A new generation of LEDs may replace compact flourescent bulbs

[steven johnson]

LEDs can switch on instantly, are dimmable, and last for 100,000 hours. A new generation of less expensive LEDs have the potential to compete with CFLs if production issues are surmounted.

Professor Colin Humphreys of the University of Cambridge has seen the light. By growing gallium nitride LEDs on silicon wafers rather than expensive sapphire, he's planning to put compact fluorescent lamps into the shade. A next-generation LED production technology will eventually see today's compact fluorescents going the same way as Thomas Edison's incandescent bulbs.

Working with GaN-based light emitting diodes requires highly specialist equipment capable of growing the semiconductor crystals. "Something like 90% of commercial LEDs are grown on two-inch diameter sapphire wafers," says Humphreys. "To grow gallium nitride you have to grow it at about 1,000°C." Indium is added for a brilliant visible light – 10% for a blue light, 20% for green – with a phosphor coating on the LED changing this to white.

LEDs offer three times the efficiency of compact fluorescent lamps and 12 times that of incandescents.



Researchers see the light on a new generation of LED lamps

[conscious evolution]

1. This is good news

Price is the main reason people do not buy LED bulbs right now.If the price can be brought down to below twenty bucks per then people will start buying them,imo.

[wuvuj]

2. Why wait?

http://www.heartlandamerica.com/browse/item.asp?product=miracle-led-bulb-recessed-light---pair&PIN=83617&GUID=38FA68C5-DDB7-482C-BBB3-88D455433034&BC=S&DL=SEH1

[excess_3]

3. >LEDs offer three times the efficiency< ...

do you have a cite for that?

hard to believe.

my own research leads me to believe
LEDs and CFLs are very similar in efficiency

[populistdriven]

4. 4 four foot 15W tubes replace 4 four foot 40W fluorescent tubes and u toss the ballasts

I installed them myself in a standard fluorescent fixure

[populistdriven]

5. also the CFL bulbs are less efficient than the FL straight tubes so LEDs are even better vs CFL

[sabbat hunter]

6. The biggest problem really with LEDs

is the fact that they don't have a "soft white" look to them like standard bulbs or CFL have.

[Nihil]

7. Fair enough ...

... but I remember people whinging about CFLs at first with the same
argument and it didn't take long for them to acquire more acceptable
colour tones.

I would expect that - like for CFLs - once the first wave of utility
LED bulbs has made an impact (as it is doing at the moment), the next
wave will arrive with "warmer" colours. I suspect that as they will
require slightly more complex assembly (e.g., mixing in different LEDs
in the same lamp unit to blend a colour) or more expensive components
(e.g., newer LED devices for homogeneous assembly lamps), the price
will be higher at first while the price for the "old" ones will drop,
again assisting market penetration.

:shrug:

[sabbat hunter]

9. I hope so

I like the soft white look that the CFLs can duplicate. If they can get LEDs to do the same, they will do fantastic.

[xc8mip]

11. Almost all colors available

any spectrum , uv ,infrared , 2200K, 4700K, 6200K white ,blue ,red ,amber ,orange ,yellow etc.

[IrateCitizen]

8. Hopefully they work better than the LEDs I purchased!!!

I've tried using them twice on the soffit lights that are over my kitchen counter -- the ideal location for a more focused rather than diffuse overhead light. Problem was, the lights would only last for about a month or so before they would start going out. At $15-$20 a pop, it was like flushing money down my toilet.

So, I'm back to CFLs instead without the problems I had with the LEDs.

[xc8mip]

12. No warranty????

should last at least 5 years

[xc8mip]

10. Benefit of LED is lack of mercury

hard to argue with that .Imagine how much mercury is being distributed around human habitations in all these broken CFL's

[kristopher]

13. Yes but...

Comparing LED to CFL the mercury issue is a strong point for LED. However, when you factor in up front costs and people's reluctance to spend that we have to expand the data set to include what happens when people do not opt to spend the money for LEDs. Should they then avoid CFLs because they contain mercury while incandescent bulbs don't?

The answer is no, they should still use CFLs because, based on the average generating mix in the US, the inefficiency of incandescents results in greater mercury emissions than what is contained in a CFL.

[Nihil]

14. Thank you. (n/t)