I remember as a kid my dad showed me how to make a small cardboard Christmas tree with lights that used LEDs. It wasn’t a bright enough light to light up much at all, but now developers are predicting household lighting uses for LEDs will be practical within the next few years. From CNet:
Light-emitting diodes will become economically attractive as replacements for conventional lightbulbs in about two years, a shift that could pave the way for massive electricity conservation, according to a researcher.
Right now, consumers and businesses can buy a light-emitting diode, or LED, that provides about the same level of illumination as an energy-hogging conventional 60-watt lightbulb, Steven DenBaars, a professor of material science at the University of California Santa Barbara, said at the SEMI NanoForum, taking place here this week. A principal advantage of the LED: It lasts about 100,000 hours, far longer than the conventional filament bulb.
Changing conventional light bulbs to LED would save everyone money. Experts predict that within two years the cost of the bulbs will be $20 a piece, but would pay for themselves within a year with reduced energy costs. But on top of reduced costs, consider the reduced energy usuage worldwide:
If 25 percent of the lightbulbs in the U.S. were converted to LEDs putting out 150 lumens per watt (higher than the commercial standard now), the U.S. as a whole could save $115 billion in utility costs, cumulatively, by 2025, said DenBaars, and it would alleviate the need to build 133 new coal-burning power stations.
In turn, carbon emissions in the atmosphere would go down by 258 million metric tons.
I’m picturing a house with solar energy running LED light bulbs. I can see the meter run backwards faster and faster everyday.
