05-17-2013, 04:18 AM
I just bought a couple of A19 socket type, LED light bulb. 9 watt actual, 60 watt equivalent, daylight colour temperature. For 16$ Cad each. Made by Cree.
I'm using them for bias lighting behind my computer monitor.
Now I am a LED lighting enthusiast, way back when. Ever since I first saw my friend using one of the first generation, 5mm white LED flashlight on a camping trip, years and years ago.
It was bluish white, only as bright as a moon beam on a cloudy night, and ran on coin cell batteries. It wasn't that great, but it's big advantage was the battery life, ruggedness, and relatively cleaner beam. But I knew it had big potential the minute I saw that thing.
I want to be clear here, I am not an early adopter. But when I see a good\promising technology reach the 'good enough' critical stage, I jump in.
I hate the mostly crappy LED I see being offered at Sprawl-Mart, because IMO it gives a bad name to a very good emerging technology. I'm an enthusiast geek, so I can spend hours reading up info on what to look for.
But when we're talking about the retail consumer space, where other people may not have the time or interest level, they just need something of quality that works. First impression matters a whole lot more. And if John and Jane Q public first experience is buying an expensive, and crappy LED light, they are just as likely to write off -every- LED as overhyped, overprice, and underperforming.
But getting slightly back on track, at 16 bucks a pop, and will be decreasing in the future I'm betting. LED light bulbs has reached an important price milestone IMO. That was the price when CFL really started to move off the shelf.
Speaking of CFL. Here is how I'm impressed with how far LED has come.
I am no longer buying CFL bulbs. The ones I do have, I will be using until they're dead. But I will be replacing them with LED. The few incandescents I have are already in places that very rarely sees continual\long usage (back porch that sees maybe 5 minutes in one year), so it's not worth replacing them for a long time.
One important exception, two 100w incandescent are in locations that needs that amount of light for someone in my family, and when that light goes out I may replace them with halogen (similar to incan), but I'd really want an A19 socket, 100w equivalent LED instead. This is where the savings really start for me, because I hate going up a chair to replace that damn bulb everytime it goes out.
The basic tech is there, it's just a matter of adapting and adopting. I already saw some high powered LED, portable work lamps. It's still pricy compared to older halogens, but it's already elbowing out CFL work lamps.
Then again I always saw CFL as a temporary technology, it's the John the Baptist to solid state lighting Jesus.
Now here is my slightly ranty rant.
I remember when this little stupidity came out.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...le6748435/
I say it's stupid because I think the government should look at an 'X-Prize' model \ carrot instead of knee jerk ban move. Banning lead paint, that's good. Banning incandescent bulb, giving fuel to the usual suspects of Conservatards 'they're banning mah freedumb!!11', backing\urging CFL which I seriously think is just a stop gap tech at this point, not so good.
The reason I threw that 'Conservatard' label? What else comes to mind when I remember something like this. (I remember seeing it on CNN for Fox sake.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=...ZWVDsqTkaM
I want to be clear here. I'm not pissed about Bush Jr. Or the bafflegabber Fleischer. It's not even about 'Murrca'. It's the bigger underlying message it says about the 'First' World.
If anything, I should thank Mr. Fleischer for saying it. From what I've seen so far, the current ruling party of my country, The Conservative Party of Canukistania, Ruled by his Worship King Harper, wouldn't dream of saying anything like the above. They just do it.*
*(And no, I'm no liberal\progressive\komienist\Al Gore. In fact I even voted for King Harper the first round. Well it was mostly to vote the Liberals out, Canadians seems to be more fond of voting parties out than voting parties in, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.)
But getting back to that quote. It stunned me when I first saw that. For a so called conservative, with the word 'conserve' in it, that's just mind boggling. And what the hell happened to the proud Ameri-can-do, pioneering spirit the Yanks had? Hosers and Lumberjacks have the expression 'give 'er', which is the kindred spirit of 'git 'er done'.
'The American way of life is a blessed one?' Now I get what he's trying to paint here. It's the Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving. I get that. It's also IMO, quite disingenuous.
The 'America' I remembered also had a pioneering, roll up your sleeve, work hard and play hard ethos. You know, the kind they make television truck commercials out of.
It is a WTF moment for me when I saw that on TV. Was this really the same nation that once said, 'Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.'?
Again, I want to be clear here. This is not an Anti America Rant. I don't agree with many of the US policies. It's people however, I have a genuine love and affection for. I have families that live in the USA, and are citizens. I have friends in the USA. Small business wise, on a personal scale, I genuinely enjoy working with the Yanks.
