SEP 02

i have been asking myself one question for some time : what is the environmental cost of thos compact fluorescent bulbs ? they save energy, right... but don't they contain gas ? what happens to it when the bulb is destroyed ? can it be recycled ? is it ?

Usually the gasses in flourescent lightbulbs are mostly innocuous (neon, for example, is completely inert.) But they do contain a small amount mercury vapour, which is bad for everybody. LED bulbs don't contain mercury, or any toxic substances at all. In that respect, they're definitely better.

so that is definitely good news ! i came back to apologize for my question, as i saw later on your great site that the problem of recycling fluo lightbulb's mercury may soon be taken into account.



thanx fo your reply and the extra precisions ! please continue writing about all those important matters.





jz





PS: either my eye-corretion is even worse than what i thougt, or your "write the displayed characters" comment field is really bugging me :/

Yeah, captcha is annoying, but spam is worse.

I really don't click ads often on the web, but on this article is an adsense for "Led Bulb" that gives this :



http://www.superbrightleds.com/edison.html



they are not that expensive and seem to be shipping already !



j





PS2 : the captcha annoys me by saying "Incorrect Password" many times, whan i am always almost sure i got it right... had to "try" 3 times on my first comment, 3 times on the second, and i'm giving here my 3rd try

I've got a lot of dimmers in my house and I know you can't use flourescents in them. Can you use LEDs?

A single LED is not dimmeable, these "bulbs" contain multiple LEDs and if the base were smart the unit could be dimmable by disabling a portion of the LEDs when given less juice.



P.S. Your Bobdamn captcha is worse than most and does not work.

If you go to that site 'www.superbrightleds.com' it states that using a dimmer might damage the LED 'bulb'.

Thanks everyone for the notice on my freaky captcha. I'm disabling it for now until I figure out what it's doing.

Even though compact fluorescents contain a tiny amount of mercury, it's actually less mercury than is released by a power plant to generate the difference in power between a CF and an incandescent bulb. So even if you don't recycle it, you're still putting less Hg into the environment.

But even the small amount of mercury in a CFL is more than is in an LED light :-)

Yup...they've been around, but these have a combination of practicality and extreme low wattage that I've never seen before.

There may be less chemicals in the unit itself. But there are some VERY nasty chemicals used to manufacture these, along with a alot of Di-water

you can dim leds if you pulse width modulate the signal. on that note, most people wouldn't bother, but if these bulbs become common enough someone will definitely make some modules...

Good point on the environmental strain. The process for producing LCD's is hardly a threat though. And there is no gas in LEDs. If anything, compact fluorescent bulbs are more environmentally unfriendly.

Great heads up on the LED news, keep it up.

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GREAT ,.. WHERE DO WE GET EM? HOW MUCH?

The guy who claimed LEDs don't contain toxic substances is completely wrong. LED's use silicon doped with exotic heavy metals such as cadmium, cesium, arsenic, tin, and yes, mercury. Also, LED's are attached to circuits with electronic solder, which is 60^ lead, 39% tin, and 1% silver. Meanwhile, flourescent bulbs do contain mercury vapor.

In truth, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. A bad flourescent bulb doesn't contain enough mercury to even be noticed. (That's why they're bad - the mercury vapor leaked out.) You could eat a handful of LEDs, and your worst concern would be a perforated intestine - not poisoning.

wow what will the general market be? will those be sold on asian countries?

previous comments indicate that indeed, spam is worse than your broken captcha! enable it and save us all.

I think the mercury issue of cfl is offset by the electricity savings, remember in many places they burn bad stuff to make electricity which releases bad things into the air. I do not think LEDs are quite up to the benefits of cfl yet, but they are getting better all the time (plus they still cost quite a bit more.)

Where can I buy those?

There are a lot of ways to make LEDs, and lots of ways to solder. You don't have to solder with lead, you can solder with aluminum. You don't have to use mercury or aresenic in an LED and, largely, people don't. Sure, they can be toxic, but CFL's need mercury and LEDs don't.

Captcha enabled, it didn't take long for the spammers to show up...very amazing.

One watt is inaccurate. It's actually more like 5 watts but that headline certainly grabs more attention! Nice products!

I haven't been very impressed by LED lights. I got a couple led light bulbs about a year ago. They light up, but they do not illuminate. The ones I got supposedly replace 60w incandescents. They are about as bright as a night-light. They were pretty worthless for me, as far as light sources go. But they sure are pretty. $50 of pretty...

Are the LEDison bulbs any brighter than night-lights?

You enviro-wackos are funny. Careful, don't fart too much, might cause greenhouse gases. Mercury vapor in lightbulbs? LOL. I'm all for saving on my light bill, but you guys raise this shit to a religion. Ridiculous.

