Earth Day: Free CFL at Home Depot

[Drocket]

Since there was a conversation here about energy-saving lightbulbs a while back, I thought I'd mention that this Sunday (which is Earth Day), Home Depot is going to be giving away free CFL bulbs at all of their stores. Hey, can't beat free.

[bobbylien]

Lousy PR/Marketing schemes. Take their bulbs but don't buy anything else. The only reason corporations do stuff like this is to make themselves look good. Shit, they are probably writing every one of these off on their taxes!

[piratemonkey]

Besides, LED lights are quite a bit more efficient than CFL bulbs.

LED bulbs last 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and 133 times longer than typical incandescents.

LED's use a fraction of the wattage of incandescent bulbs. Batteries will last 10 to 15 times longer than with incandescent bulbs.
http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm

[Buck Laser]

Besides, LED lights are quite a bit more efficient than CFL bulbs.

LED bulbs last 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and 133 times longer than typical incandescents.

LED's use a fraction of the wattage of incandescent bulbs. Batteries will last 10 to 15 times longer than with incandescent bulbs.
http://eartheasy.com/live_energyeff_lighting.htm


Economically priced LEDs are several years from the market, aren't they?

[Drocket]

For anything above dim mood lighting, yeah, LED bulbs just aren't quite ready for prime-time. They look to be vastly better than CFLs, but they're just not ready for mainstream use yet. In the meanwhile - you may as well get a free bulb. I don't quite know what the backlash is - it's just advertising. They want to get you in the store, where hopefully they can talk you into remodeling your bathroom, or buying new carpet, or maybe a new deck, or... It's not really meaningfully different than any other store running any other promotion -sales, coupons, contests, etc.

[potter]

Are LED lights those lights that are kinda blue? Like used on bike lights or wind up flash lights?

[piratemonkey]

Economically priced LEDs are several years from the market, aren't they?


It's true.

They are a bit expensive.

But they aren't 133X as expensive as incandescents and they last >10 years. So, along with the energy savings, they are WAY more cost-effective in the long-run.

I have LED's in most of my fixtures.Â*Â*There's absolutely no problem with them being too dim.Â*Â*They have "bulbs" with different numbers of individual LED's in them...Â*Â*If one isn't bright enough, just go up a level, like you would with a higher Watt incandescent.

Check out this page:
http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/all_led_bulbs?gclid=CLqK-9et0osCFRK1Ygod8g1YWw

[Buck Laser]

Thanks for the link! That's the first place I've seen where they're actually available. For what it's worth, most of the traffic signals in Austin are now LED lit. In addition to lasting longer, they're cheaper to maintain, because about 50% of the LED units can burn out before there's an appreciable difference in brightness.

But I have a general rant to make regarding indoor lighting fixtures. About 3 or 4 years ago, we exchanged all our halogen light fixtures for a new series of flourescent lamps that gave excellent light. Trouble is that most of them have burnt out now and replacements cost $40--and the dimmer switches fail and are then irreplaceable. While the price of indoor light fixtures has come down with the flood of imports, the quality is truly shitty, and a lot of useless junk has to go to the landfill on a regular basis.

[Mayberry]

LEDs are great, but have the drawback of having an extremely focused area of light. They are excellent for reading lights, traffic lights, marine navigation lights, or anywhere a directed light is needed. Unfortunately they aren't much good for general illumination, and as mentioned, they are quite expensive. But I'm sure the technology will evolve. I like my cork-screw flourescent lights at home, if for no other reason than the light in the garage was there when we moved in.... 5 years ago. Sorry Mr. Edison. But I'm sure he would approve of the new stuff.