There is something that is genuinely disturbing going on however, and IMO it is more complex than Left vs Right, Commietard vs Conservetard.
I mentioned before my ranty part. How I am a LED lighting enthusiast. And I saw the same pattern from some admittedly few, but loud and insistent people emerging, when that technology began to gain strength.
First, dismissal. "It's nice but niche, not bright enough'. True, but give it time.
Then it became brighter. 'Yeah it's getting brighter...but it's still too expensive'. True, but give it time.
It then became brighter, and cheaper. 'Yeah well, it doesn't have a warm colour.' True, but give it time.
It then became brighter, cheaper, and now have better uniformity, and a choice of warm and cool colour spectrum. 'Yeah well...uh...I still can't buy it at Home Des-pot for a reasonable price like under 20 bucks' True, but yadda yadda.
I can now buy a 60 watt equivalent, warm or cool spectrum, LED bulb in a common socket configuration, for 16 bucks, at a big box store. 'Yeah well..uh...moving goal post some more... Progressives are ruining the country!!11 I'm going to buy all the incan bulbs before the commie-fascist ban, and then sell them for freedom!111' Uh....right.
Again, before someone(s) gets all butthurtz on how I'm saying mean things about Merca and how I hate freedoms. Let's make this clear. This is something far bigger and deeper (derper? Derp!). My own current ruling government is IMO, doing something worse than just talking crazy anti-science, anti-knowledge talk. They do what people with a serious intent do. They don't talk about it. They just do it.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/poli...le8878547/
I don't want to end on just a ranty, overly pessimistic note however.
Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield did a great cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity. Usually I don't like covers that takes a more literal tone that the original version (let's face it, it's not a big secret that Space Oddity can be heard as a metaphor for drug abuse.). But in rare cases, it can becomes something else altogether, in a good way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo
Nothing like a shot of the ole blue marble from space, to give perspective on just how petty and small we as a species can be. But hey, if it can produce a singing astronaut, we might have some potential. Maybe.
TL, DR; It is now affordable to buy a household LED light bulb, but it's still more fun for some folks to curse the darkness. I'd rather curse in a better lit room however.
I'm using them for bias lighting behind my computer monitor.
Now I am a LED lighting enthusiast, way back when. Ever since I first saw my friend using one of the first generation, 5mm white LED flashlight on a camping trip, years and years ago.
It was bluish white, only as bright as a moon beam on a cloudy night, and ran on coin cell batteries. It wasn't that great, but it's big advantage was the battery life, ruggedness, and relatively cleaner beam. But I knew it had big potential the minute I saw that thing.
I want to be clear here, I am not an early adopter. But when I see a good\promising technology reach the 'good enough' critical stage, I jump in.
I hate the mostly crappy LED I see being offered at Sprawl-Mart, because IMO it gives a bad name to a very good emerging technology. I'm an enthusiast geek, so I can spend hours reading up info on what to look for.
But when we're talking about the retail consumer space, where other people may not have the time or interest level, they just need something of quality that works. First impression matters a whole lot more. And if John and Jane Q public first experience is buying an expensive, and crappy LED light, they are just as likely to write off -every- LED as overhyped, overprice, and underperforming.
But getting slightly back on track, at 16 bucks a pop, and will be decreasing in the future I'm betting. LED light bulbs has reached an important price milestone IMO. That was the price when CFL really started to move off the shelf.
Speaking of CFL. Here is how I'm impressed with how far LED has come.
I am no longer buying CFL bulbs. The ones I do have, I will be using until they're dead. But I will be replacing them with LED. The few incandescents I have are already in places that very rarely sees continual\long usage (back porch that sees maybe 5 minutes in one year), so it's not worth replacing them for a long time.
One important exception, two 100w incandescent are in locations that needs that amount of light for someone in my family, and when that light goes out I may replace them with halogen (similar to incan), but I'd really want an A19 socket, 100w equivalent LED instead. This is where the savings really start for me, because I hate going up a chair to replace that damn bulb everytime it goes out.
The basic tech is there, it's just a matter of adapting and adopting. I already saw some high powered LED, portable work lamps. It's still pricy compared to older halogens, but it's already elbowing out CFL work lamps.
Then again I always saw CFL as a temporary technology, it's the John the Baptist to solid state lighting Jesus.
