Save money now: 27 ways to lower your utility bills
In the current economic climate, its been a bit rough for those that want to go green on a budget. Not everyone can...
Read the rest of this articleGE wants to light up your living room with a new LED bulb
Consumers are always looking for more ways to lower their energy bills. One quick and easy way is to swap out inefficient incandescent light bulbs in favor of the better technology offered by LEDs. GE is taking a stab at the market with their new Smart LED bulb that uses a lot less energy and comes with a fat price tag.
Between 2012 and 2014, the US will phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs in favor of the more energy efficient compact florescent (CFL) and LED bulbs. CFLs have become very popular recent years but contain mercury and have a shorter lifespan than LEDs.
GE wants to corner the LED market with the Smart LED bulb, an energy saving replacement for a traditional 40-watt bulb. It will operate for about 25,000 hours over its lifetime, three times longer than a CFL or twenty five times longer than a standard incandescent. So, if you used the Smart LED bulb for four hours a day it would last for seventeen years. John Strainic of GE Lighting said, "This is a bulb that can virtually light your kid's bedroom desk lamp from birth through high school graduation.”
According to the company, the bulb uses just nine watts in a standard socket. It looks a like an alien wiffle ball but there is a reason behind the design. GE wanted to make an LED bulb act like an incandescent and emit an enveloping light. LEDs are great for shooting out light in one direction which makes them handy for
flashlights, not the lamp in your living room. GE claims that the design of the bulb will help it be omnidirectional and light the “intended surface.”
The technology behind the Smart LED bulb is wonderful but its price will be a major factor. GE expects a single 40-watt bulb to retail for $40 to $50 when it goes on sale in the near future.
Shelling out nearly $50 for a single light bulb is an outrageous idea to consumers that are used to buying incandescent bulbs at the dollar store or the relatively cheap multipack of CFLs available at the nearest megamart.
- Login to post comments
Comments
Some of us would be willing to pay this price. We have been waiting for a mass produced LED option. Obviously the price will fall with time and marketshare.
One key limitation in this article is the 40 watt limit. The market demand is a 60 watt replacement. Additionally, reporting of these new bulbs should begin with better technical specifications. We need Lumens and a common color description. With incandescence bulbs being phased out in the near future, we need to stop using the old incandescent wattage equivalent as if it means anything. It meant something when a single option performed the same for 100 years, but newer technologies must use accurate descriptors. I request technical writers to figure this out.
Maybe by understanding the actual light output, these bulbs may meet my needs but 40 watt incandescence doesn't sound bright enough for the price.
This LED bulb consumes ~9 Watts of power and produces 450 Lumens, Lumens per watt is ~~ 50
We have been living with 60 Watt Incandescent bulbs providing ~850 lumens or ~14 lumens per watt...
Single bulb living room reading lamp desire ~850 Lumens, need 2 LED bulbs, using ~20 watts of power, was at 60 watts of power for single bulb.
Saving ~ 40 Watts for ~~ equal (initial) light output
Presume energy is $0.20 cents per kwh...presume light in operation ~8,760 hours per year, so avoid $70 in annual cost first year.
If bulb lasts stated 25,000-hours, looks like a reasonable deal, would save ~$200 in energy, would spend $100 on 2 bulbs, net savings is $100.
more options see:
http://www.cree.com/products/xlamp_xpg.asp
http://www.rabweb.com/product_line_detail.php?prodline=LPACK
http://www.lumination.com/literature/Vio_SellSheet_WEB_090309.pdf
Does usage of a short duration shorten their life expectancy like CFLs?
I can go through several CFLs a month in my children's bathroom because it only remains on about 5 minutes at a time before being turned off. For that reason I've gone back to using Incandescents.
If it were left on 24 hours a day it would be a waste of energy and money.
For the 2 leds in the living room you would be using more watts that the CFL. apx 17 watts for the 850, where CFL is apx 10 watts for 850 lumines. LED last about 6 times longer CFL but costs around $50 where CFL only costs $5, 1/10 of the average price. LEDS would not save more money/watts per lumine. so if you were to keep replacing the CFL while the LED was unchanged, it would take 10 light bulbs to get to the same cost as the LED, but by then the 6th bulb the LED would have already died out.
The price of the LED would have to be apx $25 per buld for it to be equal to the CFL in money savings and even less if it wants to be better.
But I think ebontrager is right, if LED lights are mass produced, retail shopping price would be much cheaper. Further developments and researches should be done to make these LED lights more efficient and to be able to meet the market demands.