LEDs do not necessarily contain anything nasty though it is certainly possible that they would. 2-Watt LEDs are out ther and 3-Watt lamps are just around the corner. CFLs are certainly better than regular incandescent bulbs, but I for one urge anyone out there who is working on advancing LED technology to hurry up! We are waiting for you.

Perhaps CFs and LEDs have harmful waste products, but this may also be temporarily offset by their increased longevity, i.e., we don't have to consume as many as traditional incandescents?

I'll continue to use CFL until something better comes along, but right now CFL are the best option available to me. When a better option presents itself, I'll use it instead.

I got some LED christmas lights last year for our christmas tree, they look neat, but they flicker at 60hz (or whatever our power here alternates). It's barely noticable, but every once in a while I'd see the flicker as I turned my head. Do these lights flicker?

I have to educate people on compact flourescents all the time. CFLs are fairly harmless if recycled properly. They can be broken down in a way that hardly allows anything to be placed in a landfill unless you just throw it away! We are our own worst enemy with that (just simply being too lazy). With all the current reserch going into enegy efficiency, CFLs have taken a long first step. LEDs for commercial purposes, like exit signs and lights in the bathroom, just make sense.

I actually have several of these LED bulbs and they are nice, but the light is very dim. I was wondering if anyone else has the 57 LED light bulb. Compared to the 18 LED bulb, how much more light does it give off? Does it shoot out the light in a wide range like a CFL or is it like a direct spotlight thing again? These bulbs are pretty expensive, but I like the lighting; it doesn't hurt my eyes - Still too dim.

I've look into the Lead issue with LED's and learnt that most of the companies that make these products are in Asia and most of there exports are 2 Europe. That said, Europe has strict Lead laws in products and most of these companies have changed there LED products to Lead free.
Anyways, I got some great 120V LED bulbs that were very bright from cyberguys website. Over 150 LED's in one bulb...I've ordered a bunch for my cottage that runs on solar with an invertor and they work great. I've ordered many LED bulbs in the past and these ones have the best quality I've seen and reasonable price. One thing I noticed, the cheaper the LED product...the cheaper the quality.

LED contain gases within acrylic casings. The gas is ignited by the cathode-anode when powered producing the color (wave length) associated with the gas. White, blue, and green LED can be InGaN and red, orange, and yellow can be InGaAIP. Check the manufacture's product specifications. The older gas types degraded when exposed to UV (such as for outdoor signs).

The small amount of mercury in CPLs becomes a concern when you multiple 1 bulb by billions comsumed and disposed of annually. States such as NY adopted Fluorescent bulb disposal laws (2005).

LED can be dimmed by their very nature (D=diodes). The spec sheet for the lumidrive VariLED16 states "The MicroDriver 16 VariLED has two dimming options using either 0-10V dimming or dimming with a remote potentiometer." LED require constant current or voltage drivers since (household) or typical wall pack's fluctuate in output, taking chances in frying the LED. Try to use regulated output wall packs when working with/using LED.

LED require a ballast resistor, of sorts because they require very little energy to glow. Use E=IR to calculate the resistor needed when working with LED, depending on the voltage of your power source. Discrete white LED are typcially rated 3.6vdc at 30mA. Drive them at 20-24mA instead. This assures their longevity of about 11.4 years even though 30mA yields brighter light. Keep in mind that a 12v car battery yields more than 12 volts. LED degrade to 70% after about 5 years, typically, though not dramatically noticable to the human eye.

You can use the LED calculator at http://led-light.webterra3.com/led-calculator.php to design your LED circuits.

The industry is shooting for 2010-2011 to market home-use LED light bulbs that are more acceptable in brightness, color, and price ;-)~

LED are cool. Not really. Your 60watt lightbulb yields 5% light and 95% heat energy whereas LED yield 90% light and 10% heat. High flux LED require heat sinking, else, they will eventually fry.
The efficiency of LED make them highly adaptable for solar energy (currently only 14-15% efficient). Shortly, I'll have a SOLAR-LED calculator posted so that you can calculate the size of your solar panel and battery to power your LED garden-pathway lights.

My small office is entirely illuminated with LED, only 6watts. And I won't be changing lightbulbs for the next 11 years, if I live that long~! 4watts of cool-white for background and 2watts of warm-white over my desktop keyboard. Cool-white reflecting off of a white painted wall makes plenty enough of light.

Yup. LED are cool~!

LED light bulbs are in their infancy and we will only see improvements in color rendering and light output per watt. If you are looking for a web site to try some now at a reasonable price ($7 to $13 each) then you might want to check out www.shop.donsgreenstore.com I bought a couple and they work just fine in the right application, such as small reading light or a night light in a lamp.

