Swapping my lights: fantastic!

Thanks, but no thanks. LEDs considerably lack in their color reproduction due to having spikier spectrum than high quality fluorescent tubes. Even though the light appears white, objects illuminated by it appear discolored. For the best results, only buy products with CRI (Color Rendition Index) of 0.90 or better. Unfortunately the best LEDs are still around 0.80.
Another huge problem with LEDs is the lack of light. My one-cell pocket flashlight is specified for 900 lm and in reality it gives around 600 lm. At home, when not running on batteries, I prefer the option of having much brighter lighting. I have 4800 lm overhead lighting (dimmable) + 2400 lm above kitchen sink in this room only, and I wouldn’t trade for less.
Fluorescent tubes are also available in all color temperatures, so you can get the incandescent 2700 K if you wish, or cloudy day blue 6500 K. Or the sunny day pure white 5500 K, which is what I prefer, and which also nicely matches with the image on flat screen displays.
Power-on time also isn’t a problem with fluorescent if you use a modern instant-on controller (which does reduce tube life slightly) and I am quite happy even with those regular electronic controllers (power-on times of less than two seconds, no flicker at all and better lifetime than instant-on).
Apparently all your experience of fluorescent lighting is from the era of mechanical starters that caused flickering and slow power-on, driving the tubes directly on AC, which causes 100 or 120 Hz flickering – and half of that or worse, if a tube is near its end of life. Modern T5 tubes and their controllers use very high frequency control so that no flickering occurs. CFLs also use similar electronic controllers.

I don’t have a car. I believe that is enough said.

Lets get to the bottom line.
1) Separate Energy from Climate.
2) Use all PASSIVE SOLAR energy saving methods – tested since the beginning of man – and they still are the most cost effective AND energy saving methods available.
3) Daylighting is the application of the sun to light your building (House).
4) In your hall, Anthony you should consider 2 Velux sun tubes from home depot – once installed – 0 energy use, and much better light.
5) I have yet to see an unsubsidised PV installation pencil out within the systems lifetime – except when the building is remote and requires diesel equiptment, fuel and maintenance.
6) The EPA is stuffing CFL’s down our throats, but they are fooling themselves once more (like MTBE), CFL’s have about a 50% power factor and require an increase in generating capacity plus the mercury thingy, and they do not dim so well.
7) LED’s have been correctly described as unstable, unproven, and expensive.
8) I have recently become aware of a new bulb – VU1corp is the website – that is similar to the incandescent in manufacture but uses much less energy, has a decent P.F., is great in color temperature and much closer in cost to the CFL’s than to LED’s, and they dim great.
9) I would be very careful in regards to using a LED or a CFL in a non-IC rated can or a can not rated for that use.
10) I am an architect in a sole practice and I have NO financial interest in ANY lighting provider.
11) I have decades of energy saving design experience and have saved my clients millions in energy costs without increasing their construction and maintenance cost by 1% – K.I.S.S..

well here in the great white north we get 10-20% of our HEAT from lighting!
If you want to be Green , buy some light ” dimmers ” and install them every where
and add 20% to the wattage of the replacement bulb( care full not to exceed rating of the light fixture) now enjoy a bulb that last decades in stead of months or years.
set the dimmer for 10% and use LESS power than LEDs OR CFLs
How much GHG is released from making the LEDs?
that is it!!!

I have found that my central electric heating system runs much more frequently and needs to be used more in mild weather since converting to the fluorescent bulbs. For me, the primary advantage of these bulbs has been the reduced frequency of replacement.

Not wishing to pour cold water on this but energy saving is not necessarily, taken overall, a great benefit. I know that this seems counterintuitive but see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
for a description of the Jevons Paradox which “Willian Stanley Jevons first put forward in 1865 in his book The Coal Question”.
However, on the individual level, if the ROI is realistic, energy saving can be a case of “You know it makes sense!”.

I once posted a comment on RC about Anthony Watts’ green home. I made the point that just because someon is sceptical about the impact of AGW on Earth did not mean they were not green or concerned about the environment.
I also pointed out that there are a number of left leaning climate dissenters and not all sceptics are rabid, right-wing, oil-funded “deniers”.
I’ve been using CFLs for over 10 years now, I make sure my appliances are running at their most efficient and avoid waste whenever possible.
Here is a video of
pedal powered LED lighting for homes in India.

