Comments | elengul: Doing my part for our continued survival on Earth ...

elengul

Doing my part for our continued survival on Earth ...

Mar 26, 2009 15:11

So, I've been researching light bulbs in my spare time of late. I've been somewhat turned off (unfortunately) to the compact fluorescent bulbs due to their mercury content (meaning that proper disposal requires some amount of rigmarole). I've started looking into LED cluster bulbs. They're more expensive then either CFL bulbs or incandescent ( Read more... )

Comments 5

What about manufacturing? pneumatik March 26 2009, 19:31:57 UTC

What about the environmental costs of manufacturing the bulbs, and transporting them to the store? Transportation costs are probably the same for all bulbs, but there could be significant differences in manufacturing methods.

Re: What about manufacturing? elengul March 26 2009, 20:18:46 UTC

I know ... that's part of what I'm asking. I don't know, and I was hoping that, if LED bulbs were some sort of environmental nightmare to manufacture, someone would know.

I believe a lot of this is still valid for LED lightbulbs wushi March 26 2009, 20:35:22 UTC

Because of my dad, I'm somewhat aware of the specific issues for LED lights. They are as follows.

1) Narrow light emission. Light is emitted from an LED in a fairly narrow cone angle. So some loss of efficiency occurs when you use filters to diffuse the light.

2) The lighting color is rather artificial. Like the old fluorescent lights, LEDs tend to leave people looking washed out. They probably also cause a certain amount of eyestrain.

3) There are two different ways to produce a "white" LED, and both of the ways are not very efficient. Also, the actual efficiency of the bulb will degrade at a rate somewhat similar to a fluorescent bulb, mostly because they both use phosphor to produce the "correct" light spectrum.

I think that about covers the basics.

Re: I believe a lot of this is still valid for LED lightbulbs wushi March 27 2009, 01:21:45 UTC

I feel I should further mention that Home Depot currently has a program where they recycle your compact fluorescents for you.

Re: I believe a lot of this is still valid for LED lightbulbs elengul March 27 2009, 14:26:17 UTC

How recent was your dad's experience with LED bulbs (as in, if it was long enough ago, technology might have gotten better in the intervening time)?

Addressing some of your specific points:

1) I assumed that was the case.
2) Again, perhaps technology advances have fixed this problem?
3) I hadn't been aware of that inefficiency.