There is a new combact product that uses LED technology to simulate sunlight to help fight depression, stress, fatigue, and SAD (seasonal affective disorder). This new light therapy is called the Litebook® Elite™ and more information can be found at www.litebook.com.

There are LED Par 35 with 72 diods, which I purchased.
There is also a new development in LED lighting whereby one diod produces over 200 lumens.
There need to be mass marketing and mass production to reduce the cost of LED and expedite the payback period.
In this Era of Renewable Energy. We need to expedite the use of LED technology to reduce energy consumption.
Jay Draiman
Northridge, CA. 91325

Hi

I have read some comments on here and i would just like to clarify that most LEDs such as Luxeon contain no lead or other hazardous products such as cadium as required by European law.

The soldering process has also been changed so that solder is now lead free. This is a more expensive process now but it is entirely lead free and meets EU laws

i have a question that i cannot find the answer to....my question is ... What extra thing does a regular light bulb produce that a fluorescent light bulb does not?...im hoping that this question can be answered...thank you!!!

how do you go about increasing consumer awareness of these great energy saving solutions though?? Most people wont part with the extra money even if if they dont have to replace them for years!! Should'nt they be government-subsidised as part of a worldwide eficciency drive?

Perhaps not the right forum but I'm hoping someone can help.
I help care for a retreat facility located in a deep wilderness area well off the grid.
For the past 30 years we have used kerosene lanterns for night lighting throughout the grounds.
We'd like to make the switch to solar lanterns. Our first try has not been successful. The lanterns we purchased turned out to be of flimsy construction (plastic) and provided inadequate lighting.
In searching the web we've found a lantern that looks more promising. Specs claim 2-3 watts of lighting. How bright is 2-3 watts of lighting? (Any suggestions?). Thanks

Bob,
Before you spend a lot more of your money on those Wal-Mart garden light variety of LED solar lamps, let me get back to you in a week (when I'm out of the hospital).
I think that we can come up with solid solutions for you. SOLAR and LED applications are PURE MATH. We'll do the math and see what will work.

2-3-5watt illuminators will require some hefty solar, that is, if you really want them to work properly. There are other things, however, that we can do in your application.

Kind Regards,
Al Toman

LEDs do not contain any gas as stated above. LEDs are constructed of two layers of semiconductor material doped (impregnated) with different impurites such as gallium, arsenide, aluminium etc. It is the different impurities that allow LEDs to be made in a range of colour outputs from infra-red right through the visable range and into ultraviolet.

Folks,

Recently I have installed around 20 led type light bulbs in one of our business premises, simply to see how efective they are. My first observations are they are both efficient and effective. Amazing how bright they are, rated at 5 Watts. Yes, they were very expensive. If anyone wanys any information, please contact me.
Ran

Kudos to you, sir. It's a privilege to touch the blog of the architect of my favorite library.

Oh, we make the occasional fun quip about bringing goats in from the Buhr Park farm across the street to keep the library roof nice and neat, but that's part of the allure and source of our love for the place.

I tried an LED, it broke on me within a few months of usage.

Its important to remember that even if they have a much longer lifetime, their electronics can still break.

Apparently CFL bulbs can die the same way.

Melbourne apparently has fairly dirty power which is probally the cause of the LED dying, the site where I brought the bulb from where selling another type cheaply because the electronics where susceptible to breaking when the power was dirty but only for one of the colours in the bulb. I assume the bulb I had was also to some extent susceptible, but since it was only one colour it died completely.

LED'S GIVE OFF SOME OF THE WORST LIGHT SEEN. THEY ARE VARY HARD ON THE EYES.

GIVE ME A NICE WARM COSY LED LIGHT
AT 1-4 watt's and I WILL BE HAPPY.
UNTIL NOW THEY HAVE BEEN STARK BRIGHT
COLD,GREY-WHITE,AND UGLY.

Dear sirs,

We are led lamp manufacturer in China,we supply good quality and competitive price products at prompt delivery all year.If have any interest, please contact us via Skype Orientalrose-led lamp or MSN This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to know more, any enquiry will be replied promptly in detail, looking forward to hearing from you !


Best regards


Rose Xu


Tel: 86-755-27318852

Fax: 86-755-27318853

Led King Co.,Ltd

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cost is still the issue. I have seen prices as much as $25.00 / unit.

and if made in China, there is still the matter of quality control/assurance.

can someone get back to me on these issues.

As Marion Meyer has stated the quality of the light is still an issue for some specific applications where colour reproduction etc is an issue. Things have improved greatly recently though and for most the benefits (especially the long term economic and environmental) now make LED Light Bulbs such as these an increasingly viable alternative.

