LED Lights

Ever since Al Gore started taking hits for his energy usage at home, I have started to think more about my own energy usage.  Some time ago I replace a lot of my lights with Compact Fluorescent Lights CFLs have obviously gotten a lot better.  It is a bit ironic that many people who are worried about energy threats still don't know about CFLs, but they are starting too.  I would guess if we all really started using them you would probably see our overall energy use go down by 5-10%.

But, the new technology is clearly LED.  These are coming on strong in their performance.  What I really like about LEDs is they also can dim.  Many seem to think that LEDs are several years off, but the reality is they are available now in practical form factors.  Energy Federation Incorporated has a great set of offerings for many energy applications, but more specifically there Progress lighting offerings let you replace the lighting in your existing 6" can lights with low wattage LED lights that perform at the quality of 60-75 watt bulbs.

For an investment of about $120/light end users can replace their current can lights with a solution that lasts about 40K hours and uses 15 watts instead of 75 watts. Round trip payback these things probably cost 50% or less compared to incandescent, and they don't spill mercury into landfills (like CFL).

I am in the process of replacing those lights I can with LED.  My guess is that in 2 years, LEDs will be in enough form factors that everyone will be targeting them as the solution over CFL.