In article , Robert Green wrote:
"Jeff Volp" wrote in message
...
Except for the "intricately curved delicate glass tubes", 120V LEDs have
essentially the same production and noise issues as CFLs.

That's a pretty big exception. As a guy who custom builds electronics by
hand, I am sure that you realize that even one delicate step in a process,
say soldering an SMD component to a circuit board by hand, can cause your
reject rate to soar. Take a look at some of the spiral shapes of bulbs and I
think you'll realize that it takes some significant heat and tooling to
create narrow but even diameter glass tubes that then must be twisted into
spiral shape, uniformly coated internally with phosphor, primed with
mercury, and then sealed and capped with electrodes. Forgive me for taking
a technical note and turning it into polemic, but this is an important
issue.

Even if LED and CFL production costs were equal, manufacturing CFL's means
increasing the mining for mercury and causing much more of the neurotoxin to
enter the world at large.

Along with several more pages of tirading on mercury

Compared to incandescents, in USA on average CFLs actually reduce mining
of mercury-containing materials and transfering mercury to the
environment. This is because about half of all electricity produced in
the USA is obtained by burning coal, a major source of mercury pollution.

LEDs are better once they become sufficiently cost-effective and
cost-effectively improve upon CFLs in energy efficiency and do so in
versions with similarly warm color high color rendering index light.
Until then, mercury is a good reason to use CFLs instead of incandescents.

- Don Klipstein )