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LEDs - Do the Benefits Outweigh the Cost?
7x7 asks: "We keep hearing about the latest and greatest thing to come out of LED technology, and every article seems to give an over-view of the topic. How LEDs consume little electricity and last a long time, etc. However the manufacturing process involves super hot ovens and expensive componants. Do the requirements necessary in the manufacture LEDs and LED componants out-weight the requirements for standard bulbs over 10 years? One LED light can last ten years, but contains dozens of LEDs. Has anyone seen or performed an evalutation to see if the trade-off is really anything to speak of?"
--I am an extreme flashlight fiend, I mean I got dozens of them. My LED flashlights are just a sheer joy. The bulbs don't burn out or pop in temp extremes, I got literally years of normal use off a set of batteries. Most of them will run for days if you just turn them on and leave them on, I've tried it. a regular flashlight lasts a couple of hours max usually. I took one of my first ones, a ccrane model, and read several books at night on one set of batts, just to see how they did "real world". Just outstanding.
I switched several years ago from 12 vdc incandescents to fluorescents for my interior lighting in my RV I live in,got a good boost in performance, but as soon as the LEDs get a scosh cheaper in a normal 12 vdc config for area lighting I will switch to them instead.
I think the question asks about the total cost of manufacturing/consumables used to run LEDs vs fluorescent vs incandescent bulbs. I'd also throw in the environmental impact as well.
Incandescence are pretty simple to make now and don't contain much in the way of harmful chemicals, just glass and tungsten (older ones used a leaded compound for the base.) But the monetary and environment costs of the electricity are high.
fluorescents contain mercury, but I don't believe they are too hard to manufacture (correct me if I'm wrong.) They are currently the cheapest to run from an electricity point of view, but LEDs are rapidly (yes, there is more electrically efficient lighting out there, but not in the brightness range that most offices and homes require.)
LEDs use some nasty chemicals to manufacture, but the end product is fairly harmless (it contains tiny amounts of some harmful things, but the LEDs last such as long time that, imho, the impact is very small when depreciated over its lifespan.
From a battery-operated point of view, LEDs are the way to go. Fluorescents require some bulky voltage and signal conversion and don't run the battery completely empty. LEDs are strong, light weight, and very energy efficient. Plus batteries contain their own nasty chemicals. I just can't wait for portable fuel-cells!
Very true, but it depends on the purpose of the light.
In the kitchen, use Flourescents. Cheap & effective.
But how about for your car dashbord or some other DC-powered device? Seems like an LED light in your car roof could solve that "Ooops, I left the interior light on all last night, and now the battery is dead" problem.
That said, I still think LED installations have a way to go. Whenever it rains, I see a bunch of cars where 30% of the LED lamps are dark. The LED's probably work fine, but I bet that the connections have corroded due to the rain and smog.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Same here. Most of the x-many (16?) bulbs in the dashboard of my 1995 Escort were burned out, and I resorted to a clipped-on LED flashlight for a while (the light from which is actually much more pleasing than the stock, "working" lightbulb situation -- the LED cast a very nice pool of light). Girlfriend pressure --> 'fixed' but what a hassle. Even with the borrowed labor of a car-fixing friend, it was a royal pain.
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It's unconscionable to stick such inherently perishable parts (incandescent bulbs) into such an inherently inaccessable, inherently expensive (in time and money) spot. Many (most?) new cars are at least using some sort of electroluminescent stuff instead, maybe some are using banks of LEDs, I don't know
And rube goldberg as it sounds, I liked the flashlight for one other reason: it was simpler to click it off when I wanted than to find the rheostat for my dashboard, which is located in a tricky spot.
timothy
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LEDs don't save power vs fluorescents though. An 18 watt fluorescent lamp puts out around 1250 lumens. White LEDs only could put out 450 lumens max with the same 18 watts of power, about 25 lumens per watt.
LEDs for lighting only make sense currently when you already have a low voltage DC power system, like in an RV or boat, since a fluorescent bulb transformer would waste some power and make it closer to equal.
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