Behold the $15 LED light bulb

[Quantum Windbag]

I have little doubt that LED lighting will be the wave of the future.

As the techology advances economies of scale come into play.

I'm informed that Princess lines just made a multimillion dollar purchase of LED lighting for their fleet, for example.

Expect that the first changes to LED lighting will happen at the industrial level, and as that market grows the economies of scale will insure that it will eventually migrate into the retail market.

Right now my favorite toy is an LED hand powered flashlight.

I HATE battery techology because typically when I need a flashlight my flashlights, which might have been sitting unused for years, have dead batteries.

With a couple turns of the flashlights handcrank I have plenty of light.

During Irene my power went out for a few hours but I continued to read (sans wasteful battery power) thanks to this LED flashlight.

I think LEDs are going to be great, in the future, but we do not live in the future. I remember being promised flying cars and jet packs by 1990 when I was in high school. That must have been a different future than the one I ended up in.

THey're great now.

No, they are OK now. Read flacaltenn's post to learn where the technology actually is right now, not where the PR idiots want you to believe it is.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

I think LEDs are going to be great, in the future, but we do not live in the future. I remember being promised flying cars and jet packs by 1990 when I was in high school. That must have been a different future than the one I ended up in.

THey're great now.

No, they are OK now. Read flacaltenn's post to learn where the technology actually is right now, not where the PR idiots want you to believe it is.

PR idiots? Uhh, I've actually seen the bulbs - like in real life - do you know what that is?

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

Ever wonder who holds the patent on all the CFLs that are now mandated for people to buy? If you need a hint the initials of the company are GE.

No one is mandated to buy CFLs.

And the GE patent is expired.

That depends on where you live, and it was in force when Congress mandated getting rid of incandescent lights.

Want to try again?

I don't think so. GE got their patent in 1976. So it expired in 1996.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

THey're great now.

No, they are OK now. Read flacaltenn's post to learn where the technology actually is right now, not where the PR idiots want you to believe it is.

PR idiots? Uhh, I've actually seen the bulbs - like in real life - do you know what that is?

Have you really?

Have you done a side by side comparison to a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb? Have you checked them for energy efficiency, lumens, CRI, and lifetime? If not, you have not really seen them, you just looked at them.

 

[Mr_Rockhead]

How much less? They cost 30 times as much....

Depends on how many you use.

No, it doesn't.

Each bulb. Does it last as long and use 1/30th the energy? Twice as long and 1/15th the energy? 10 times as long and 1/3 the energy?

These costs 30 times as much for each bulb, compared to discount incandescents. If I'm not getting 30 times the performance, I'm not really seeing why I should pay $15 for a lightbulb.

I think the average wattages of the squiggly blubs burn about 75% less energy then the regular bulbs and that’s quite a bit less.

Okay, so they use 1/4 the energy and cost 30 times as much...

How long does it take for each individual bulb to save me $14 dollars on my energy bill and justify its own expense before I can even begin to save money? How long for two of them to save me $28?

If you expect people to bay $15 for a bulb, you have to show that each individual bulb puts $14 back in my pocket in something resembling a reasonable time frame in order to justify itself.

First, let me state clearly that I am not in favor of giving the environmental lobby any more power then they already have. Indeed, I feel quite strongly that they already have way too much control over our lives as it is. So I am actually very in favor of stripping them of as much of that power as we can before they really do bleed us all dry.

But that does not mean I do not like advancements like this. And, being the person I am, I will usually always opt to buy something I don’t really need as long as I feel it is better then what I have.

Someone has already mentioned LCD screens vs. Cathode Ray Tubes so I’ll use a computer analogy.

My first computer was a 386DX and I eventually spent $100.00 to upgrade it from 4MB to 8MB of RAM. Not long after that, I got a 486 and gave the (perfectly good) 386 to a friend whose family did not have a computer. So the loss of my investment in the 386 plus the expense of buying the 486 was, indeed, a big financial hit. But I felt it was worth it because my family’s quality of life improved.

I would also add that I have continued to replace perfectly good computers with better models to the point that I now have three computers, my wife also has one and my daughter has two.

Now, as far as the CF bulbs go, I guess everyone’s mileage must differ because, in the past six years, out of the 20 or so I added, I can recall replacing only one so far. And, as I noted earlier, about ten of these bulbs burn at least 12 hours per day in my house.

Since then, I have used substantially less electricity and also estimate that I have saved the replacement cost of about 90 regular light bulbs. And the CF bulbs are still going strong.

So, personally, I think the LCD technology is going to be even better and I am willing to pay for it. But, at the same time, I could care less what kind of light bulb someone else may prefer.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

No, they are OK now. Read flacaltenn's post to learn where the technology actually is right now, not where the PR idiots want you to believe it is.

PR idiots? Uhh, I've actually seen the bulbs - like in real life - do you know what that is?

