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The 100 Watt-ish LED.

The high-CRI LED.

You don't get to have both, just yet.

The 100 Watt-ish LED.

The high-CRI LED.

You don't get to have both, just yet.

In Arizona, we have a type of swamp cooler called a MasterCool which uses a single, big paper cooling pad instead of the shredded wood thing. Ours lasts for several years before needing replacement, and we have plenty of dissolved calcium in our water.

And _this_ is why I use things like these, wehre possible, in machine rooms and office spaces.

                          http://www.homedepot.com/b/Ele...

It protects the power plugs from being jarred and dislodged by someone poking around the back of an ill-managed server cabinet, and it can be labeled to indicate which machines or rack it currently powers. It can even be marked with the relevant fuse from the wiring closet.

Stud Finder @ Home Depot

That's not a breach. This is a breach

http://homedepot.com/

It's amazing what a long-handled flat-bladed screwdriver will do to your average pin/wafer tumbler lock...

I am always shocked at how many people don't know that trick. I did that to an old fire chest I had that in all the moves I had lost the key and the fire chest was only $30 so it was the quick and simple route. Also if you damage the pins and tumbler enough just about anything will work as a key as those things wear out. The ignition on my old Bronco II was so worn I could use a small pocket knife blade in the key slot to start it. For security forget padlocks since the easy way around them has and always will be an angle grinder. Working at a U-Haul with a storage facility we were always dealing with units for non payment and eventually would auction off the contents. The day of the auction you go out with the angle grinder cut the lock, let the bidders have a peak shut the door, and sell it. A nice silicon carbide or diamond coated cutting wheel goes through those locks like a hot knife through butter, even these recommended locks.

When they started doing Energy Star ratings for LEDs, they tried really hard to avoid the CFL fiasco; see http://www.gizmag.com/energy-s... As a result, Energy Star rated LED bulbs are pretty reliable. I have about 60 (!) in my house, bought over the last 9 months. None of the Energy Star bulbs has failed yet. Two non-energy-star LED bulbs that were several years old (from vendors not around anymore?) did fail.

I'm now slowly converting the bulbs in the house I rent out to LEDs, with the tenant's cooperation. The only two bulbs she has liked so far are the Cree 40W TW http://www.creebulb.com/Produc... (for bathrooms only - it hums too much for living room) and the Phillips 40W A15 ( http://www.homedepot.com/p/Phi... ) for everywhere else. Her dimmers are old, and most LED bulbs flicker with them; I should get her newer dimmers. Haven't had that problem much at my house.

I'm quite happy with the LEDs so far, and am writing up my experiences at http://kegel.com/energy/lights... Your mileage may vary.

From their website. This is the official Home Depot statement.

Really, this symbolizes the lackadaisical attitude people have when it comes to security - that a breach is not going to happen to them. You'd think after Target major companies like Home Depot would have audited their own security processes.

Maybe he was transporting one of these.

Maybe you should read labels more closely. The law limits specific formulas for different uses, and many of them involve methanol, while other additives can cause more problems for some uses.

Or it could mean 'Netflix adds wooden window covers to its Public API' I think that would be some much more interesting than closing, don't you? http://www.homedepot.com/b/Doo...

You can still get this almost completely basic thermostat and they last forever. If you install one today, it will still be working 40-60 years from now, barring someone beating it up.

Oh really? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ame...

For the super-pedantic among us, he obviously meant "buy and install a functional flush toilet alone." Yes you can go to Home Depot and buy the porcelain (if you live in the US or another developed country that actually has such products on the shelf). No, you're not going to be able to connect it to either a water supply or a sewer line where there aren't either of those things. And there are plenty of places in the world where there are neither.

Oh really? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ame...

Ok then. Lets not start looking for long term solutions.

Buying expensive bulbs isn't a long-term solution... It's just an irrational delusion. Furthermore, you've failed to explain why your ridiculously expensive choice of high-tech bulbs is any better than the cheaper and low-tech options of timers and motion-sensors...

Your thinking will change when you start paying 50 cents per KW.

No, my thinking won't change one bit... In the future, like now, I'll be comparing the up-front cost of the device, against the ongoing cost of electricity, and I won't waste my money on options which cost more than they save.

But more importantly, I'll have far more money to spend on whatever option is practical, because I'll be earning interest on the thousands of dollars I didn't spend on WiFi bulbs, which didn't offer any savings over $4 LEDs, anyhow.

You also didn't consider the high cost of these LED bulbs.

