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LED Breakthrough
UK scientists have discovered a way to make LED lights comparable in price to compact fluorescents (CFs). Considering LED lights last 10 times longer and are generally considered to provide a superior light source, it's a good thing! Bonus: this one comes just after the UK instituted all sorts of legislation to encourage CF usage. Remember, folks, the market cannot be trusted to provide superior solutions in shorter time frames. Only government can provide!
There is still one problem with gallium-nitride LED lights. Their efficiency, in terms of lumens per watt, is only about that of a 100 watt incandescent bulb. It doesn't seem to be so, because LEDs concentrate the majority of their light into a cone about 20 degrees across, while incandescents radiate it evenly in a 360 degree circle (shadowed by the internal and mounting components of the bulb, of course).
While this makes LEDs wonderfully efficient for directional lights (flashlights), it also makes them pretty useless for area lighting. Their only advantage over incandescents is their long lifespan, and they have the disadvantage that they require fancy fresnel lenses to spread their light out evenly. Patchy little spots of overlapping light are awesome in a rave or disco, but tend to ruin one's ability to see shapes clearly (which is why discoes are lit that way in the first place... so people don't clearly see how ugly their polyester fashions really are).
Posted by: Tatterdemalian on January 29, 2009 07:37 PMDude - srsly, I look pretty damn cool in my polyester clothes, regardless of the lighting.
/just sayin'...
Posted by: ronaprhys on January 30, 2009 08:31 AM