First LED Lightbulb
June 05, 2009
– Comments (31) |
RELATED TICKERS: COST
, GE
So I bought my first LED lightbulb. It is a Lights Of America LED Flood light. It is a rated as replacing a 45 watt bulb and uses 3.5 watts. I put it in the kitchen near the oven, replacing a standard 65 watt flood in a ceiling can. It was made in China and was packaged by (and bought at) a Costco. I paid $11 something for it.
My first impression is that it is ok, but not fabulous. The light is a little too blue for my tastes and the bulb acts a bit more like a spotlight than a floodlight. On the other hand, the fixture is somewhat hard to get at (due to placement), so not having to replace that bulb for years will be cool. I wrote the date and place of purchase on the outside of the reflector, so I will see how long it lasted when I finally have to replaced it. Another plus is that it reaches full light instantly, unlike the CF bulb it replaced which could take a while if the room was cold.
I knew going in that LED bulbs are just starting to get some traction and that later models would be better. But I am an early adapter on some items (bought a Prius in '03) and wanted to see how well it would work. One driver here is that I really dislike CF bulbs. The last thing we need to be doing is add more mercury to the environment. I am compulsive about recycling the dead CFs, but many people just throw them away.So some technology that buldozed CFs out of the way would rock.
I know that GE is working on this sort of technology and hope they come up with some really kickbutt designs that have a visually appealing color spectrum that last a long time and use little energy. I'm kinda hard of thinking and it helps to have the house well lit and I'd like to do that on a budget.
Chris - no position in COST, long GE
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