Of course I did... What the hell were you reading? I linked to a generic $3.40 LED bulb on Amazon, and the calculations I made for energy usage were for a $10 Cree 60W LED equivalent.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cre...

The cost of replacement should also be added to the equation as these bulbs do not last as long as their claims.

1) You're thinking of CFLs, not LEDs. LEDs will last an extremely long time.
2) LEDs can handle being cycled on/off many, many times more than any other type of light.
3) The $10 Cree 60watt equivalents, which I ran the numbers for, come with a 10-year warranty from the manufacturer.

I consider myself lucky when a CFL lasts more than 2 years (And yes, I take proper precautions when installing them).

You're buying cheap crap CFLs, most likely from Walmart. I've got a set of 9W Ecosmart (Home Depot) CFLs I've been taking with me from apartment to apartment, for just shy of a decade now. Not ONE of them has burnt out yet.

I finally gave them away to family members when I found dirt-cheap LEDs, which use 50% less power than CFLs, and so will pay for themselves within a couple years. Not to mention that they work great in refrigerators, and unconditioned spaces like outdoor lights, where CFLs just don't work right.

This kind of thinking is the same thinking car companies and consumers had in the 70s. Ahh, gas is cheap, who cares about using less.

There's no comparison. If car buyers in the 70s were comparing the up-front cost of a more efficient car, against the gasoline savings, then you'd have a point. In reality, the more efficient cars were CHEAPER, but simply not fashionable. That's a lot like your position... You want fancy, high-tech blinking lights, and really aren't concerned with how much they cost, or how you can best save energy.

Instead, my position is vastly more like someone, today, deciding whether or not a hybrid car is actually a good purchase, based on fuel savings, versus extra up-front cost.

Fact is that there is no harm in developing home automation systems like this as they serve multiple purposes outside just saving energy.

The harm is wasting money that could be put to better use.

And I fail to see why home "automation" is even desirable for saving energy. Motion sensors are far and away the better method, which will automatically save MORE energy, while being cheaper up-front. Notice that offices (which may otherwise have LOTS of building automation, already) use them, and not WiFi-controlled bulbs.

Instead, you WANT high-tech lights, because you think they are fashionable, and are only using energy efficiency as a smokescreen to justify wasting all that money.

no. The cree 60 watt is $5.
And yeah, I am bummed out because I replaced a number of our bulbs when they were 9.97. But, at $5, I am now replacing the CFLs as well and then will give those to my in-laws or battered womens shelter.

I own one of the phillips. BUT, at 30/bulb, the return is a LONG TIME. I DID notice that HD just brought the price down to 9/bulb.
However, just looking at it, at HD, the phillips is not as good. It is 76 lumens for watts and 5 year warrenty, while Cree is is not only half the price, but guarenteed 10 years, and is doing 84 lumens per watt.
And the crees are made in America using Cree LEDs (widely considered the best). The dimmer capability on the cree is also considered the best. Pretty much works with any dimmer without sound. The Phillips WILL make sounds or not properly dim if the dimmer is not a special one.

I own one of the phillips. BUT, at 30/bulb, the return is a LONG TIME. I DID notice that HD just brought the price down to 9/bulb.
However, just looking at it, at HD, the phillips is not as good. It is 76 lumens for watts and 5 year warrenty, while Cree is is not only half the price, but guarenteed 10 years, and is doing 84 lumens per watt.
And the crees are made in America using Cree LEDs (widely considered the best). The dimmer capability on the cree is also considered the best. Pretty much works with any dimmer without sound. The Phillips WILL make sounds or not properly dim if the dimmer is not a special one.

Prior art:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Eve...

Interesting bit: I could not find any mention of a sliding bolt latch on wikipedia.

Oh my god! What brilliance! That's why you are a patent attorney, making $500/hour, right?

Prior art: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Eve...

Interesting bit: I could not find any mention of a sliding bolt latch on wikipedia.

There's some very good HVAC control technology that hasn't yet made it to the home. Here's a way to build a product that does that.

The basic kit consists of the cool-looking "thermostat" controller, and a window fan. The window fan unit has sensors and an RF link to the controller. The sensors include inside and outside temperature, humidity, CO2 level, noise level, and light level. The controller has the same set of sensors. The controller can turn on heat, A/C, or HVAC only, and has full control over the window fan unit.

Now we're ready to apply some smarts to HVAC control. The basic idea is to use outside air and recirculation when possible. Big building systems have done this automatically for decades, but somehow it never made it to the home. The problem isn't component cost - it's the difficulty of configuring such systems. That has to be fully automatic for the home.

