USA Today ran an AP story, “LEDs Emerge to Fight Fluorescents,” that examines LEDs’ future. California and Canada have banned the sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012. Australia is banning them in 2010. The European Union is contemplating a production ban. A U.S. Senate committee is fashioning a proposal that would phase out the lightbulb in 10 years.
Lightbulbs’ inefficiency, compared to fluorescents, has been well documented. Lighting consumes 22% of electricity produced in the United States, according to the Dept. of Energy, which also claims widespread use of LED lighting could cut consumption in half.
Compact fluorescents (CFLs) could help cut consumption, but consumers haven’t warmed to them.
LEDs can produce a yellowish or “warm” light similar to incandescents. At Lightfair, Dallas –based Lighting Science Group Corp. showed an LED “bulb” that screws into a standard, medium-sized socket and produces a warm light equivalent to that of a 25W incandescent bulb, but consumes 5.8W. However, it costs $50.
At Lightfair, Polybrite Intl. (Naperville, IL) announced that lighting giant Osram Sylvania will distribute its LED bulbs to commercial clients.
The article quotes Nadarajah Narendran, director of lighting research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as saying LEDs can be very energy efficient in the lab, but haven’t shown that efficiency when used in fixture because of their heat production. Narendran said the diodes produce less heat than incandescents, but they keep that heat in the fixture rather than radiating it; the hotter the diode, the less efficient it is.