One (or Five) Watt LED Light Bulbs
EcoGeek - One Watt Light Bulbs!
LEDison lamps are being used to replace 10 to 60w incandescent bulbs in commercial applications (like shopping malls). The LED lamps have ten times the service life of the incandescents they replace, and use only 1 watt! An even greater cost savings is realized when the annual maintenance costs of replacing incandescent bulbs is considered.
People all over are starting to learn how inefficient your standard incandescent lightbulb is. The first major move had been to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL)–where, for example, a 15 W bulb can replace your standard 40 W bulb. (They claim they replace 60 W bulbs, but, honestly, they’re just not as bright.) Now, with LEDs, perhaps we can replace those 60 W bulbs with 5 W bulbs–saving electricity because they use less, but also creating less waste since these CFL and LED bulbs last longer. (Right now the 5 W bulbs only match “up to” 30 W incandescents.)
The downside is that CFLs and LEDs contain mercury and other trace heavy metals, respectively, and there may be other industrial byproducts. Perhaps this will be offset by improved design and also by the fact that since they last longer, we won’t have to consume as much.
On a side-note, in Uganda, I saw mostly CFL lightbulbs in use. The light quality isn’t as good as incandescents, again, but it’s great that they’re beating the developing world by starting with more efficient lighting.
September 8th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Random fact (I think): If you do switch your incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), you can actually get *more* light for less wattage. When your lamp says something like “use 60 watt” or “to reduce risk of fire use less than 100 W” lighbulbs, this is all about wattage and not about lumens (the amount light).
This means you can use a 20 W CFL (approx. equivalent to a 75 W incandescent) in a 60 W socket. Sweet.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
[…] This blog talked about this issue before, and back then I also remarked on my experience in Uganda and the near ubiquity of CFLs. […]
October 24th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Most replacement led bulbs will not be able to give you enough light. The more expensive high power leds can achieve almost what you want, but the technology is still to expensive for comparable light to halogen.