Have you really?

Have you done a side by side comparison to a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb? Have you checked them for energy efficiency, lumens, CRI, and lifetime? If not, you have not really seen them, you just looked at them.

Whatever dude.

 

[MeBelle]

That there are ways of using less power, ways of doing things more efficiently, seems to be a thorn in the sides of the 'Conservatives'. The government never 'outlawed' incandescents. During the Bush administration, there were laws passed and signed into law by Bush, that established lighting efficiencies. Those laws did not state how those efficienceis were to be met, only that they had to be. So we have CFs that use only 25% of the juice of the old incandescents, have a much longer life span, and cost only about twice as much now as the incandescent. And now, LEDs are coming on the market that use even less power, last many times longer then the CFs, and presently cost about 15 times as much.

Seems to me to be good market economics.

I agree there are ways to use less power, it is not a conservative issues. TURN off, UNPLUG, etc

And here ya go!!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24/california-incandescent-l_n_813093.html

Beginning Jan. 1, the state began phasing out certain energy-sucking bulbs, federal standards the rest of the country will enact next year.

The act requires new bulbs to use 25 to 30 percent less energy beginning in 2012 nationally – starting with the 100-watt bulb. By 2014, other incandescent bulbs, including the 75-, 60- and 40-watt, will also be phased out across the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can poor people afford these types of state bans???

 

[editec]

I have little doubt that LED lighting will be the wave of the future.

As the techology advances economies of scale come into play.

I'm informed that Princess lines just made a multimillion dollar purchase of LED lighting for their fleet, for example.

Expect that the first changes to LED lighting will happen at the industrial level, and as that market grows the economies of scale will insure that it will eventually migrate into the retail market.

Right now my favorite toy is an LED hand powered flashlight.

I HATE battery techology because typically when I need a flashlight my flashlights, which might have been sitting unused for years, have dead batteries.

With a couple turns of the flashlights handcrank I have plenty of light.

During Irene my power went out for a few hours but I continued to read (sans wasteful battery power) thanks to this LED flashlight.

People steal towels from hotels.... i hope princess has their bulbs locked down... or they will be the new thing to steal.

LED lighting takes more than just the LED bulbs, amigo.

You cannot take an LED bulb and stick it into your existing incandescant lamp.

 

[flacaltenn]

The decision by governments to require high efficiency light bulbs is proving to be a stimulus to the lighting industry to develop new and improved technologies that will save energy and eventually produce much better products. When government raises the bar, whether it be high efficiency light bulbs, higher gas mileage, or safer vehicles, private enterprise responds by producing better products that benefit us all.

There's an incredible wastefulness associated with the govt "arbitrarily" raising the bar. Contrary to Ole Rock's spin -- the govt DID outlaw incandescents which destroyed entire factories set up to produce huge volumes. And a workforce trained to it. Then came CFL industry and all of their efforts and toolings that NEVER would have needed to be created with the BETTER option of LED lighting waiting in the wings. Except that because of an ARBITRARY deadline set by Congress, we couldn't wait for the BETTER approach just a few years off. That's like junking 2 entire industries to get one.

Guess you must mean the incredibly successful stuff like ethanol (burning food stock in our gas tanks).. That's a much better example of how we rely on the government "to fix" market decisions...

 

[flacaltenn]

I have little doubt that LED lighting will be the wave of the future.

As the techology advances economies of scale come into play.

I'm informed that Princess lines just made a multimillion dollar purchase of LED lighting for their fleet, for example.

Expect that the first changes to LED lighting will happen at the industrial level, and as that market grows the economies of scale will insure that it will eventually migrate into the retail market.

Right now my favorite toy is an LED hand powered flashlight.

I HATE battery techology because typically when I need a flashlight my flashlights, which might have been sitting unused for years, have dead batteries.

With a couple turns of the flashlights handcrank I have plenty of light.

During Irene my power went out for a few hours but I continued to read (sans wasteful battery power) thanks to this LED flashlight.

People steal towels from hotels.... i hope princess has their bulbs locked down... or they will be the new thing to steal.

LED lighting takes more than just the LED bulbs, amigo.

You cannot take an LED bulb and stick it into your existing incandescant lamp.

Actually that's something I hadn't thought of.. $20 light bulbs are a big temptation. And there is and will be PAR (standard edison base) LED lamps that just screw in..

Heck -- the hotel will just charge you $40 for the $20 bulb that you stole..

 

[Uncensored2008]

I tried those two-for-a-dollar, made in Mexico bulbs from the dollar store. The 60w was about half as bright as a regular 60w and they didn't last nearly as long.

MY main complaint about the new LED bulbs is the light is harsh, like fluorescent. Not at all as soft as an incandescent. So I am stocking up on incandescents before they are taken off the market in January. Hopefully by the time my stockpile of incandescents is used up there will be advances in the quality of LED light and the prices will come down.

