{"id":95,"date":"2007-05-16T12:40:58","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T17:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/05\/16\/led_light_bulbs\/"},"modified":"2008-04-22T11:07:16","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T16:07:16","slug":"led_light_bulbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/05\/16\/led_light_bulbs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Big (Light Bulb) Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erica Rowell, today’s guest blogger, is a Web Editor and Producer at Environmental Defense, and our resident expert on light bulbs.<\/i><\/p>\n

Ever stop to wonder why, since the mid-1990’s, traffic lights don’t seem to burn out? They can’t be using old-fashioned incandescent bulbs – those burn out all the time. Maybe they switched to longer-lasting compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)? Nope. Today’s stop lights use light-emitting diodes (LEDs).<\/p>\n

LEDs last 35,000 to 50,000 hours – five times longer than the average CFL, and 50 times longer than an incandescent bulb. In fact, because the technology is so different, they don’t really ever burn out. They just get dimmer over time – a long time. Today’s LEDs produce more light per watt than conventional bulbs but they’re not quite as efficient as CFLs\u2026 yet. On the plus side, unlike CFLs they contain no mercury whatsoever.<\/p>\n

You can find LEDs in all kinds of places – flashlights, television remotes, car headlights, flat screen displays, exit signs and even holiday lights, just to name a few. So, thinking of buying some LED light bulbs?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can, if price and selection are no object. Though LEDs have been used in niche applications for a decade, the technology is still evolving for general-purpose light bulbs. The Lighting Science Group is about to release a 15W equivalent globe bulb [PDF]<\/a> that will screw into a standard socket, but it will cost $50. Other LED lamps are slowly coming to light, too, including Lucesco’s Halley light, a winner from 2006’s Lighting for Tomorrow LED competition. <\/p>\n

Obviously, prices need to come down, and for that reason, mass-market LED light bulbs are still 5 to 10 years away. And because their light is so directional, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able light up a room like incandescent bulbs and CFLs. But many scientists and lighting experts hold out hope that LEDs are the future of lighting.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, by all means switch to CFLs. Our guide can help you<\/a> find ones to fit in different places and give off different kinds of light. By the time they burn out, LED light bulbs should be available – and more affordable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erica Rowell, today’s guest blogger, is a Web Editor and Producer at Environmental Defense, and our resident expert on light bulbs. Ever stop to wonder why, since the mid-1990’s, traffic lights don’t seem to burn out? They can’t be using old-fashioned incandescent bulbs – those burn out all the time. Maybe they switched to longer-lasting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Next Big (Light Bulb) Idea - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/05\/16\/led_light_bulbs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Next Big (Light Bulb) Idea - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Erica Rowell, today’s guest blogger, is a Web Editor and Producer at Environmental Defense, and our resident expert on light bulbs. 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