful of those new lights, some municipalities are coming down with a case of the early-adopter blues.

For some, those first LED lights have been a fiasco. The harsh glare of certain blue-rich designs is now thought to disrupt people’s sleep patterns and harm nocturnal animals. And these concerns have been heaped on the complaints of astronomers, who as far back as 2009 have criticized the new lights. That’s the year the International Dark-Sky Association, a coalition that opposes light pollution, started worrying that blue-rich LEDs could be “a disaster for dark skies and the environment,” says Chris Monrad, a director of IDA and a lighting consultant in Tucson.

Lately, lighting companies have introduced LED streetlights with a warmer-hued output, and municipalities have begun to adopt them. Some communities, too, are using smart lighting controls to minimize light pollution. They are welcome changes, but they’re happening none too soon: An estimated 10 percent of all outdoor lighting [PDF] in the United States was switched over to an earlier generation of LEDs, which included those problematic blue-rich varieties, at a potential cost of billions of dollars. ...

[dolanbaker]

LED Lights & light pollution, I'm surprised by that report as I've noticed a much reduced "sky glow" effect in places that have LED street lighting. A lot of the issues with street lighting was really caused by poorly designed housings where as most modern designs don't scatter the light.

I'm sure that this really just a transient issue as all infrastructure gets periodically replaced and those older blue LED fittings will be no different.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', 'L')ED Lights & light pollution, I'm surprised by that report as I've noticed a much reduced "sky glow" effect in places that have LED street lighting. A lot of the issues with street lighting was really caused by poorly designed housings where as most modern designs don't scatter the light.

I'm sure that this really just a transient issue as all infrastructure gets periodically replaced and those older blue LED fittings will be no different.

[jedrider]

Our Community College has mostly new infrastructure and their street/parking lot lamps appears to be LED arrays. Their light is very nice; none of the bluest tint of early LEDs, just white. Certainly, an improvement in absolute terms.

[litesong]

Here's my 5 year old post from another website:
The LEDs covered by a frosted glass waste energy. If done right, some bare LEDs work without making you squint, which the clear glass incandescents can't accomplish. I love the LEDs that you can rotate to place light where you need it, without pouring light into areas you don't need lots of light, specially into your eyeballs. In some circumstances,rotating LEDs draw only 6 watts but can replace 100watt incandescents. If you get them at the right price & for the right application, they will pay for themselves in 2000 hours! Every 2000 hours after that, they keep ~$15 in your pocket.Three such LEDs have saved us $60 so far...... each!
/////

Yes, you read right! The 6 watt draw 100 LED light(one LED burned out) replaced a 100 watt incandescent bulb, saving 94 Watts & rotates to provide light exactly where you need it..... WITHOUT being a spotlight, providing even light over nearly 180 arc-degrees.
After four years we replaced two of the rotating LED 6 watt LEDs & now all the lights have provided at least 4 years use. The latest have provided 5 years use & are still in use. The workhorse light is used at least 4000 hours per year, been going for 5 years & 20,000 hours. That $15, 6 watt LED light has saved.....now get this..... 1880 kilowatt-hrs of electricity & almost $170! If it lasts another year, it will have saved almost $200 in electricity cost!
One of the newer(still 5 years old) rotating LED lights is brighter(7 watt draw), has an even more pleasant yellow cast, & uses a metal housing, replacing a plastic housing LED light, which was yellowing over the years. The metal probably was needed vs. the plastic. Altho in use for 4 or 5 years, think this light will be available to replace the workhorse light once it expires, since it has thousands of hours less use.

[litesong]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('litesong', ' ')One of the newer(still 5 years old) rotating LED lights is brighter(7 watt draw), has an even more pleasant yellow cast, & uses a metal housing, replacing a plastic housing LED light, which was yellowing over the years. The metal probably was needed vs. the plastic. Altho in use for 4 or 5 years, think this light will be available to replace the workhorse light once it expires, since it has thousands of hours less use.

[jedrider]

Our technology is pretty amazing. Too bad that all it's done is separate us further from nature. Now, nature is pulling away from us.