I have replaced all the halogen downlights in my kitchen with LED lights but initially had some problems which it may be helpful to explain here, as information on this topic was not readily available on-line (at least, it wasn’t a 2 years ago when I started.
I am referring to MR14 low voltage halogen fittings, the type with two prongs that plug into a flying socket in the fitting. These are powered by transformer units which produce approx 12V ac output and may be dimmable. I was replacing 20w, 30w and 50w halogens with 1.2W LED units and was prepared to accept the reduction in light output. They will not work on dimmable transformers but the implication was that they were OK on fixed output units.
Initially I tried a few LED units mixed with halogen s because the halogen transformers need a reasonable current draw to work). This seemed fine at first, but after some months some of the individual LEDs in the light bulb died.
To cut a long story short, although the LED lamps are pin compatible, they are not happy with the high frequency AC output from the halogen transformer. My supplier said a 12V ac transformer at mains frequency would do, but further research eventually revealed that a regulated 12v dc output gave longest life and I eventually sourced LED lighting transformers (or more strictly, PSUs) at a decent price on E-bay.
Because of the rated output of the new transformer (max 30w) I couldn’t run a mix of halogen and LED, but with the passage of time higher power LED units had become available at sensible prices so I uprated to 2W units and they have been running satisfactorily for the last year or so. Please also not that although the supply is DC, the lamps are not polarised so work either way.
I should add that there are also LED lamps that claim to be compatible with halogen transformers but I don’t see how they could meet the higher current draw requirement of these transformers without some sort of shunt to increase the current, but that would negate any power savings of using LEDs.
One downside, the bedroom above is a little cooler now that all the little heaters under the floor have been eliminated.

all this is cool and funny but overall, on nation scale, the energy that can be saved on lighting is so low is almost irrelevant.
it only makes sense because electric energy is sold so expensive. same as gasoline. if it wasnt for the crazy taxes on it, there would be no point whatsoever in developing electric cars.
all this is the result of the enormous market distortions created by the massive scale state tampering with economy.

Anthony
These LEDs have been available in the UK for some years now. In the early days they were mixed with the halogen type so you might, for instance, have LED, Halogen alternating along the corridor or in the kitchen. People tended to put the halogen where they needed direct and bright lighting as above a work surface. BUT great article. Complete and self explanatary.

As a long time hydroponics enthusiast I’ve been growing plants under lighting for many years. I’ve tried all manner of lighting sources and like most indoor gardeners, had pretty much settled on HID bulbs of the HPS and sometimes MH varieties. The useful range of wattages of these bulbs typically runs from ~150w to 1000w. At 1000w, these bulbs produce deeply penetrating light (5-6 feet) which yields excellent growing results, but they also produce an enormous amount of heat as a by-product, not to mention it’s like having a hair dryer running for 12, 18, even 24 hours of the day. The bulbs lose illumination intensity fairly quickly and depending on the application, may need replacement in a year.
About four years ago, I switched my gardening lighting to LED sources and I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at my results. I’m currently using two different LED sources for a total of 207w. One is a commercially-made 120w fixture which contains LEDs in three colours. The second is an array of six roughly 6″x 5″ circuit boards, each of which holds 272 5mm LEDs which come in red and blue colours. These circuit boards were purchased as kits, and I did the soldering to assemble them. I’ve mounted the boards on a wooden frame to create a fixture which is about 20″ x 15″.
These two fixtures have replaced HID lighting which had a nominal power consumption of 1450w, or just a skosh more than 7 times the amount of power from the mains. And added bonus is that in one of my garden areas, the 1000w bulb there necessitated a special fixture which is cools the bulb by encasing it in a glass envelope and directing air flow through that envelope to carry the ‘waste’ heat away. I no longer have to run that axial fan system all the time the lights are on, which saves additional power – probably 10w-12w. Oh, and in four years, I’ve yet to need to replace as much as a single LED.
One advantage of LEDs in gardening applications is that one can make them with LEDs of precise colour/frequency, thus allowing designers to produce fixtures which have only the frequencies of light which plants use the most for their biological processes. There’s no need, for example, for a lot of green light, because most plants reflect most of the green light frequencies which strike them, which is why plants look green to our eyes. LEDs allow fixture designers to tailor fixtures to the needs of particular plants while only using frequencies which are the most beneficial to the plants. Very efficient.
In terms of garden output, I’m still getting the same amount of produce, maybe even a little more, and the quality of the produce is as high as it’s ever been. A 1000w bulb produces light which can penetrate the plant canopy down to 5-6 feet. The fixture I made with the home-brew kits definitely don’t have that kind of penetrating power. But since I use this fixture on my herbs garden, and the plants in that are only 2-3 feet high, it’s not a problem. I’m using the commercial fixture on my taller plants (tomato bushes right now) and I don’t see any difference in penetrating power. That fixture is made using high-power LED’s which run hotter than the little 5mm LEDs in the other fixture. The commercial fixture does have two muffin fans at the top of the enclosure to vent the heat the LEDs produce. The fans are throttled way back (I suspect they’ve reduced the voltage to the fans to keep them running slowly) and the 120w rated power includes the power drawn by the fans.
I couldn’t be more pleased about cutting out the old power wasters and plan to continue to seek out LED lighting for other plant applications.

Oldseadog (14:30:48) :
Remember that in G.B. only a qualified Electrician is authorised to carry out this work – Brussels has banned all electrical DIY.
Actually no they haven’t, the Uk regulations are as usual ‘gold plated’ and in addition they try and pretend you can’t do anything. I think you’ll find you can do quite a bit more than you think.