LED changes the nature of lighting, this isn't just changing the bulb.

CFL is florescent. No matter how it is disguised, it still is a florescent light. That means that is is going to flicker and trigger headaches and epileptic seizures - it's simply the nature of the lights.

LED is a far different proposition, though, There is no flicker from LED, non at all. The biggest issue with "white" LED is that it is blue. The bullshit about low quality and high quality is utterly false. LED casts a blue tinge. However this really isn't a big deal. Light is just part of the spectrum. To get a true white light from a 15 LED array, simply place one red and one yellow LED in the center of the 13 surrounding "white" LED's and the result is true white light.

Where LED REALLY shines is in shifting the paradigm. Too many people think in terms of lamps and bulbs, but LED makes those irrelevant. Imagine your ceiling tiles infused with LED's, when you turn the light on, the entire ceiling IS the light. LED's draw so little power and run so cool that they can be embedded in walls, floors, counters, you name it. Illumination from all angles.

LED lighting changes everything - for the better.

 

[uscitizen]

what if it lasts 10 times as long as a regular bulb and uses less energy.

1/3 as much energy? Then it'd be a wash.

I pay a dollar for two incandescents.

I tried those two-for-a-dollar, made in Mexico bulbs from the dollar store. The 60w was about half as bright as a regular 60w and they didn't last nearly as long.

MY main complaint about the new LED bulbs is the light is harsh, like fluorescent. Not at all as soft as an incandescent. So I am stocking up on incandescents before they are taken off the market in January. Hopefully by the time my stockpile of incandescents is used up there will be advances in the quality of LED light and the prices will come down.

You can get dimmers for LED lights.

 

[Big Fitz]

Lighting Science Group teams up with Indian electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies to unveil the world's first $15-or-less 60-watt equivalent LED bulb.

Even though some LED (or light-emitting diode) light bulbs boast lifespans that last decades while consuming minimal energy compared to old school incandescent bulbs, their price — often hovering around the $40 mark — has remained a sticking point with many consumers. Sure, the savings in the long run are remarkable, but who really wants to spend more than $20 on a single light bulb?

Well, meet the latest creation from the geniuses over at Lighting Science Group: an omnidirectional, 60-watt equivalent A19 LED bulb with a sticker price of $15 or less. That's right, folks — a $15 LED.

Developed in cooperation with Indian electronics manufacturing giant Dixon Technologies, this low-priced, high-performance bulb with a lifespan of around eight years will initially be released in India later this year before making its way stateside and elsewhere in early 2012. The revolutionary bulb is designed to consume 85 percent less energy than standard 60-watt incandescents and 35 percent less energy than CLFs.

With 800,000,000 incandescent light bulbs and 300,000,000 CFLs sold in India each year, the market is ripe for these highly efficient, long lasting and nontoxic products. The economic and environmental implications of this partnership are significant: old-style light bulbs use 60 billion units of electricity each year, 7% of India’s total, and our Lighting Science Group Definity® lamps could save over 70% of that, equivalent to 32 coal fired plants with 500MW capacity.

Behold, the $15 LED bulb | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Get back to me when it's a buck.

Till then "BEHOLD! My 15 CENT banned 60 watt incandescent bulb!" It works in the cold! It lasts just about as long! It's not an environmental hazard to clean up if it breaks!

::sucks at teeth::: yeah... I'll be waiting for you to outdo the ol' reliable. Give it a decade or maybe two if you're unlucky.

 

[Big Fitz]

And, since these new LED bulbs run much cooler than the florescent ones, I would expect them to virtually never burn out.

Bullcrap. LED lights burn out all the time in anything other than room temperature. Look at the back of a bus or Semi that's about 3 years old or older. Shitloads of them have burnt out LEDs sprinkled through the tail light assembly. I see it every day.

 

[uscitizen]

LMAO! You will pry my .15 incandescent bulb from my cold dead hands!

 

[Old Rocks]

Poor Fritz. If grandaddy didn't use it, it ain't any good, don't care what them thar pointy headed Lubruls say.

 

[flacaltenn]

I tried those two-for-a-dollar, made in Mexico bulbs from the dollar store. The 60w was about half as bright as a regular 60w and they didn't last nearly as long.

MY main complaint about the new LED bulbs is the light is harsh, like fluorescent. Not at all as soft as an incandescent. So I am stocking up on incandescents before they are taken off the market in January. Hopefully by the time my stockpile of incandescents is used up there will be advances in the quality of LED light and the prices will come down.

LED changes the nature of lighting, this isn't just changing the bulb.

CFL is florescent. No matter how it is disguised, it still is a florescent light. That means that is is going to flicker and trigger headaches and epileptic seizures - it's simply the nature of the lights.

