Re: Anyone moved to LED Lighting?

["Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx>]

Except for the "intricately curved delicate glass tubes", 120V LEDs have
essentially the same production and noise issues as CFLs.  That Lumform 4W
MR16 LED gets too hot to touch, and is a very strong radiator of 121KHz
powerline noise.

I read a lot about LEDs before trying those initial 12V MR16 landscape
lights.  The DOE CALiPER reports on Solid-State Lighting indicate that
reliability and brightness fall-off are major problems for LED lighting.
Progress is being made, and eventually another technology will supercede
CFLs.  From my limited testing, the LEDs aren't there yet.  There is a
brighter 12V MR16 LED available now, but it costs 3X as much as the Feit
CFLs.  It is hard to justify replacing an inexpensive halogen with a $20 LED
having unknown longevity.

People harp on the mercury used in CFLs.  Mercury has been used in
fluorescent lighting for decades.  One report I read said the mercury used
in fluorescent bulbs is much less than the amount that would have been
released into the environment by burning coal to produce an equivalent
amount of incandescent light.  As we move away from carbon based fuels, that
tradeoff will diminish.  And it is even better with LEDs.  But do we know
for sure that trace elements used in LED production will not also turn out
to be harmful to the environment?

There are companies working on a new generation of lighting.  One is still
based on CFL technology.  Only time will tell whether one of these becomes
dominant in the marketplace.

Jeff