Weird Looking LED Bulbs Hitting US Market

Here at Ohio State some grad and undergrad students are doing research on how to make organic LEDs just as bright as normal ones. That way, the cost of these will decrease while still putting out just as many lumens (and probably even consuming less electricity than a normal LED). Hopefully their idea works.

And how is this design "weird"? A lot of people must have thought Edison's lightbulb looked weird when it first came out.

Great, let's take a really simple idea that saves energy, and clad it with a ton of aluminum that completely offsets any gain in cradle-grave efficiency. Stupid!

I was all excited about this whole LED idea so I dropped the big bucks to buy one. It was supposed to be 60 watt equivalent, it was more like 20. It was supposed to last years and years yet for just reading before bed it only lasted 3 months. So I spent a lot for a 3 month, dim, technology. Now I have recycle the silly thing too. Great concept, IMHO and IMHE it isn't ready for prime time yet. $400 for a dim, short lived bulb...I just don't think so

This is a little strange. You can get an 8 watt dimmable flourescent bulb for around $10 that has equivalent output to a 60w incandescent. It doesn't make sense to pay $100 for an LED bulb that uses 9 watts and probably involves a lot more energy to make the heatsink.

Then, anyone that can afford a $100 light bulb likely has no problem affording their electric bill. These bulbs are cool looking, but they seem like a lose-lose both in cost and energy savings.

I suppose the major benefit is the fact that one of those bulbs will last 3 human lifetimes. So, over your entire life and the life of your offspring, I suppose it saves money. Doesn't really make sense right now though.

My experience with solar flashlights with LED's , unlike the mainstream flashlight bulb,has been poor. Some bulbs burn out within days. I suspect this is due to poor quality soldering but it may be poor quality of manufacture. Chinese slave labor, like any other slavery, produces numerous and major errors.
Until quality control improves--and this may require American manufacture--no way am I spending the money for LED's.
I used solar flashlights as my sole nighttime lighting for nearly ten years. I'd do it now but housemate will not cooperate.

These are overengineered. By the time the bulb wears out or the money/energy savings are recouped, the world will have moved on to a different lighting technology. This is like buying a VHS VCR with gold wiring or something.

Under $100 LED's : http://store.earthled.com/
Their prices just dropped last week, I'm seriously thinking of ordering a couple. I've had bad luck with these "7 year" CFL bulbs burning out after 6-12 months.

While shopping at Wal-Mart the other day for miscellaneous items for a class project, I saw that they were now carrying new LED bulbs from GE for use in track lighting. They stated that they only used 7 watts and were priced at about 30 - 40 dollars. I bought one, the lighting was okay, and it was somewhat warm to the touch after about an hour, but considerable cooler than a conventional bulb and somewhat cooler than a compact fluorescent.

I bought some MR16 LED lights for a 12 volt system from "DR LED", and they have failed, miserably. They are under warranty, but they refuse to accept them, and have been very rude about their lights, which were advertised as having a 50,000 hour life span.

We are working on developing a microcredit system to assist rural small holders in accessing photovoltaic DC lighting systems, and LEDs would provide a LOT of ligt for a small amount of energy, allowing small sytems to provide sufficient light to duicplace kerosene lamps, if they were ready for prime time. These lights are not.

There must e good manufacturers of LED lights. DR LED is not one of them.

to respond to one of the posters above - - the reason to switch to LED's from CFL's is about more than money or how long they last - - it is because the mercury in CFL's is a disaster waiting to happen. CFL's are not a longterm solution because of the difficulty in recycling them properly and all that mercury ending up in the environment (or even more directly, your home if you tripped and dropped a few of them.) I agree these LED's are ridiculously priced, it seems to me there are already cheaper ones on the horizon, and they'll need to get better/brighter, but i guess as always we have to start somewhere. That said, I don't believe a $400 bulb will ever be worth it. I would rather use soy candles, for crying out loud.

There are some seriously out of touch comments on the crade-to-grave efficiency and the embodied energy of aluminum.

Aluminum embodied energy is on the order of 10 kWh/kg. The energy represented in one of those heat sinks would be paid back in a few months.

I'm a little wary of investing much $$ in new tech atm, because it seems as if we've hit another fast growing tech development curve. I'm super excited for the new oled tech that's surfacing!

I have 4 LED light bulbs in my house right now - they have been running strong for several months with no problems whatsoever. I bought them on ebay.

two above my counter in the kitchen and they are a perfect replacement for the 25 watt incandescent bulbs i had in there - actually a bit brighter.

I also have one on each side of my bed in the head board and they replace a 15 watt incandescent and use 1/2 watt of electricity.

It does not seem like a huge energy savings but these are both locations that get the most bulb "on time" in my house. and are perfect for these applications.

I paid about $7.00 per bulb with shipping included.

It seems that most of the posts here are from uninformed people. Do your research before crapping all over something. If you go to the websites of the above mentioned companies you can find out more about the energy efficiency and life expectancies of the "bulbs".

I can tell you by looking at the design that the fixture is not cheap to make. There is a lot of machined aluminum. However, for people who are willing to pay for design and quality, it may be worth it. A good quality, high brightness LED is not cheap either, but they are getting cheaper. It will be the same as it was with flat screen TVs. Price will come down.

Also, the reason for "weird" heat sinks is that they allow for much higher brightness and product lifetimes. The larger the heat sink, the cooler the LED. The cooler the LED, the brighter it is and the longer it lasts. The bulb in the Journee track lighting shown above WILL last for 40K or 50K hours and its brightness levels will equate to about a 40 or 50 watt halogen because of the heat sink.

If you buy an LED bulb replacement that fits your existing light fixtures, in general, they will not last as long, and they are not that bright because the heat is not being drawn away from the LED. In other words, there is not sufficient heat sinking.

By the way, $400 is not for a "bulb". It's for a fixture with a removable bulb. You can buy most LED bulbs for under $100 now, but there are some that are starting to fall into the $50 to $60 range.