Study says LEDs are about as efficient as compact fluorescents, all things considered
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 5th 2009 5:03AM
posted August 5th 2009 5:03AM
As we've seen with the slight resurgence of new and improved incandescent light bulbs, the amount of energy used to actually light up the bulb isn't necessarily the whole measure of energy efficiency. There's also the small matter of producing the bulb, shipping it around the world, and eventually disposing of it. With that in mind, the Siemens Corporate Technology Centre for Eco Innovations conducted a study that compared regular compact fluorescents to LED lamps -- using one 25,000-hour LED lamp as a constant, compared to 2.5 10,000-hour compact fluorescents (and 25 1,000-hour incandescents). While it's still holding back on some of the finer details, the group did apparently find that LEDs are no more or no less energy efficient than compact fluorescents when the entire lifecycle of the bulb is taken into account, although it is quick to point out that LEDs should eventually win out as they become more efficient to produce.
Anybody else getting a hum from their CFLs? I can't wait to have the LEDs be an affordable replacement...bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Sure - that's why I place it on my genitals...thought it was a feature?
I have one CFL that hums if I dim it (it's listed as dimmable). Other than that any CFL with a normal (100W equivalent) output or lower seems to be silent for me. I've heard 150W (equivalent) CFLs hum, but I don't have any to try it with.
LED bulbs can last up to 50,000 hours. They were only taking into account half of its total life span.
I can't believe nobody has said it yet: CFL's suck. They're terrible. They lag on lightup, they flicker at "dimmed" settings in normal lamps. They make me feel like I'm stuck in cubicle hell without leaving the comfort of my own home.
If bulb longevity is the only issue you care about, fine, bully for you and good luck. But for those of us who aren't secretly cutting ourselves with razor blades in the dark because we hate life and everything in it, why in the name of all that is holy would you purposefully subject yourself to fluorescent light if alternatives are available?
I'm talking simple alternatives, like fire. i'd rather light 1000 candles than ever buy another CFL bulb.
If yours delay in turning on you bought the wrong bulbs. I buy n:Visions at Home Depot and they turn on immediately (less than 1/4 second). They do take 40 seconds (approx) to get to full brightness but they are still quite bright during that time, just not full brightness. This is unlike some older very expensive Panasonic bulbs I have that are comically dim for 40 seconds.
I don't know what to say about the dimming. If you try to dim fluorescents (CFL and non-) over 50% they often flicker. I've just given up on dimming them that far. This is one advantage LED would have, they could possibly be dimmed farther before flickering (given that LED brightness control is also typically done with PWM I have to figure they would flicker at some point, just hopefully it's below a useful level of brightness).
I have fluorescent bulbs in most rooms in my house. There's nothing wrong with them. Many of them you can't even tell unless you look right at them. The ones that are in fixtures you can't even tell then.
cfl's have mercury in them
all that needs to be said
hello led
how about the fact that most of the LED products i have had seem to crap out way earlier than the old school ones? Flash lights for example, id say 50% of my LED flashlights dont work anymore, however throw batteries in some of those old crappy incadescents and theyre still ticking. dont get me wrong, i love leds, theyre much brighter, the spectrum of light is on another level compared the flourescents, i just dont trust spending 25 bucks for a light bulb when i can go to the dollar tree and get a 5 pack of flourescents for a dollar.
Most of my LED flashlights have died due to poor construction, not the death of the actual LED's. I've also lost quite a few gadgets to battery leakage. I really hope someday AA's will be a thing of the past, and everything will be rechargeable.
Neither LED's or Fluorescents have very good CRI but if I had to choose, I'd probably go with LED's. Plus they deliver instant light, no warm up period.
The big difference in LED and incandescent flashlights is that to get a reliable LED flashlight you need to spend more than $15. I have LED flashlights that I have had for 10 years with a lot of used and have not had an issue. I switched because the Maglight I was using required a new bulb nearly every time I dropped it. I use them while working on motorcycles as part of my profession.
You gotta have a look at quality flashlights from Fenix, Nitecore, NovaTac etc.
All generic brand chinese flashlights are crap.
have a look at candlepowerforums.com, flashlightreviews.com, light-reviews.com and yes :) cpfreviews.com
I have used CFL bulbs on and off for the past 10 years. They are a flat out joke.
They still, to this day, turn on slowly and have poor color temperature.
They last at MOST twice as long as an incandescent. Several of mine have not even lasted as long as an incandescent.
You can't use them in outside fixtures. The thermal cycling from hot to cold will cause them to break.
Thank god our moronic government mandated these turds.
They have newer ones designed for outdoor use and I have had good luck with them. I didn't use to run CFLs outdoors because in the winter they wouldn't turn on. The new ones turn on instantly even in single digit temps and have been out there for 2 years without issue. I got them at Costco if you're wondering.
I've had very mixed results from CFLs. In my house, almost every fixture has a dimmer switch. I've tried dimmable CFL bulbs and they are crap. They don't dim evenly, there are delayed reactions, and they don't dim low enough. So I don't use them in those applications.
Out front I've had a problem with hard-to-reach fixtures, where a CFL is a great solution because I don't have to change it nearly as often. That is, if I buy a quality CFL that actually lasts. So far so good.
I also have two fixtures outside, on each side of the garage door, that take little bulbs and would burn them out in just a few months due to vibration damaging the filaments. Switching to CFLs solved this problem. They've been running for over a year with no issue.
I've also used CFLs in the garage fixture and back yard fixture to get more brightness than the fixture wattage rating would normally allow, because a 100W equivalent CFL pulls less wattage than a 60W incandescent. (Someone please tell me if this is a bad idea - I can't think of why, other than perhaps this whole inductive load thing that I know little about).
I would be very happy when a complete replacement to traditional bulbs that work just as well in all scenarios hits the market. Not sure if CFLs or LEDs are the right answer.
I care more about the lack of mercury.
Yeah, but I wish the craptastic CFLs out there would last longer. Seems they suffer from early mortality quite regularly.
Well, besides energy efficiency lets not forget that compact fluorescents are probably less durable and contain mercury. Making them a relative hassle to dispose. While LED are about as clean as incandescent
These conclusions seem dubious. Lifecycle studies usually show that the vast majority of a product's energy usage is during the "use" not the "production" phase, especially for things like cars and lightbulbs. I'd wait to see confirmation from more studies before believing this.
and having to replace them less wins for everyone.
This is not the first study to look at the lifecycle. Carnegie Mellon presented a similar analysis to the DOE in February. Read the summary here http://ledlightsathome.com/2009/08/11/led-lca/