LED is a far different proposition, though, There is no flicker from LED, non at all. The biggest issue with "white" LED is that it is blue. The bullshit about low quality and high quality is utterly false. LED casts a blue tinge. However this really isn't a big deal. Light is just part of the spectrum. To get a true white light from a 15 LED array, simply place one red and one yellow LED in the center of the 13 surrounding "white" LED's and the result is true white light.

Where LED REALLY shines is in shifting the paradigm. Too many people think in terms of lamps and bulbs, but LED makes those irrelevant. Imagine your ceiling tiles infused with LED's, when you turn the light on, the entire ceiling IS the light. LED's draw so little power and run so cool that they can be embedded in walls, floors, counters, you name it. Illumination from all angles.

LED lighting changes everything - for the better.

I agree with 90% of what you said.. Only problem I have is that there ARE single device LEDs with a "warm" color spectrum.. In fact, you can buy from part number bins that give you anywhere from 3000K to 6000K color temperature.. They do this with secondary phosphors within the device that reradiate at the required frequencies. More convienient than adding a red led to the array-- because with that approach -- you have to worry about color drift over lifetime, temperature and DIMMING (if the design allows dimming). (Also adding a red LED is a relatively narrow spectral emission line that does not FILL the entire visible band)

Trust me -- I've been offered $0.40 120Lumen LEDs.. Wouldn't design them in because of CRI and poor thermal handling affecting their lifetime.. There ARE low/high quality choices that will affect market acceptance..

Here's one series of lighting class white LED with a choice of colors..

http://www.philipslumileds.com/products/luxeon-rebel/luxeon-rebel-white

PS. A bad AC/DC power supply design CAN introduce flicker into an LED screw in replacement bulb.. Maybe I only agree with 75% of what you said ----

 

[Big Fitz]

LMAO! You will pry my .15 incandescent bulb from my cold dead hands!

Where's the government's right to take it my warm live fingers? Hmmm? Point that bad boy out mein herr.

 

[Big Fitz]

I tried those two-for-a-dollar, made in Mexico bulbs from the dollar store. The 60w was about half as bright as a regular 60w and they didn't last nearly as long.

MY main complaint about the new LED bulbs is the light is harsh, like fluorescent. Not at all as soft as an incandescent. So I am stocking up on incandescents before they are taken off the market in January. Hopefully by the time my stockpile of incandescents is used up there will be advances in the quality of LED light and the prices will come down.

LED changes the nature of lighting, this isn't just changing the bulb.

CFL is florescent. No matter how it is disguised, it still is a florescent light. That means that is is going to flicker and trigger headaches and epileptic seizures - it's simply the nature of the lights.

LED is a far different proposition, though, There is no flicker from LED, non at all. The biggest issue with "white" LED is that it is blue. The bullshit about low quality and high quality is utterly false. LED casts a blue tinge. However this really isn't a big deal. Light is just part of the spectrum. To get a true white light from a 15 LED array, simply place one red and one yellow LED in the center of the 13 surrounding "white" LED's and the result is true white light.

Where LED REALLY shines is in shifting the paradigm. Too many people think in terms of lamps and bulbs, but LED makes those irrelevant. Imagine your ceiling tiles infused with LED's, when you turn the light on, the entire ceiling IS the light. LED's draw so little power and run so cool that they can be embedded in walls, floors, counters, you name it. Illumination from all angles.

LED lighting changes everything - for the better.

I agree with 90% of what you said.. Only problem I have is that there ARE single device LEDs with a "warm" color spectrum.. In fact, you can buy from part number bins that give you anywhere from 3000K to 6000K color temperature.. They do this with secondary phosphors within the device that reradiate at the required frequencies. More convienient than adding a red led to the array-- because with that approach -- you have to worry about color drift over lifetime, temperature and DIMMING (if the design allows dimming).

Trust me -- I've been offered $0.40 120Lumen LEDs.. Wouldn't design them in because of CRI and poor thermal handling affecting their lifetime.. There ARE low/high quality choices that will affect market acceptance..

Here's one series of lighting class white LED with a choice of colors..

http://www.philipslumileds.com/products/luxeon-rebel/luxeon-rebel-white

My issue is two fold. Economic and individual freedom. If I want to buy a 15 cent incandescent, there is no goddamn reason why I shouldn't be allowed to.

Once the price of an LED drops low enough and is PROVEN by years of use in the free market by those who wish to pay the exorbitant price for one show it's better, I will buy it in droves.

Till then, you've no right to say no to my Incandescent bulb. One of the worst laws signed by W save for TARP, Medicare part D, No Child Left Behind and creating the Dept. of Homeland Security.

 

[konradv]

Till then "BEHOLD! My 15 CENT banned 60 watt incandescent bulb!" It works in the cold! It lasts just about as long! It's not an environmental hazard to clean up if it breaks!

Using rubber gloves and opening the windows to air out the room is too tough on you?