This is going to be a quick and brief update to the inevitable overthrow of the compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) by the light emitting diode bulbs (LED). First I will discuss the reluctance to the switch away from incandescents, then the reasons why CFL’s will lose the battle, and then I will sum it up with the incredible progress of the LED.
First, there is a mass reluctance within the market place for lighting to the switch from incandescent bulbs to CFL’s. This is primarily because the governments have made laws where the incandescents are being phased out and eventually will become illegal. There is always a push back when government makes a law forcing the people to do something they likely would have done themselves, after all the CFL is much more energy efficient than the incandescent bulb and the cost of CFL’s is dropping very fast. The changeover would have been inevitable, but the government stepped in, and as a result has caused a lot of unnecessary turmoil. In fact, one industrious German man has flouted the outlawing of incandescents as light bulbs and begun marketing them not for light, but as “mini heaters”. Had the government only stayed out of the issue, none of this nonsense would have come to pass because with CFL’s being ten times cheaper to operate than incandescents, the consumer would have switched without governmental coercion.
Second, the CFL’s, though much less expensive to operate than an incandescent, are not really the ideal way to light a home. Even though they are much less expensive to operate, which would have caused them to be the lighting source of choice for most consumers, the fact is that in the rush to mass produce the bulbs, quality of operation has suffered. What we have now are CFL’s that lose their lighting efficiency over time, CFL’s that have mercury content that technically requires a HazMat crew to clean up if the bulb is broken, and CFL’s that are disappointing consumers. As a result of this mercury concern and poor quality the consumers are looking for an alternative. Of course, if LED’s were not on the horizon, then the consumer would be stuck with CFL’s, but the LED’s are on their way, and they are everything that a CFL is not.
LED’s are even more energy efficient than CFL’s and they last longer than even the best manufactured CFL’s. The problem with LED’s a year ago was their cost, their ability to produce a full spectrum of light, and their overall wattage delivery. But in the last 12 months all of these concerns have been overcome. The LED’s of today can produce all of the lighting variables that we have grown accustomed to with incandescents, they have wattages strong enough to replace stadium lights, and the cost of manufacturing is going down with each new month that goes by. As a result the LED’s are going to surpass the CFL’s like the compact disc surpassed the digital audio tape. Now if we could simply get the lawmakers to update the laws, or eliminate them altogether and let the “market” decide, LED’s will be found everywhere and that German man making little heaters, well I am certain he will find his niche.





































