Spehro Pefhany wrote in
:

snip
It would be nice if LED lamps got anywhere close to the brightness of
CFL, halogen or incandescent bulbs at a reasonable price, but they are
not very close yet. Maybe in a few years. I bought a couple MR11
"brightest on the market" bulbs to unload the halogen xfmr and allow
me to put a bigger halogen in the centre bulb of a 3-light string, and
they're not even comparable. I'll have to take some quantitative
measurements at some point.

If you want relatively unbiased & consitent tests of LED bulbs, check
out:

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/caliper.html

You have to promise that you aren't a commercial operation to see the
full reports. The reports tend to lag a bit behind the latest
technology, but the quality is going up & the prices are coming down.

I have a couple of LED bulbs in special applications, and they work very
nicely. I use a couple MR-16 replacements in gooseneck illuminators on
my milling machine because I got tired of toasting myself with the
halogen bulbs. I've also installed these:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...roductDisplay?
catalogId=10053&langId=-1#.UQBxHfIT_To

in stairwells where I want instant full brightness. They work great.
They also actually cost a lot less than the dimmable CFL retrofit units I
installed a number of years ago.

Doug White