So the controller spends the first few days of its operating life learning the thermodynamics of the house. When heat or A/C is started, how long does it take for the effects to show up at the thermostat? What's the rate of rise and fall? If it starts the fan blowing air inward when it's colder or hotter outside, how long does it take before the effect shows up at the controller's sensors? In a few days, the controller should have all that calibrated.

Why all the sensors? The outside temperature sensor tells the controller what the fans will do to inside temperature. The CO2 sensor tells the system how crowded the house is. When CO2 is higher than normal inside, but not outside, it's time to crank up the fans in exhaust mode. When CO2 is very low, the house is nearly empty and air can be recirculated. The noise level sensor is used to decide how high the fans can go before they become annoying. If someone is having a loud party and the CO2 level is up, the fans can be run at max. The outside temperature sensor tells the controller what the fans will do to inside temperature. The outside light level sensor is used to figure out the day/night cycle and length of day. After some time, the system will know the approximate date and latitude.

That's the base system. Add-ons include more fans, controls for built-in fans such as attic fans, humidifiers, and so forth. For larger houses, multiple controllers can be used, and will coordinate their operation. (Coordination is essential in multiple-zone HVAC, or you spend money cooling air you just heated, or vice versa.) For new houses, more of this could be built in, but the base unit plus a window fan is enough to get going. So it can be sold as a consumer product.

Note that this doesn't need to connect to the "cloud". It doesn't need to "phone home". It doesn't need your ZIP code so it can connect to some place and get outside air temp. (It might offer a WiFi interface so you can talk to it via a browser, but that's not essential.) It has a lot more smarts tha the "Nest", and will make a house more comfortable.

Up stream it was stated that running 100watt 130volt bulbs only deliver 75 watts.

So I based that less than a dollar / bulb on THESE, the closest equivalent. 850 lumens 12,000 hours. 88.5 cents apiece.

Turns out that isn't even the cheapest CFC 60watt equiv. You can get a 4 pack of THESE 900 lumens 12,000 hrs for 49 cents apiece.

If you need 100 watt equivalent get THESE, 1600lumens, 10,000 hours, just under $1.25 each.

For some obscure reason, 75watt equivalent costs more per bulb than 100 watt, coming in at $1.61.

Up stream it was stated that running 100watt 130volt bulbs only deliver 75 watts.

So I based that less than a dollar / bulb on THESE, the closest equivalent. 850 lumens 12,000 hours. 88.5 cents apiece.

Turns out that isn't even the cheapest CFC 60watt equiv. You can get a 4 pack of THESE 900 lumens 12,000 hrs for 49 cents apiece.

If you need 100 watt equivalent get THESE, 1600lumens, 10,000 hours, just under $1.25 each.

For some obscure reason, 75watt equivalent costs more per bulb than 100 watt, coming in at $1.61.

Up stream it was stated that running 100watt 130volt bulbs only deliver 75 watts.

So I based that less than a dollar / bulb on THESE, the closest equivalent. 850 lumens 12,000 hours. 88.5 cents apiece.

Turns out that isn't even the cheapest CFC 60watt equiv. You can get a 4 pack of THESE 900 lumens 12,000 hrs for 49 cents apiece.

If you need 100 watt equivalent get THESE, 1600lumens, 10,000 hours, just under $1.25 each.

For some obscure reason, 75watt equivalent costs more per bulb than 100 watt, coming in at $1.61.

Have you considered taking your LED bulbs with you -- or are you gluing them into the socket or something?

I just installed $400 worth of LED spotlights into my kitchen/entry/living area, replacing all of the old pots with these:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-6-in-12-5-Watt-65W-Soft-White-2700K-Mid-Range-LED-Retrofit-Downlight-4-Pack-ECO-FD6-625L-27K-E26/204754597?N=bm79Z4b8#

I put the old ones in a box. I'm taking the LED lights with me if I move.

Yeah, CFLs.

But At prices like these (4 pack for $3.54) even people without a lot of money can afford them.

Where are you getting your prices from?

Lowes has:

60W equivalent CFL 4-pak - $14.98 or around $3.75 each

The enclosed CFLs are slightly more, but $12?

Not at Lowes: http://www.lowes.com/Search=cfl?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=cfl#!

Not at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/s/cfl+light+bulbs?NCNI-5

LED bulbs at Lowes are closer to your quoted price: http://www.lowes.com/Search=led+bulbs?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=led+bulbs#!