I have put my research based around LED Light Bulbs online on http://www.my-led-light-bulbs.com

I just looked into light quality (and did some back of the envelope cost analysis). I have photos of cree and luxeon III Leds in action here:
http://www.nothingugly.com/wordpress/?p=47
and, installed, here:
http://www.nothingugly.com/wordpress/?p=48

The summary is these new LEDs look great, quality-wise. They don't have that awful dead look that CFs can have. This is architectural usage, of course. If you're trying to do color proofing, that's a whole different ball game. Note that the new luxeon k2 is available in three distinct color tempratures.

What harm would LEDs cause to the environment?

I don't know why, but I have always preferred the light coming from incandescent filament bulbs than to fluorescent or even energy efficient ones. I appreciate it's a waste of energy, and have a more modern light above, but I still prefer the glow of a filament bulb in my desk lamp. Hopefully these LED's light will be better.

Dear Sirs,

How are you!This is Carmen from Joy Ocean Group(H.K)Ltd.
Joy Ocean specializes in decorative lighting, such as: LED wall washer light, LED Neon tube,LED disco light, etc. As a professional manufacturer ,we have received the great reputation for our reliable and classic services, especially for the progress we made in innovative products and perfect quality control. We will dedicated ourselves to offer the world more beautiful decorative lighting products. At the same time, we would like to offer the most competitive price to our customer so as to provide maximal value.

Welcom to visit our website :http://www.joyoceanled.com/ for more details of our products,Also we could make the products as per customer's requirement and try our best to meet your expectation.Here is our on line catalog http://www.joyoceanled.com/catalog/glance.htm

If you have any inquire or question in it,Please do not hesitate to contact me.
It will be our big pleasure if we have opportunities to be on service of you in near future.

Yours faithfully!
Carmen


JOY OCEAN GROUP (H.K.)LIMITED
ADD:Rm201-203,Bldg38,Block2,Cexian Road,
Jiangmen City ,Guangdong Province,P.R.China
Tel:86-750-3377438 3377423
Fax:86-750-3377428
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
LED products:http://www.joyoceanled.com/


welcome to contact me by email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

:-

Dear Sirs,

How are you!This is Royal Pacific(Shanghai)Co. Ltd a leading manufacturer and exporter of LED&LED lighting products.

Our products cover traditional lamps LED replacement,
such as GU10, MR16, JCDR, E14,E27,Par Light,
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LED Ceiling Light, LED Cabinet Light,RGB LED etc
If you have any inquire or question in it,Please do not hesitate to contact me.
It will be our big pleasure if we have opportunities to be on service of you in near future.

Eddy
Royal Pacific(Shanghai)Co. Ltd
No.97, 17F, Rm. 1709-1712, Changshou Road, Commercial Tower, Shanghai, China
Tel:86-21-62999981 3377423
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

dear sirs
hello how are you.
please explain about heat of led lamp.are led lamp produce little heat or not?

LEDs produce very little waste heat, as opposed to incandescent and CFL light bulbs.
Another added bonus is that they have no mercury!
check out this helpful website to learn more about them:
http://weloveleds.com/

Hi. How can there's no CAPTCHA enabled to prevent spambots from spamming in here?

Anyway, I really wanted to have dimmable LEDs with color temperature of 5000k (4000k is okay but I prefer 5000k or better) and that I really wanted a 75w equavelant when it comes out.

I'm getting tired of yellow light bulbs...

I bought a 40W equivalent LED lightbulb at Wal-Mart this past weekend (Mar 22, 2009) for $5-6. It had a clear bulb covering several tiers of up-facing LEDs. Brand name started w/ an "F".

They also had an LED Party light for a little more, that allows you to pick a color or to let it cycle through the colors (abrupt or fade). I think it was $6.50 or so. It isn't very bright but it is very appropriate for parties or dim movie lighting. Cool!

FEIT was the brand name.

Party Bulb pic:
http://www.hardwareworld.com/files/pi/mB/0/7OAJ.jpg

LEDs are ridiculously dim for their "equivalency" rating. They just don't illuminate areas well.

CFLs are usually brighter than their equivalency rating.

so that is definitely good news ! i came back to apologize for my question, as i saw later on your great site that the problem of recycling fluo lightbulb's mercury may soon be taken into account.

gooooood post!

LED lighting has developed so quickly since this article was written, just look around.

so that is definitely good news ! i came back to apologize for my question, as i saw later on your great site that the problem of recycling fluo lightbulb's mercury may soon be taken into account

It's really amazing reading this article and seeing what is going on in the LED industry, especially now that there are so many laws being implemented requiring the use of LEDs. Little by little people will become more energy wise which means good things for efficiency and in turn the world. Hope things keep going the way they are!

They don't quite produce the amount of light we usually expect from household lamps, so compact fluorescents are still probably a better choice, for now. But progress continues, and these are another neat little step along the way