Should You Ditch Your CFL Lightbulbs for LEDs?

. Reporter Tim Murphy had no sooner penned his piece on Rep. Michele Bachmann's weird conspiracy theories about compact fluorescent legislation than a big package arrived on my desk. I opened it, and there, unfortunately nestled between two hunks of Styrofoam (have I mentioned how annoyed I get when companies send me "green" swag swaddled in unnecessary packaging?) was Philips' brand new LED warm white bulb. According to its package, the 12.5-watt LED acts exactly like a 60-watt incandescent bulb—with the addition of a few cool tricks: It lasts 15 years and will save me $142.50 in electricity costs over its lifetime. On Slate , Farhad Manjoo recently raved about LED bulbs. I thought: Sign me up!

So I switched the new bulb into my desk lamp. For the past few days, it's been casting a nice whitish glow over my desk. Still, I probably won't be retrofitting my house with LEDs anytime soon, for one big reason: Models like the one Philips sent me retail for a prohibitive $45, compared to $1.50 for a CFL bulb. The price difference doesn't quite correlate with lifespan: CFLs last about one-third as along as LEDs. And while we all know older CFL bulbs were flickering, headache-inducing disasters, most newer models are actually pretty comparable to incandescents in light quality. So is the LED really worth the hefty initial investment?

First off, it's worth pointing out that both CFLs and LEDs are dramatically more energy efficient than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, by about 75 percent and 90 percent, respectively. The main reason that LED bulbs cost so much more than CFLs is that they rely on more complicated (and therefore more expensive) technology. The light-emitting source in a CFL is a small amount of gas that, when stimulated with electricity, illuminates. LED bulbs, on the other hand, contain semiconductors, which give off light through movement of electrons when a current passes through. "Think of an LED like a small electrical appliance," says Celia Lehrman, deputy home editor at Consumer Reports .

Aside from their long lifespan, LEDs have a few noteworthy advantages over CFLs. While CFLs can take as long as three minutes after being turned on to reach their full brightness, LEDs brighten immediately. LEDs work much better with dimmers than CFLs. Another big LED plus: Unlike CFL bulbs, they don't contain mercury. Although few LED-bulb-specific recycling programs exist (Philips spokeswoman Sylvie Casanova says LED bulbs are "like small appliances" and therefore have to be recycled like any other e-waste) their long lifetime will give manufacturers a head start on creating recycling programs.

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Should You Ditch Your CFL Lightbulbs for LEDs?
Should You Ditch Your CFL Lightbulbs for LEDs?

Still, I probably won't be retrofitting my house with LEDs anytime soon, for one big reason: Models like the one Philips sent me retail for a prohibitive $45, compared to $1.50 for a CFL bulb. The price difference doesn't quite correlate with lifespan:



Side by side: LED, CFL, and incandescent bulbs
Side by side: LED, CFL, and incandescent bulbs

However, I'm often asked where someone can find just a "regular person review" on how LEDs stack up against CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) and the soon-to-be-phased-out incandescents without getting too buried in stats on lumens, kelvins, wattage,



Despite benefits, energy-saving bulbs draw conservative ire
Despite benefits, energy-saving bulbs draw conservative ire

However, a compact fluorescent lamp will last longer while using less energy, saving money in the long run. According to Energy Star, the energy efficiency program run by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, by switching out



How Many Environmentalists Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
How Many Environmentalists Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?

But those seemingly harmless bulbs that brighten our homes and light our way are unnecessarily zapping your energy efficiency and your wallet. You may have heard about compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), a fluorescent light bulb that has been compressed



Homeowners prepare for lighting technology changes
Homeowners prepare for lighting technology changes

Customers buy a high-end lamp from her store, Heritage Lighting in Cedarburg. Next, they purchase a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs for the lamp. Compact fluorescent bulbs are a much more energy-efficient option.




The best Around CFL (Compact Fluorescent) And even HEADED Light ...

The best Around CFL (Compact Fluorescent) And even HEADED Light Bulbs

With the today’s ear canal of one’s uncertainty, you can get chiefly a few categories of bulbs utilised locally. The decision is without a doubt around CFL, that compact fluorescent light fixture and that HEADED that light emitting diode. Each of those can be electric power helpful expressly a major disperse in light for the larger community, FCL become more best suited. Wedding ceremony external volume of each and every articles and reviews is practically so often the strength of HEADED though is without a doubt alot more helpful at positive websites.

For you to select ones own functions, to start with found . observe a good deal we’d like lights and even at the same time you necessitate current economic climate on top of that. In most cases CFL being used designed for vestibule, eating dinner aspects, porches, mattresses including lounges. To create a much bigger insurance policy in light community, the more expensive a single is without a doubt HCL will have to be followed. HEADED currently may not be utilized for the whole lights, simply because ones own concept has not yet climbed to where the nation’s intercontinental much bigger extend lights can be thought about. Current economic climate will there ever be, on HEADED and even on CFL, though intake is dissimilar, given that the important disadvantage is the house and even finance funding to help you endure that shift.

The second thing somewhere severe light is simply not the necessity though robustness, great light important, long run responsible bureau important and even current economic climate and house demands can be LEDs can be the best option.

Pieces of paper that significant difference concerning the a few is without a doubt sharp. That CFL can be much wider sizes along with particular bulb in HEADED.

At increased affixed and increased hallway websites CFLs become more acceptable. The arguments is definitely the much bigger insurance policy slope and even the second thing the application makes unspent as a result of day by day pressing, in items and even person’s flaws. CFL can rest in cases where encountered with surprising voltage increase and external stresses. Then again, LEDs typically are not primarily small-scale, though will be able to survive that jackasses and even jolts in some quantity.

You don’t have suspect they can each of those yield light, each of those origins keep electric power so are helpful, though predominantly from the light concentration, insurance policy and even model disadvantage each kind have contains a unique demand at a positive stipulated aspects. That CFL building contains hole cylinder through tiny amount of propane gas and even mercury protected within that tumbler cylinder. Nevertheless density belonging to the tumbler is without a doubt only that density belonging to the HEADED website and even tumbler canopy. It clarifies that it’s highly soft allowing it to rest readily. On the contrary that HEADED is without a doubt almost refined allowing it to display a whole lot of challenging touching without having to be injured. But they also achieve have a very good shortest lifetime!


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Compact Fluorescent Lamp - Bookshelf

Compact fluorescent lamp

Compact fluorescent lamp


Compact Fluorescent Lamp

Compact Fluorescent Lamp


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