I came home Thursday to find an Light Emitting Diode (LED) light bulb in my mailbox. I had ordered it on ebay and paid $47.00 for it. It’s a five watt bulb that produces about a much light as a 100 watt incandescent bulb that costs about 70 cents to $2 or a 17 Watt compact florescent light bulb (CFL) that costs $5 to $10. A few observations:
1. I thought I was getting five light bulbs. (My fault for not reading better.) Instead, I got one bulb with five LEDs. So, unlike CFLs–which almost always save money in the long run–I will almost certainly not make my money back with this bulb unless energy prices soar. On the other hand, since it’s in a lamp that I leave on almost all night every night, I will realize energy savings rather quickly.
2. Despite claims to the contrary, the light is actually a little less natural than the light from CFLs. I’m personally a big fan of CFLs and use them for almost everything. It’s blueish and looks a little like the light emitted from High Intensity Discharge car headlights. (Not surprising since they use similar technology.)
3. There’s no warm-up time, unlike CFLs, and even brighter incandescent bulbs.
4. In part because of the bulb design, the light all reflects upwards. It doesn’t look nearly as good in a stained glass lamp as the CFL I had it.
Compact Florescent light bulbs, I feel, have been a lot slower to catch on than they should have been. They’re good for the environment and produce real benefits for consumers. LED bulbs, despite the hype, don’t seem ready for prime time. If you want to save energy and money, for the moment, buy CFLs.
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{ 1 comment }
Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb. This is a popular misconception. He did have over 100 patents to improve the light bulb however. A simple and effective way to dramatically reduce home energy consumption is to have the meter read in cumulative dollars and cents in the home. Right now its a mystery how much your power bill will be until you get the bill. Its sort of like driving a car without a speedometer. You don't realize you're speeding until you get a ticket. Power companies know this dirty little secret and despite talk of savings, they are not interested in reducing your electric bill – thats how they make money. There are studies showing that just having someone read your meter daily and report your usage daily greatly reduces consumption. Power companies financed electric water heaters years ago just to get power usage up. How about local governments mandating that the power company install a meter in the home that a homeowner can read when the meter is installed. Its not rocket science and it works. I installed a device in my home over 20 years ago that had a blinking red light diode that registered each time the little wheel on the meter turned. When the little light started flashing, I started turning off appliances and turning up the AC.
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