Slashdot Mirror

I see that a regular old light bulb converts 80% of it's electricity to heat. A fluorescent converts less electiricty to head. A LED converts even less to heat. My math says the LED wins.

Actually a "regular old light bulb" converts more like 93% of the energy input to heat immediately, with the rest following very shortly thereafter.

Fluorescent efficiency is all over the map, from dramatically better than incandescent to wildly better, depending on the quality of light you're creating.

LEDs are actually no more efficient than incandescent bulbs for making white light. They have a huge ruggedness advantage, though, and the output color doesn't get all yellow at lower voltages, which is why there are so many great LED flashlights out there now.

Where LEDs really shine (heh) is in making colored light, like red/green/amber for traffic and automotive signals. In this application, they can be very efficient, partly because these colors of LED have been in development for many years, and are thus very efficient, and partly becuase they don't have to be put through an efficiency-draining color filter like other lights.

I got mine from theLedLight.com; they've got them on special. You can also get them from Glow-Bug.

If you don't have a LED light, go get one - it's compact, durable, extremely bright, and battery life is awesome. Quite enjoyable! I personally love the Photon II, but be sure to read Brock's LED Flashlight Page first, before buying a dud like the NightHawk, which is not bright at all.

Now that I'm done with links - I'll say this - while LED lights are great for directional lighting, they are not good at all for omni-directional lighting. This is because the reflector is housed inside the LED itself, and the light will always be facing the direction of the LED plate.

Now... I wonder how difficult it would be to get that LED plate inside the plastic/resin housing into a shape of a cylinder, and install it in place of a standard tungsten filament? If that is possible, then the LED light will truly be able to replace all lightbulbs... Not just the directional ones.

Hmm, I guess I don't have much to say other than the good links up top, and my hope for tomorrow's LED, household lightbulb. If you experts have something to say about the possibility of the cylindrical LED plate, I'm all ears. I surely don't know if it's possible or not.

This site has some interesting looking lights. Especially the 7 LED custom Petzl headlamp, which is unfortunately (1) expensive, and (2) out of stock.

I don't own any of their products, but was thinking of buying one of the various headlamps.

Regards
-Jeremy