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Comment by maxerickson | Hacker News Reader

My utility sent some LED bulbs in the mail. I expect it was attached to some government incentive (they probably get green credits for the difference in consumption).

Lighting isn't that big though, ~10% of US electrical consumption, when you include commercial and street lighting.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=99&t=3

(It's a big chunk, just not a huge one. If you figure on a fair amount of it already being florescent or other relatively efficient lighting, the savings aren't going to be dramatic)

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Thanks for the link.

Still, incandescents consume a lot of power, and LEDs little.

It's too bad that the light "quality" from incandescent bulbs is vastly better than either LED or CFL.

You've just got to pick the right bulbs. I tested out a Feit LED bulb in one of my kitchen can fixtures and it was totally indistinguishable from the other incandescents so I replaced all of them. 13 watts each instead of 65, and they are the same brightness and color temperature.

LED can produce just about any kind of light you want. Don't confuse them with the terrible CFL bulbs that were forced upon us. LED is likely the end game for lighting in our lifetime.

Used to think the same. Got good quality LED lights with "warm yellow" color (same as an incandescent bulb). Even at 5W, they are far superior to a 60W regular bulb.

Often true, but it's a question of quality.

First, you need a quality DC power supply for the light. Most bulbs use small capacitive droppers that let a bit of current squeak through with each change in polarity from the AC mains. These need to be well designed with plenty of filtering to provide stable light without lots of flicker. The power supplies are also generally the failure point, rather than the LEDs themselves.

Color temperature and quality are addressed with phosphor coatings over the LEDs. With an appropriate coating, they can be perfectly suitable for many lighting applications.

The issue for all of this is mostly cost; quality LED bulbs are still rather expensive. Passable-quality LEDs are becoming much more affordable, though.

Passable quality LEDs have been around for a few years, and the price has dropped substantially. I got a few 75W-equivalent LED bulbs with a warmer color temperature for $35USD each in 2013, and they color match almost identically with some incandescent bulbs that I can't replace (built-in lighting units in an apartment).

Those same bulbs now sell for ~$11/ea on Amazon.

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