Will LED lights ever be practical for home lighting?

Question

Will LED lights ever be practical for home lighting?

Answer 1

I just saw a story about this today.  LEDs are "cool", they have no heat.  Leds are now being fused to clothing.  They are becoming "light" for other countries and don't require power to run.  They are being made into wall paper too!  The show was "Sunday Morning". ...

Let There Be LEDs!

High-Tech Artificial Light Has Become More Colorful, Efficient, and Now Bendable

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May 18, 2008

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LED lighting systems are changing the way architecture is illuminiated. (Color Kinetics)

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What They've Thought Of Next



(CBS) Modern designers are just as innovative in their use of high-tech artificial light. All in all, it's a bright idea, as Martha Teichner now shows us:

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Revolutionary is the operative word, even if exuberant, dazzling, nifty, cool also come to mind..

Imagine light in 16 million colors … fabric that can soak up the sun during the day and illuminate the third world at night. No plugs, no lightbulbs.

All of this exists now, thanks to a tiny computer chip with a bright idea. It's called an LED, a light-emitting diode, and if it hasn't already begun to change everything you thought you knew about light, it will.

"Ten years ago, LEDs were kinds the trinkets," General Electric VP Michael Petras said. "It was keychain lights."

These chips the size of a grain of salt that emits light were actually invented at GE in 1962, by a man named Nick Holanyak. In the beginning they only came in red and the applications were limited: traffic signals, brake lights, on-off switches.

"So now it's into the big scoreboards at the stadiums or the concerts," Petras said. "We've got it in refrigeration cases at retail supermarkets. We have it in signs."

By the late 1990s, engineers had added green and blue, which meant they could create every color imaginable - and finally white.

Suddenly there was an LED innovation explosion. Times Square is practically passé. This trailer from Video Roadshow is state-of-the-art for now, though Jeff Studley says in a couple of years it will be obsolete. "There'll be things we can't even imagine," he said.

And some reinventions of things we know very well.

LEDs are utilitarian. In addition to low energy use and a long life, they don’t produce much heat. In fact, they produce a cold beam.

Utilitarian is good, but s**y is ....s**y.

Kevin Dowling is vice president for innovation at Color Kinetics outside Boston. He toured a wall display that converts video to light, "so you in essence are walking into a kaleidoscope."

Dowling said the myriad lights patterns that are created, are done so entirely by software. They change and never repeat (unless you want them to).

Here's the stunning part: The light show uses the same amount of electricity as four hairdryers.

So architects, with the help of companies like Color Kinetics, are now lighting up the night, guilt-free..

What about home use, you're asking? The good news is that the cost is coming down 20% a year. But for now, LEDs are still more expensive than compact fluorescent bulbs, which (in case you hate them) are getting better.

But who can resist the promise of LEDs, the idea of a lamp-less house?

(General Electric)[At left: Neon is so 20th Century. GE's Tetra lighting systems are flexible LEDs.]

Petras showed us an oLED, or Organic LED, which are flexible. "It can be printed onto great rolls, and come 2010 or so you'll be able to buy lengths of it, in sheets."

Where does he seem them being applied? "Wallpaper."

That's right. Wallpaper.

In the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico, LEDs are changing lives. An organization called the Portable Light Project has provided villagers with ingenious LED-lit reflectors. Flexible solar panels are sewn onto one side of a piece of fabric.

Sheila Kennedy is a Boston architect, whose firm, Kennedy & Violich Architecture, developed the units.

"You simply take this material, put it out in the sun for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours, it harvests the sunlight, turns it into electricity," Kennedy said, "and then you can use that electricity for about six or seven hours at night."

LEDs mean years of free light for people who need it … nights filled with possibility for us all, as we consider light … in a new light.  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/1...

Answer 2

L.E.D's aren't lights, they are light emitting diodes.  Diodes have been around for decades but they are not "lights" in the domestic sense.

Answer 3

I have to disagree with Ashley.   LED lights give off very little heat, which makes them attractive for a lot of applications.  

The technology is improving so that LED lighting would be nice for home use.  The only problem with them now is the color temperature.  The white LED's are bright without warmth.  

That was one objection to CFL bulbs when they first came out, the light made your room look like the inside of a hospital waiting room.  When they can warm up the white on LED's I think people will use those instead.  These use far less electricity than CFL bulbs too.

Answer 4

I would say yes except for the only reason that they are so hot, they become a fire hazard... especially if you're using only LED throughout the whole house; it just heightens the probability of a fire.

Answer 5

The guy who said they're a fire hazard was either a liar or an idiot.  I have a mag flashlight with an LED.  It is super bright.  It's a blue shade of white though.  Just like incandescent lights and fluorescent lights are a different shade of white, LEDs are yet another shade of white.  It would be nice if the color could be changed, but even the way they are would be good for hallway lights and bathroom lights.

Answer 6

I agree with John F, I think that LED's are, in some circumstances, already practical for use around the home, for example reading by, and as technology progresses so too will LED lighting. They don't get as hot as normal light bulbs, only warm to the touch, so can't see them being a fire hazard at all. Besides, it's usually only a persons stupidity that makes something a fire hazard in my opinion.

Plus some people can't use CFL's such as those with light sensitivity disorders such as epilepsy so the progression of LED's would be very practical and of great benefit.

"I think in the long term they (CFL's) are great - they save electricity by about 80%, but what will happen in 10 years time when millions of us want to dispose of them? I cannot see that they will all be recycled safely, so then we will end up with a mercury problem.

I rather sense that they are a short term solution.

They (LED's) are still expensive and of limited availability in the UK, but the technology is definitely moving towards these in my opinion. They are directional, so not really very good for lighting a whole room, but they are excellent for reading by.

These appear to be safe for humans and they last about ten times longer than CFLs, so they really are the best choice for the environment as I see it." - http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/forum/ta...

Answer 7

maybe in future

Answer 8

yes .. ofcourse.. LEDs will be practical for home lighting..commersial.. indoor and out door lightings...

Lot of LED products are available in the market..

As in case all developing technologies Cost is the only barrier in its way.........

there are technologies developed to remove the heat from the LED engines effectively..

it  may take some time to about 3-4  years for wide commercial application and about 6-7 more for the common people to afford such lights.. but LEDs will surely replace many of the old lights as LEDs are far ahead in energy efficiency..

But LedS are still not competitive with fluroscent lightings...

in all major cities .. nowadays the decorating lighting is confined to LEDs as it saves lot of energy than other lights..

a 7watt LED light can replace  a incandscent light of 50W when campared to lumens..

the only problem with LEDs is that they are very bright at the origin but their ability to illuminate the a large area is not effective..

they are now really suitable for traffic lights.. automative brake lights.. warning lights.. name boards.. adevertisements.. big screen displays ..decorative lighting... etc as they are clrearly visible from long distance...

there are LED street lights also.. but we have to reduce the length between the streetlight poles for effective illumination.. as  said before... Australia is going to ban incandescent light and promote LED lights..

even they are used for indoor lighting... will be promoted soon..... due to their low energy consumption.. also they are very effictive in coulour changing.. with RGB LEDs we can obtain all required colours..

life of LEDs are los much more about 10-12 years.. (for 12 hrs of daily use) which is also a attractive point..

Now the lumen per watt have reached 100+.. and teh expersts say that once it reaches above 150+ , LEDs will be widely used and will be in both cost and efficiency...

the efficacy can go up to 200lumen per watt(theoretical value)