Now here is my slightly ranty rant.
I remember when this little stupidity came out.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...le6748435/
I say it's stupid because I think the government should look at an 'X-Prize' model \ carrot instead of knee jerk ban move. Banning lead paint, that's good. Banning incandescent bulb, giving fuel to the usual suspects of Conservatards 'they're banning mah freedumb!!11', backing\urging CFL which I seriously think is just a stop gap tech at this point, not so good.
The reason I threw that 'Conservatard' label? What else comes to mind when I remember something like this. (I remember seeing it on CNN for Fox sake.)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=...ZWVDsqTkaM
I want to be clear here. I'm not pissed about Bush Jr. Or the bafflegabber Fleischer. It's not even about 'Murrca'. It's the bigger underlying message it says about the 'First' World.
Quote:"That's a big 'no,'" Fleischer said. "The president believes that it's an American way of life, that it should be the goal of policy-makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one."
If anything, I should thank Mr. Fleischer for saying it. From what I've seen so far, the current ruling party of my country, The Conservative Party of Canukistania, Ruled by his Worship King Harper, wouldn't dream of saying anything like the above. They just do it.*
*(And no, I'm no liberal\progressive\komienist\Al Gore. In fact I even voted for King Harper the first round. Well it was mostly to vote the Liberals out, Canadians seems to be more fond of voting parties out than voting parties in, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.)
But getting back to that quote. It stunned me when I first saw that. For a so called conservative, with the word 'conserve' in it, that's just mind boggling. And what the hell happened to the proud Ameri-can-do, pioneering spirit the Yanks had? Hosers and Lumberjacks have the expression 'give 'er', which is the kindred spirit of 'git 'er done'.
'The American way of life is a blessed one?' Now I get what he's trying to paint here. It's the Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving. I get that. It's also IMO, quite disingenuous.
The 'America' I remembered also had a pioneering, roll up your sleeve, work hard and play hard ethos. You know, the kind they make television truck commercials out of.
It is a WTF moment for me when I saw that on TV. Was this really the same nation that once said, 'Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.'?
Again, I want to be clear here. This is not an Anti America Rant. I don't agree with many of the US policies. It's people however, I have a genuine love and affection for. I have families that live in the USA, and are citizens. I have friends in the USA. Small business wise, on a personal scale, I genuinely enjoy working with the Yanks.
There is something that is genuinely disturbing going on however, and IMO it is more complex than Left vs Right, Commietard vs Conservetard.
I mentioned before my ranty part. How I am a LED lighting enthusiast. And I saw the same pattern from some admittedly few, but loud and insistent people emerging, when that technology began to gain strength.
First, dismissal. "It's nice but niche, not bright enough'. True, but give it time.
Then it became brighter. 'Yeah it's getting brighter...but it's still too expensive'. True, but give it time.
It then became brighter, and cheaper. 'Yeah well, it doesn't have a warm colour.' True, but give it time.
It then became brighter, cheaper, and now have better uniformity, and a choice of warm and cool colour spectrum. 'Yeah well...uh...I still can't buy it at Home Des-pot for a reasonable price like under 20 bucks' True, but yadda yadda.
I can now buy a 60 watt equivalent, warm or cool spectrum, LED bulb in a common socket configuration, for 16 bucks, at a big box store. 'Yeah well..uh...moving goal post some more... Progressives are ruining the country!!11 I'm going to buy all the incan bulbs before the commie-fascist ban, and then sell them for freedom!111' Uh....right.
Again, before someone(s) gets all butthurtz on how I'm saying mean things about Merca and how I hate freedoms. Let's make this clear. This is something far bigger and deeper (derper? Derp!). My own current ruling government is IMO, doing something worse than just talking crazy anti-science, anti-knowledge talk. They do what people with a serious intent do. They don't talk about it. They just do it.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/poli...le8878547/
I don't want to end on just a ranty, overly pessimistic note however.
Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield did a great cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity. Usually I don't like covers that takes a more literal tone that the original version (let's face it, it's not a big secret that Space Oddity can be heard as a metaphor for drug abuse.). But in rare cases, it can becomes something else altogether, in a good way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo
Nothing like a shot of the ole blue marble from space, to give perspective on just how petty and small we as a species can be. But hey, if it can produce a singing astronaut, we might have some potential. Maybe.
TL, DR; It is now affordable to buy a household LED light bulb, but it's still more fun for some folks to curse the darkness. I'd rather curse in a better lit room however.