[litesong]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedrider', 'O')ur technology is pretty amazing. Too bad that all it's done is separate us further from nature.

[KaiserJeep]

I just thought to update this thread, since LASER headlights are now appearing on the horizon, replacing LED headlights on high-end European cars:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/laser-powered-headlight.htm/printable

The LASERs merely excite the phosphorus on a target (not a lens) in front of the LASER diode aperture/emitter. The white light produced by the glowing phosphorus is then focused by the reflector onto the road. The LASER headlights are not brighter or longer range than modern LED headlights, the advantage is that they achieve the same brightness as LED headlights while consuming half the electrical energy.

Both LASERs and LEDs are mono-chromatic light sources, ill-suited to headlight usage. (LEDs are incoherent sources, LASERs are coherent light, this difference accounts for the efficiency boost.) The broad spectrum white light is produced when the mono-chromatic light is absorbed by a careful mix of rare-earth phosphors and the combination of frequencies in the glow is perceived as a white light in your eye. In the prior generation of "white" LEDs, the same phosphors are incorporated into the plastic encapsulating the LED chip.

The problem with "white light" LEDs and LASERs is those same phosphors. The oldest mass-produced white LEDs are now getting to be a decade or so old and the phosphors are aging. As they age, the phosphorescence fades - emits less light. The life of such devices is measured in "half-lifes", and at the end of one half-life, the glow is half as bright as on a new device. A likely half-life selected for a headlight device would be on the order of 10 years. At the end of 10 years of operation, the LED headlight or LASER headlight is half as bright. This point might be at 25 years of vehicle life, since you do not use the headlights in daylight.

In addition to phosphorus aging, one can expect color shifts in the nominally "white" light, since the different color phosphors are different chemical compounds, and age at different rates. Phosphorus aging in LEDs and LASER diodes is similar to the aging of phosphors formerly used to coat the screens of old CRT televisions and color monitors - some of the same chemicals are used.

Within a decade, LASER diode sourced white bulbs should be in residences and other general lighting applications. However since LASER devices require very expensive precision 'lapping" of the silicon or gallium arsenide or other semiconductor chip, LED devices/bulbs are likely to remain in production, even though only half as bright as the LASER bulb of the same wattage.

https://youtu.be/SolKqp8h6kc

[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')A likely half-life selected for a headlight device would be on the order of 10 years. At the end of 10 years of operation, the LED headlight or LASER headlight is half as bright. This point might be at 25 years of vehicle life, since you do not use the headlights in daylight.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '
')The problem with "white light" LEDs and LASERs is those same phosphors. The oldest mass-produced white LEDs are now getting to be a decade or so old and the phosphors are aging. As they age, the phosphorescence fades - emits less light. The life of such devices is measured in "half-lifes", and at the end of one half-life, the glow is half as bright as on a new device. A likely half-life selected for a headlight device would be on the order of 10 years. At the end of 10 years of operation, the LED headlight or LASER headlight is half as bright. This point might be at 25 years of vehicle life, since you do not use the headlights in daylight.

[GHung]

I bought four of the latest generation Phillips LED household bulbs the other day at the HD for about $7. They've come way down in price, and the 60 watters, shown as using 8.5 watts, are showing 7.9 watts on the Kill-O-Watt meter. No point in changing those out since all of our lighting at home is now LED and performing nicely.

As for running car headlights during the day, I added a set of daytime running lights (LED) to my truck for the same reasons Tanada turns on headlights. The cheap set from Ebay didn't last but a few months, but I found a nice set of flexible strip LEDs at Walmart for about $25. I used duelling relays so they turn on when the truck is started and turn off when the headlights are on. Not too hard to do. The strips are peel-and-stick and slid into the narrow space just below the headlamps; look factory. Nice and bright, hopefully they'll discourage our elderly drivers from Florida from just PULLING OUT INTO TRAFFIC WHENEVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT CAUSING ME TO SLAM ON THE BREAKS. I've also beefed up my brake lights with LEDs.