They're not without drawbacks, however. As the parent of a child with a developmental disability, I'm not exactly stoked about the fact that the tubes in CV bulbs contain mostly toxic mercury vapor, which should be disposed of properly. Also, the small, cheap "ballasts" (electrical coils) which bump up the voltage frequently go bad... I've had a few of mine overheat and burn out. Finally, they don't always fit nicely where regular bulbs fit, they can take a second or two to start up, and they can't be dimmed, they're strictly on/off.
Now Light Emitting Diodes (LED's), on the other hand seem to be the perfect light source. Cool, producing almost no heat. The energy savings over even the most efficient CF lights is significant (they consume only a few watts, usually 1-5). They last a really, really long time... like almost indefinitely... without "burning out". They can be dimmed, and are physically very small. The only down side I could see (until recently) was that they are harder to find, and more expensive to buy than other light bulbs. So, about a year ago, I ordered a variety of LED "bulbs" (which, in most cases are an array of standard, small LED's connected to a "rectifier" circuit that converts your 120 volt house current to a small DC voltage to drive the light elements.) More than half of them are dead, and I'm currently only using a couple of the remaining bulbs. In short, they had issues:
ISSUE #1 (electronics): For some reason, various of these early models of LED bulbs contained extremely cheap electronics. This was especially the case for bulbs which looked like the picture above. I paid around $5.00-$10.00 for each bulb, and most of them died within a week. I'm pretty sure the LED's didn't "burn out" (all the LED's went out at once) but rather, the rectifier electronics (transistors, capacitors, etc.) went bad.
ISSUE #2 (brightness): The bulbs I purchased consumed between 1-5 watts, of course, the bigger the bulb, the more they cost. The 1 watt bulbs (like the one above) produce a quantity of light that is unacceptable for any application except perhaps a desk lamp or night light. I use one of these in my hallway, and leave it on all night... but it barely provides enough light to prevent stumbling over yourself on the way to the bathroom. Something closer to 5 watts produces light levels more in line with a standard bulb.
ISSUE #3 (color): Standard "white" LED's usually have a bluish tint, which lends an extremely "cool" quality to the light they produce. Somewhat more expensive LED's change the frequency of the light to a more "warm" shade, more like a standard light bulb, and produce a much more pleasing "natural" looking light, in my opinion.
ISSUE #4 (focus): Most light bulbs are designed to diffuse and radiate light in all directions, in basically a 360-degree sphere surrounding the bulb (minus the small part you screw into a receptacle). Because LEDs emit light from a surface, the best they can do is create a 180-degree hemisphere of light. Depending on the orientation of your light fixture, this means that a bulb with a single, large LED designed to emit light from the "top" of the bulb will shoot up and the ceiling, down at the floor, or sideways at a wall, where it will create a bright spot and not diffuse very well to light an entire room. Some LED bulbs (unlike the one above) solve this by orienting smaller LED's in all directions, so you have to consider the fixture when buying LED bulbs.
ISSUE #5(availability): I have yet to see LED bulbs appear in my local drug store or grocery store, but I eagerly anticipate that day will come. For now, we're relegated to searching online amongst the automobile "bling" lights, hobby project LEDs and other blinky-blinky lights to find something that will screw into a standard light socket. Because of their odd variety and scarcity, expect to pay top dollar (plus shipping!) until the market becomes more comoditized.
My conclusion: We're not quite there yet with the LED light bulb. I should mention I'm very pleased with the few LED lights I have that I could find that are working, bright enough and diffuse enough, and have a pleasing color. They were just a small percentage of those I started with. Learn from my mistakes... but by all means, venture out to the cutting edge of efficient lighting and try a couple.
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