DGDevin wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
news
I'm siding with other soothsayers predicting an LED revolution. The
latest issue of Digi-Key's "Tech Zone" trade journal is devoted to LED
lights. Colors are getting much better, the elusive triac dimming puzzle
has been solved, etc.

I'm just waiting for the price to drop a little more before I start
replacing our CFLs with LEDs. The CFLs saved us a pile of money on our
electric bill although I have been disappointed in how short a lifespan some
of them have--LED lighting will take care of that. Our neighbor who owns a
nightclub has gone with LED lighting including for stage lighting, it not
only saves him money on his power bill but the lights run a lot cooler so he
doesn't have to keep the air conditioning cranked all the time, saving more
money.

I've been using almost entirely CFLs for probably 8 years now, and I'm
generally happy with them. They cut electricity consumption
significantly, and unlike some folks, I have no issues with short CFL
life spans, even in a few enclosed fixtures. When I moved to my current
house in mid 2004 I replaced just about all the incandescents (except
closets) with CFLs, now at the start of 2011 I've replaced 1 (one) CFL,
and that was the victim of accidentally being left on a half wave dimmer
overnight.

As affordable LED lamps have been appearing in the stores I've
periodically experimented with them a bit, but so far I haven't found
any that would be suitable replacements for most of my home lighting. I
do have a couple LED down lights in one bathroom that work ok, but if
there was a female in the house using that bathroom they would banned
since the light distribution and color temperature aren't "makeup
grade".

I'm afraid that for LED lighting to go "mainstream" lighting fixtures
need to be redesigned. While CFL technology with it's omnidirectional
output was adaptable to replace omnidirectional incandescents, LEDs are
directional and simply don't work well in current fixture designs. Stage
/ studio lighting had this redesign and as noted are now gaining
popularity for both power and A/C load reduction.