A Little Light on Climate Change

Hold on a second. What do these thing cost per item, how long is their lifetime, and most of all where can I buy these damn things?????????????????????????????????

Spencer.

We've been testing LED tubes against T-8 flourescents and have found the power savings to be about 30%. Of course LED vs. incandescent is a complete winner for the LED in terms of efficiency.

The only way to have the T-8 or an incandescent work at all well is to have a properly designed reflector behind the bulb. The LEDs typically can't produce as much light as a "normal" bulb with a good reflector, so you need more LED bulbs. For some buildings this isn't so easy to do, the number of light fixtures in the ceiling isn't so easy to change.

It also seems that LEDs loose about 20% of their output over the life of the bulb. That exascerbates the problem of lower light production.

I expect this will be worked out in the next few years.

In the meantime try Paige Electric for LED bulbs. Or google.

I have lots of good ideas if someone else is paying.

"I have lots of good ideas if someone else is paying."

Seems that most politicians and subposed nonprofit groups do.

We know about the problems with the compact fluorescents, now what are the problems with LED's? The light from CF's may have volume, but they just aren't as bright. Sure they use less power, but they don't really last as long as stated, because you can only run them 4 hrs at a time then let them rest in order to get that long life.

Lives depend on streetlights that are as bright and dependable as what we have now. Will the LED types do that? Can they be installed without replacing or modifying [read expense to taxpayers] what is already used and just be phased in? I don't give a rip about the greenhouse gas [since it refers to CO2]. They should not increase costs in total over time or they should not be used.

Do those produced for home use fit a standard bulb socket or do we have to replace all the lamps and light fixtures too? I haven't seen one yet.

I don't know about interior LED applications. In the world of roadway and parking structures, many people are trying LED luminaires. The cost to replace incandescent (HPS, MH, etc) is still prohibitive. The longterm return on investment does not justify switching to LED's. Another consideration: Roadway lights come on after dark. That is when the load in office buildings, manufacturing plants, etc. begin to slack off. Power generating stations keep producing electricity 24/7. Generators are not shut down because demand is reduced. It takes more time to get a generator up and running and synchronized on the grid than just overnight. So cutting back on lighting at night does not have the same effect of reducing demand in the daylight hours.

Very good point about the generators running overnight. In many intances the rundown and start up time on these units can be days, sometimes evenweeks.