But still there is a 75W equivalent for $19.95.

LED bulbs, however, are "out of this world" at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/s/led%2520light%2520bulbs?NCNI-5

Where are you getting your prices from?

Lowes has:

60W equivalent CFL 4-pak - $14.98 or around $3.75 each

The enclosed CFLs are slightly more, but $12?

Not at Lowes: http://www.lowes.com/Search=cfl?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=cfl#!

Not at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/s/cfl+light+bulbs?NCNI-5

LED bulbs at Lowes are closer to your quoted price: http://www.lowes.com/Search=led+bulbs?storeId=10151&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&N=0&newSearch=true&Ntt=led+bulbs#!

But still there is a 75W equivalent for $19.95.

LED bulbs, however, are "out of this world" at Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/s/led%2520light%2520bulbs?NCNI-5

Joe, I don't understand why you are screaming on your soap box with an outrageous comparison when you could have bought high-efficiency incandescent light bulb (still producing under the new regulation) to be done with your garage lighting issue! Wrong engineering solution with wrong application don't make any sense! Nobody is saying LED lighting is solution for everything.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-EcoVantage-43-Watt-60W-Household-Halogen-Light-Bulb-2-Pack-409847/202514341#

All within the new regulation while giving you what you want. Now stop whining and give us the /. back so we can talk about more important stuff (e.g. Linux embedded light bulb)

I think your LED knowledge is a bit dated. I personally own a very nice 1680 lumen 100w equivalent LED bulb:

see here

Your numbers are nonsense. You say:

As it uses 60 watts, over a period of 30,000 hours, an incandescent bulb would use 1,800,000 watt hours, or 1,800 kilowatt hours. At the current approximate price of $0.10 per kilowatt hour, you would have to pay $180.00 to run an incandescent bulb over this period.

Thus, the total cost of a 60 watt incandescent bulb over a 30,000 hour lifespan is $187.82.

Here's the thing: the average lifespan of a 60w incandescent bulb is not 30k hours. It is 1200 hours. So you get to buy 25 incandescents. Add about $1.61 per bulb, or $40.25 in bulb costs alone (never mind the annoyance of changing it 25 times) over those 30k hours. Add your electric cost of $.10 * 1800 ($180), you get $220.25 for the incandescent.

The LED, however, WILL last 30k hours (and likely longer -- the $13 Cree comes with a ten year warranty). It costs $13, and the cost is 9 watts over 30k hours, or 270000wh. At the same .10/kwh, it is (270kwh * .10 = $27) is the operating cost. Total cost is then $13+$27, or $40.

The incandescent costs $220.25 - $40 more than the LED: ONE LED bulb saves you $180.75 over the equivalent 25 incandescent bulbs.

Buying an incandescent at this point is simply shooting yourself in the foot. Replace five bulbs, save yourself about $1000.00 over their lifetime, do better environmentally, up your reliability, reduce change events... I mean, really. Just, duh.

Reasonable alternatives would not be priced at $27 a pop

whoa. Home depot has Cree (excellent brand) LEDs, 60w equivalent (800 lumens, 25k hours) for about $13.00 -- that's half what you're assuming. You can get them for even less if you buy them a 1/2 dozen at a time. And they will save you a LOT of money as compared to an incandescent, and a reasonable amount compared to a CFL.

We went to all CFLs here (large home, lots of lights) a few years ago, went through the usual spate of infant mortality problems and finally ended up with an installed set that were dependable after spending WAY more than we planned on replacement CFLs. When home depot hit $13/LED-bulb, we began to replace those CFLs with Cree LEDs. No dead ones yet, they're all working fine and output is steady. They can be dimmed. Zero RFI. Great color, too. There's one over my desk as I type this. We expect to have the entire house done other than speciality lights by the end of 2014.

The numbers are highly compelling: Any geek who hasn't actually looked at the cost savings should be ashamed. If for no other reason than you can use that money for something else, but the environmental issues are significant, not to mention it's really nice not to have to worry about changing bulbs all the time.

Even though CFL's contain mercury, they result in a net reduction in environmental mercury emissions due to their much lower power consumption, since tatistically, half of your power comes from coal, which emits mercury as it is burned. Furthermore, $120 for LED bulbs is ridiculously unrealistic in 2013. I've seen them recently at IKEA for under $10 (albeit in low wattage flavors). Home Depot gets $13, before rebates. $78 gets you a six-pack of them.

http://www2.epa.gov/cfl/what-are-connections-between-mercury-and-cfls
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40222476/
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Dimmable-LED-Light-Bulb-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-2U100/204592770#

As of 2013 there is still no way to get a light bulb that combines the low cost and high quality of an incandescent

Correction. Low up front cost.

At the national average of 12c/kwh a typical LED bulb will pay for itself in 2.5 years and last well over 5 years. In other words, they are already cheaper than incandescents if you aren't as short-sighted as the typical wall-street broker.

Also, Philips makes a good $10 bulb too. Cree isn't the only one in the game.

While I'm not the original AC here, I believe he's thinking of a dual pole. This example from Home Depot is technically a 40 amp breaker. It's really two 20 amps smacked together, but it IS a 40 amp breaker.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Q-Line-40-Amp-2-in-Double-Pole-Circuit-Breaker-THQL2140/100356512?cm_mmc=shopping-_-googleads-_-pla-_-100356512&skwcid&kwd=&ci_sku=100356512&ci_kw=&ci_gpa=pla&ci_src=17588969#.UqDKRMRDtCs

If it was a significant problem they'd have put a padlock on the outdoor socket already. Or switched it off at the circuit breaker inside.

It wasn't a problem just a year ago because nobody would need that outlet. Now more and more outdoor outlets are locked, and lockable covers are available at Home Depot.

Very nice I may need one. Have you heard anything about how well USB Wall outlets work like these?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/U-Socket-15-Amp-AC-Standard-Duplex-Wall-Outlet-White-with-Built-in-USB-Charger-Ports-ACE-7169/203423602#.UozT2EAx7vQ

I've been considering getting a few.

Check any Home Depot / Lowes or other hardware store for a concrete nail gun. No permits required, use black powder, primer-actuated .22 / .27 caliber rounds to drive a projectile into concrete. Variable loads (powder content) are definitely available, different gauges may be - I never looked that closely. It just seems silly that in the most-regulated gun states, you can effectively buy a gun , as long as you call it a "tool" and sell it at a non-"gun" store. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hilti-DX-36-0-27-Caliber-Semi-Automatic-Powder-Actuated-Tool-384033/100527172

I gave up the handheld to get the rainwater system, frankly I now prefer this and it does a great job, probably due to the larger surface area, I no loner have to move my head under the water, the water "footprint" is larger than my head.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Waterpik-Medallion-2-Spray-Showerhead-in-Chrome-CF-203GG/100660071

That is similar to the unit that I used, works a treat and uses less hot water. One plus is that the flow is low enough that I can leave it on as long as I like, as hot as I like, and I don't run out of hot water, ever. My water heaters can heat water faster than this uses it, and that is with 5 people taking showers within a 1 hour time period.

Yes, it's you - you are so last year.

We aren't talking about those cheap $10 bulbs from Home Depot that get a measly 84 lumens/watt.

Commercially available LED street lights like Cree's LEDway have been over 100 lumens / watt since 2013-03, making them more efficient than high pressure sodium even without considering their arguably superior focusing and CRI.

Super-hydrophobic coatings are now easily available. They work very well when new, but customers complain about the coating wearing off rapidly. Something with a more durable bond will be needed.

This is yet another of those materials science articles which jumps from "minor discovery in materials science" to "huge commercial breakthrough Real Soon Now." It's bad for MIT's reputation that they put out so much hype.

"One thing about Martha, she isn't about to take any crap off anyone"

She may not be taking the crap off anyone herself, but she's certainly willing to help.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Martha-Stewart-Living-Wayland-Double-Post-Toilet-Paper-Holder-in-Brushed-Nickel-AL-CLSPH-21/202761287#.UkYem0DE3_o

If only they made a tape...opaque...that could be used to cover up the cameras - then we'd only have to worry about the microphone - which might befall an accidental exposure to superglue. Microphones don't work when the little inner bits don't vibrate anymore. :D

Dear lord, a good idea is a good idea on it's own! No need to go all 10-pack on us.

If only they made a tape...opaque...that could be used to cover up the cameras - then we'd only have to worry about the microphone - which might befall an accidental exposure to superglue. Microphones don't work when the little inner bits don't vibrate anymore. :D

Yea, I dunno about you, but I don't like to pay a several-hundred-dollar premium for hardware I'm going to intentionally break as soon as I open the box. That just seems stupid.

I'll take a dumb display for half the price any day of the week.

If only they made a tape...opaque...that could be used to cover up the cameras - then we'd only have to worry about the microphone - which might befall an accidental exposure to superglue. Microphones don't work when the little inner bits don't vibrate anymore. :D

Yes and no. The earth does have a very high albedo. However major contributions to that albedo come from cloud cover and polar ice caps, neither of which will be affected by solar panels on your roof.

When it comes to geothermal, yeah you're right. The extracted heat usually doesn't reach the density of hydrocarbon-thermal plants, leading to lower conversion efficiency (discussed further below). So you need more heat to produce the same amount of energy. On the other hand, some of that heat would be slowly propagating through the layers of planetary crust and radiating out anyways, so it may not be quite as bad as it seems at first glance although I don't care enough to try to work through the math.

Major contributors to the earth's albedo are that plants absorb a narrow band of energy (visible light) and reflect the rest (other visible light, the massive amount of IR, etc.). The sun is very bright in IR, which plants can't use and so reflect.

As for geothermal, think about how insulation works. 2 inch EPS paneling will give you R10, but putting non-broken nails through it will create a conduit that brings significant amount of heat through your insulation. We're not talking R9.994 here, but more like the carpenter nails are giving your panel an insulating efficiency of R7-8.5. That's what geothermal does. You're correct in assuming the earth isn't a perfect insulator, and that geothermal is just breaching it; you just need to consider the difference between burning fuel oil and exploding fuel oil.

Black roofing sucks. I put this stuff on mine after a $515 electric bill in 81 degree weather. The 14,000BTU window AC in one room couldn't drop the temperature to 76F, and it's rated for a 400sqft room with 10 foot ceilings. That room is 195sqft. More than 4kW coming in, stupid shit like the wall is 81F and the ceiling 2 feet above it is 89.5F. Now it's less than 1 degree difference on hot, blindingly bright days. Totally worth paying for 4 hours of labor to re-coat every 5 years (about $300 with the materials, rollers, and laborer), and yes I know the cheap stuff is 7 year durability and the expensive stuff is 12 year. Cheap insurance; reflecting off the heat does preserve the structural integrity of my roof, you know. A re-coat isn't a strip-and-prime job; it's a new coat right over the old one. I'm popularizing this on a block of poor people.

As I recall, the LED purse fires a pulse in response to a camera flash; as a result, the camera can't compensate by dialing down the aperture or exposure and giving you a grainy, but usable, photo. It also doesn't burn through thirty watts continuously, but only in response to an attempt at flash photography. This will do good things to your battery life, otherwise, plan on carrying around a big damn battery to run the thing for more than half an hour.

When to comes to offering warm yet visually efficient lighting, LEDs have a long way to go.

What would visually-efficient lighting look like? Would it not be so time consuming to watch?

As far as warmth goes, there are plenty of options for warm LED light bulbs right now:

• Warm = 2700K
• Bright White = 3000K
• Daylight = 5000K

I have two of these 2700K bulbs installed in the ceiling fan here in my living room. I have no complaints about the light they provide, and the cost savings are significant. A warm bulb is not what you want in every situation... warm is good in a relaxing environment like the living room or bedroom, but in the kitchen and bathroom I have 5000K (Daylight) LED bulbs.

As far as them having "a long way to go," that sounds like what someone would say if they were trying to sell us some "new" unspecified kind of LED that they are only able to claim is better because not enough people have LED bulbs now to know they don't suck. Perfectly happy with mine. The only thing the manufacturers need to do now is bring the price down to drive wider adoption. Tell me this "new LED technology" will do that and you have my attention.

When to comes to offering warm yet visually efficient lighting, LEDs have a long way to go.

What would visually-efficient lighting look like? Would it not be so time consuming to watch?

As far as warmth goes, there are plenty of options for warm LED light bulbs right now:

• Warm = 2700K
• Bright White = 3000K
• Daylight = 5000K

I have two of these 2700K bulbs installed in the ceiling fan here in my living room. I have no complaints about the light they provide, and the cost savings are significant. A warm bulb is not what you want in every situation... warm is good in a relaxing environment like the living room or bedroom, but in the kitchen and bathroom I have 5000K (Daylight) LED bulbs.

As far as them having "a long way to go," that sounds like what someone would say if they were trying to sell us some "new" unspecified kind of LED that they are only able to claim is better because not enough people have LED bulbs now to know they don't suck. Perfectly happy with mine. The only thing the manufacturers need to do now is bring the price down to drive wider adoption. Tell me this "new LED technology" will do that and you have my attention.